The Leadership Power of "You're Allowed to Make a Mistake"

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This past Saturday, the Marquette Golden Eagles went head-to-head with the UConn Huskies in a game filled with high expectations. When the final buzzer sounded, UConn had secured a 77-69 victory.

But the most powerful moment of the game? It didn’t come from a highlight dunk or a clutch three-pointer. It came from the sidelines—during a timeout.

Marquette's head coach, Shaka Smart, was mic’d up, and instead of delivering a fiery speech or breaking down plays, he offered his team something much deeper: A reminder to breathe.

"Let go. Relax. Tell yourself a joke. Stop taking yourself so seriously. You're allowed to make a mistake. You're so tight and wound up that you're not giving yourself a chance," Coach Smart told his team in the huddle.

In that huddle, Coach Smart wasn’t just talking about basketball. He was teaching and modeling leadership.

If you’ve ever been in a high-pressure situation—whether in an important meeting, a big game, or a moment where everything feels like it’s on the line—you know that gripping too tightly can backfire.

The more we try to force perfection, the more we hesitate. The more we overthink, the more our confidence erodes. Fear of making a mistake becomes the very thing that keeps us from performing at our best.

Coach Smart saw it in his players. They were too tense, too locked in on avoiding mistakes instead of trusting their instincts and one another. As a transformational leader, he knows his job isn’t just to coach strategy—at that moment, it was to help them release the weight of pressure so they could play more freely.

The best leaders don’t just push their teams toward results; they create environments where people feel free to take risks, make mistakes, and grow. Excellence isn’t about being perfect—it’s about staying loose, staying prepared, staying present, and trusting ourselves.

Let’s think about your own leadership style and approach:

• Do we lead from fear or from trust?

• Do we create space for people to take risks, or do we make them afraid of making mistakes?

• Does our fixation on perfection prevent us from leading with confidence and playing liberated?

The best teams—whether in sports, business, or life—aren’t the ones that never fail. They’re the ones that trust themselves enough to take chances, bounce back, and keep moving forward.

So the next time you’re feeling the pressure, or you notice your team tightening up, take a page from Coach Smart’s playbook:

"Let go. Relax. Tell yourself a joke. You're allowed to make a mistake."

Because sometimes, that’s exactly what it takes to win.

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