I have an inkling that some of us are lavishing in the leaders we see in our entertainment, especially as we become increasingly disappointed or downright disillusioned with those in reality.
So I’ll be occasionally hosting Leader Spotlight blog posts to allow us a little break from reality to celebrate and revel in some wonderful (albeit fictional) leaders.
This week: Leslie Higgins.
We get to see a bit of Leslie’s journey in the first two seasons of Ted Lasso. While he starts out as a true version of a “yes man” to Rebecca (during her display of particularly malevolent leadership in Season 1), he finally stands up to her behavior, takes responsibility for his past mistakes (the ones that led him to accept her behavior, out of guilt), and turns a corner.
We don’t usually get to see a whole leadership story unfold in real life, and certainly not as quickly as over a few episodes of a TV show, which is one of the reasons it’s so compelling. Our emotions can’t as easily be held in suspense for years as real people make equally enormous transitions. And usually those transitions come with a lot of turbulence, mistakes, back-tracks, and stumbles. It can be hard to stick around for.
But what if we hadn’t stuck around to watch Higgins become his best self, to step into his leadership capabilities? We would forever see him as a sniveling, useless sidekick, instead of a generous and warm husband, father, and team mentor. My favorite words from Higgins come from his speech to those who came to his house to celebrate Christmas:
“To my lovely wife Julie, my sons, to you and all your families back in [lists the hometown cities of each of the players!]. I know you would have preferred to have been with them but it was truly an honor to have you with us to share our traditions and help make a few new ones. To the family we’re both with and the family we make along the way and…most importantly, TO RICHMOND!!!!”
Higgins, may you inspire us all to step into the best version of ourselves that is somewhere within each of us!