Success in business requires learning to compete fairly, ethically and with fearless determination.
By developing the skills of fair competition and ethical behavior, business leaders can create a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration that leads to sustained success for the organization and all stakeholders involved.
Learning to Charge Fairly
Let me tell you a little story. When I was young, I played soccer. The practice I remember most is the fair charge practice one of my coaches had us do endlessly. Two players would line up – coach would roll the ball fast in front of us, we would have to charge to win the ball to be able to take a shot on goal.
This practice wasn’t just about running fast and beating the other person to the ball. The point was to learn how to do a fair charge. In soccer, a fair charge is using your body and shoulder to hit the other play and push them off the ball. As long as you don’t use your arms, you can hit someone, push them off the ball and take it from them. This is a fair charge.
It’s astonishingly hard to do. Our instinct is to reach out and use our arms to brace for impact or to push the other person. If you do that, you will be called for a foul and lose the opportunity to score. So learning how to suppress your instincts, take the hit, and hit back just using your body and shoulder takes practice to be able to do it reliably.
The player has to learn to be ok with charging hard, taking the hit that is two players charging into each other using just their bodies and shoulders and know you will be ok. To do this well, you have to let go of your fear and allow your desire to win that ball take over. You aren’t doing this to hurt the other player. When done correctly – no one gets hurt. But you do have to be fearless to do it. And you can learn to do it with practice.
That team that focused on fair charges when to the state semifinals. We lost to the West Torrance Teddy Bears and everyone I am still friends with from that team is still traumatized by that loss. We should have gone to state and it was our mistake that lost us that game. By playing fearless and fairly, we were an unstoppable force. Other teams couldn’t understand why we never got charged with fouls. The answer was – we never once fouled the other team. We just played hard and fair and were willing to take a hit to win.
How this relates to Humanistic Management
Humanistic management emphasizes the importance of treating employees, customers, and stakeholders with respect and dignity. This includes being fair and ethical in all business dealings. Learning to charge fairly in soccer is similar to learning to compete fairly in business. It requires a mindset shift towards fairness, trust, and collaboration. You are still competing hard, but you aren't doing so in a cutthroat way.
A humanistic leader will model and encourage fair competition and ethical behavior among their team members. They will help their employees learn to suppress their instincts and fears in order to achieve their goals in a way that benefits all stakeholders. This creates a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration, leading to long-term success for the organization.
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