The Leader Sets The Standard

Every player that Michael Jordan has ever played with talks about his competitiveness and his drive to be great, and they talk about how he pushes his teammates to be great as well.

In his book, Driven From Within, he said:

"A leader has to be willing to sacrifice to help everyone else get to where a team needs to go. No one could take days off with the Bulls because I never took a day off. The leader sets the standard, and everyone has to live up to that standard."

Michael Jordan said that he has taken that same approach at Brand Jordan. He said, "It all goes back to me, Tinker and Mark Smith. If we all agree to the standard, who is going to try to change that? We've built the standards. We're leading, not following. Whoever comes in has to live up to the same standard. They have to be as dedicated as I am. They have to put in the same effort. They have to have the same understanding of what we are about. If you don't have the same vision, then you're not going to be here long. You have to rise to our level. We're not going to drop down to yours."

Many athletes want to be the star, but they don't have star habits or a star work ethic. You are what you do, not what you want to be. Your standards, habits, and actions have to match what you want to be. If you want to be the best on your team, you have to work like it. If you want to be a star athlete, you have to work like a star athlete works. One thing that can be tricky is some athletes are more naturally gifted than others. Some are naturally bigger, stronger, and faster than others, so you might have to outwork them to make up for those gaps.

But the moral of this story is you have the opportunity, and responsibility, to set the standard for how you want to work, play, and live, and you have the opportunity, and responsibility, to hold yourself accountable to standards that you set.

1 - Would you follow your own lead?

2 - What is one standard that you have set for yourself that you live up to?

3 - What is one standard that you have set for yourself that you don't live up to?

4 - What is one standard that you need to set (or reset)?