Track Coach
If you’ve read Trump World very often, you’ve read about the experiences of my life. One of the great adventures and honors of my career was to be a high school track and cross country coach for forty years. It’s not an unusual thing. There are thousands of high schools, and thousands of coaches at those schools. And I didn’t coach by myself. I always worked alongside other wonderful coaches. As coaches of young people, all of us took on a responsibility of leadership.
Our athletes looked to us to develop their abilities. Sure they wanted to run faster, jump higher, and throw farther (citius, altius, fortius). We had a duty to train them physically, and give them the physical and technical abilities to perform. But that was just the basics. As a coach, if you couldn’t do those things, the “Dummy’s Guide to Coaching” stuff, then you shouldn’t be out there.
Listen to Lead
But our athletes also looked to us to show them how to handle the much more difficult mental aspects of the sport. It was the pole vaulter who lost his confidence, or the distance runner who wouldn’t risk winning. Those were the athletes who needed more than just a workout or a technique guide: they needed coaches to teach them about themselves.
It was knowing when to get a sprinter to relax (you run so much faster “loose” rather than “tight”) or how to fire up a shot putter to explode through the ball. We had to listen to our charges, to hear what they were thinking and what they needed. And the athletes would follow our lead. If I lost my cool, they would lose theirs. If I hung my head in defeat, they were done. But if I took adversity in stride, and moved onto the next event, so would they.
Leadership in our little world of coaching was apparent. The coaches of other teams that were constantly looking to place blame, had teams that blamed each other. And the coaches who asked their teams to sacrifice for each other, had teams that performed far above their “abilities”.
Divide or Unite
The United States isn’t a high school track team. But a lot of the same principles apply. The President of the United States has certain tasks that are basic to the job. Upholding the Constitution, defending the nation, honoring those that have sacrificed: are all part of the “Dummy’s Guide to the Presidency” stuff. It is the level of basic competency, if the President cannot do that, then they shouldn’t be in office.
And the President, like that high school coach, leads by example. When the President devalues a class of people, then those that follow him do the same. And when he sees the nation as “his” country and “the other” country, he divides people so that there is no common purpose.
Kenosha
President Trump went to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. He emphasized his support for law enforcement, and his sympathy for those who lost their businesses. Then he attacked protestors, making little distinction between those that protest and those that riot. And he built a “strawman” argument of nefarious groups, financed by shadowy sources, who come in to create turmoil. He ignored the reason why folks are protesting or rioting: he failed to communicate with “that side” of the issue.
Joe Biden went to Kenosha on Thursday. He spent most of his day listening rather than speaking. Biden listened to victims and protestors. He listened to business owners and government officials. And he listened to law enforcement. When he spoke, he talked about how they could get past this moment, and find ways to work together to begin to solve the core problems.
He made it clear he was against rioting, looting and destruction. But he also recognized that the destruction was an outgrowth of racial inequities. Begin to solve the inequalities, and the riots and looting will also be solved.
Which Team?
Just like those two high school track teams on the field, we have two examples of national leadership. One “coach” is exhorting his team, telling them to beat the other team, and saying that the distance runners are weak and the sprinters are strong. The other “coach” is challenging his team to perform their best, and asking the sprinters to cheer on the distance runners as they circle the track. One “coach” is dividing his squad, playing favorites and creating scapegoats. The other is uniting all of his athletes to achieve greater goals for themselves, and the team.
Which team do you want to be on?
