Came across a really interesting image of LeBron James' shoes and a message he writes on the side 'The Man in the Arena'. It's from this passage by Roosevelt (images and info taken from a post shared by David Perell).
It got me thinking about our approach as coaches and Scrum Masters, consultants etc and how we view and respect ourselves, the teams and clients we work with, as well as each other.
Might be stating the obvious, but we need to remember that the people in the arena are the ones taking the shots. For all the perfect theory and sometimes criticism you tend to see, it's the ones that get their hands dirty day after day and live with the results that are making the difference. The owner entrepreneurs, the directors, the team members, managers, the people supporting the team etc - all are in the arena, playing an imperfect game, where the rules can change, fouls may not be called and winning can still end up feeling like losing.
It's right to challenge, it's right to call out behaviours and patterns we see in our teams. However, a little bit of understanding and appreciation of the different realities people face and the different arenas they're battling in, can go a long way.
Agile Business Transformations
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