Sep22
Ping-Pong Balls and Leadership
“One ping-pong ball!” the wild-haired street performer cried out to the crowd. He placed the ping-pong ball in his mouth, popped it up in the air, caught it in his mouth, popped it up in the air, and caught it in his mouth again. We clapped amusingly.
One of my favorite memories of growing up in the Bay Area is visiting San Francisco. Compared to my suburban sameness, the city pulsated with life, especially the stretch of real estate between Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square.
One summer evening some friends and I joined thousands of other visitors to the wharf, cooling off in the evening breeze of the bay and enjoying various street performers: The Human Jukebox, The Living Statue, marionettes, magicians, mimes, and prophets of doom. We stopped at one particular act crowded in a tiny square where a hundred or so people circled around a makeshift stage.
“Two ping-pong balls!” came the next proclamation. And as he had done previously, the performer put two ping-pong balls in his mouth, popped one in the air, and then the other, catching each in turn, popping them up and catching them again in his mouth two or three more times. We clapped enthusiastically.
“Three ping-pong balls!” he shouted to unbelieving ears. In went the orbs and up they went into the evening sky, landing one by one back in the mouth of the performer. Then back in the air, back in his mouth, back in the air, and back in his mouth again.
We clapped and cheered wildly.
“Now I will do the most amazing trick ever,” the man with the hair said. And we believed him too. I don’t think any of us could get three ping-pong balls in our mouth, let alone juggle them by spitting them up in the air. “I will make you all disappear!”
Out came a big hat and a request for money. Pareto would have been proud that day, only a small percentage of those who enjoyed the show put anything in the hat, and the rest moved on to the next oddity.
Herein lies the irony of leadership.
We think we’re leading when we’re on the stage in front of others. We think we’re leading when we’re doing things no one else can do. We think we’re leading when the applause is loud and the cheers are louder. But leadership in not about the leader. Leadership is about followers.
Yes, it’s fun to be applauded for performing amazing feats. It feels good to be held in high regard for our special talents and abilities. But at the end of the show, what do we have?
Nothing … a business that is entirely dependent on us, where employees can’t act without our permission, and extended vacation is an impossibility. In short, a business that feels more like prison than the dream we had when we started it. That’s not what you want, is it?
Then learn how to be a leader, not just a performer.
