Is It Really All in "How We Play the Game"?

I always thought it was Vince Lombardi but it looks like it was sportswriter Grantland Rice who said "For when the great scorer comes to write against your name, He marks not that you won or lost but how you played the game.” While Rice made this statement nearly 100 years ago, he was even paraphrasing a similar comment by a Greek historian's 5th century B.C. reference to Olympians...

But does How We Play the Game really matter that much when there's so much pressure coming at us from nearly every angle to win?

Not only is it really all in How We Play the Game, the kind of game we're actually playing matters just as much!

Over the last several weeks in A Daily Dose Of Leadership, I've pulled several different quotes from sections of Simon Sinek's newest book, The Infinite Game. And while each of his points tied closely back to the topics I was working through at the time, his overall message is just as powerful!

On the inside fold of the front cover, Sinek challenges us to consider how we can win a game that has no end. As he explains that idea, he shares that "many of the struggles that organizations face exist simply because their leaders were playing in an infinite game with a finite mindset." As he builds this idea out and explains why he wrote the book, he details the significant differences in finite and infinite games.

Over the next few days in A Daily Dose Of Leadership, I'll work through some scenarios I've seen play out in personally over the last two decades that tie right back to his ideas and I'll share some thoughts on how we can each begin to take an infinite approach even with things we had previously handled with a very finite mindset while we were in the moment...

For years I've heard John Maxwell teach the importance of focusing on ongoing growth rather than just specific goals. He's also taught the value of Failing Forward... And having a solid understanding of each of those things provides a foundation for How We Play the Game!

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