Flawed leadership?

As an earlier post mentioned, I was impressed by the leadership of a young Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback calling out older players who doing things like getting arrested. And I was equally unimpressed with the young coach not disciplining the players the way Tony Dungy would have.

But at least Buccaneer coach Raheem "the Dream" Morris is growing in his leadership. Most people talk about the colossal collapse of the New York Giants to the Philadephia Eagles on Sunday because most people who like football were watching that game. But another collapse happened in Tampa when play-off chances for the Bucs were just about shot by a heartbreaking loss to the Detroit Lions (losers of 27 straight road games) led by a third-string QB. It's just that very few people were watching; the games are still blacked out in Tampa b/c they can't sell them out anymore!

Anyhow, Raheem chose to play it safe, and not allow his QB to win the game. Instead, the Bucs chose 3 running plays to run time off the clock. The answer was a field goal instead of a touchdown, and the defense caved once again, giving up the game tying field goal. Then they gave up the game losing field goal in OT.

On Monday he admitted he made a bad decision and would do it differently next time. Tom Coughlin, the Giants coach, took blame for the loss, but didn't question anything he did-though others have rightly questioned his approach to the onside kick. These seem to represent two different leadership styles.

If I'm a player, I want to follow a coach who can evaluate, admit mistakes, and learn from them. This is the kind of leadership I appreciate, and I think I'm not alone. Kids need to hear parents say, "Sorry, I made a mistake there." Wives need this from husbands, as do congregants from their pastor. People tend to follow flawed folks who admit mistakes more so than those with "perceived perfection." At least that's been my experience. 

All leadership is flawed. But never confessing any flaws is ironically a sure-fire way to further flaw your leadership.