Japan’s soccer team suffered one of the most difficult defeats in World Cup history when they lost 3-2 to Belgium last week. After leading 2-0 in the second half, Belgium came back to tie the score at 2 before the end of the 90 minute match. Then, during 4 minutes of stoppage time (time added on by the referee to account for stoppages in the game since the clock only stops at halftime), Belgium scored the game winning goal at 93:44. The game would have gone into extra time, commonly referred to in other sports as overtime, at 94:00. But instead, Belgium accomplished a tremendous comeback and knocked Japan out of the World Cup.
Despite the devastating defeat, Japan showed incredible sportsmanship. Their fans cleaned up the stadium, just like they had after all of their team’s games, and the team cleaned the locker room and left it spotless. They also left a note of thanks to the Russian community that hosted the tournament.
Think of a time when you faced a tremendous challenge or suffered a horrible defeat. Did you stay true to your values and act the same way you do when you win? The real test of our beliefs and values comes when we face adversity. Do we stay true to our values even when life gets tough?
As leaders, we must model the values we want our organization to have. This is especially true when we face adversity. When we model our values in the face of adversity, we show an even more intense commitment to these values and send a message to our teams that nothing, not even the greatest of challenges, will cause us to stray from these.
Japan provided a great example for us. Now let’s go out and practice the same in our organizations and with our teams.
Thanks for reading,
Jim
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Jim Earle 