'You Mess Up, You Run'

Gregg Popovich is 72 years old and has won five NBA championships.

Jay Wright is 59 years old, has won two national titles and will be inducted into the basketball Hall-of-Fame next year.

Erik Spoelstra is 50 years old and has won two NBA championships.

But there they were in Las Vegas last week, running sprints like JV basketball players as their Team USA group egged them on.

While the sight of three of the best coaches in the sport “racing” up and down the sidelines is undoubtedly amusing, it’s also an important lesson for us as leaders.

How often do we discipline our teams for committing some sort of error or infraction but fail to hold ourselves to the same standard?

Someone shows up a few minutes late, forgets a play, botches an assignment and we grow frustrated and rightfully discipline our group.

But as much as we don’t want to admit it, we’ve been late as well. We’ve forgotten an important detail that has cost our team. We’ve made a really poor judgment call that didn’t turn out well.

What’s our discipline?

No matter our title, our age or our accomplishments, we as leaders must also be accountable for our mistakes. We are never above some repercussions for getting something wrong or making an error, as trivial as it might seem.

In fact, the more we’re able convey to our teams that we, too, face consequences, the more credibility we’ll establish with them.

Accountability should never discriminate.

The next time we make some sort of error in front of our team, no matter how inconsequential, we have to get on the line. Even if we're 72.