Hey there!

🏈 💃 Happy “Taylor Swift’s boyfriend just won the #superbowl” to all who celebrate. 

Watching the game end in overtime and affection, I cried – twice – and I’m not even a football fan. 

Here are 3 things we learned about leadership at Superbowl 2024:

𝟭. 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:
While there is a 3% chance as a pro-NFL player that you’ll win a championship in your career, the experience of winning one is a shared human emotional experience.

We can all relate to what it means to try, hard, again and again, persevere, deal with the external negativity, deal with the internal negativity, fall down seven, get up eight.

Watching a group of strangers galvanize into a team with a common goal – and REALIZE that goal, is as relatable as it is wanting your mom to be there watching and cheering you on.

𝟮. 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗜𝗦 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵:
AKA if it were easy, everyone would do it. 

It’s one thing to expect greatness of ourselves and others.

It’s another thing to believe that we have what it takes to navigate the many blocks and challenges that stand in our way of getting the results we want.

And it’s a separate thing entirely to have faith and hold onto the vision of what we expect – and what we BELIEVE to be possible.

Without all three, you can’t get the result you want; it takes buy-in from the top down to genuinely invest in time, energy, and money to make it happen and follow through.

𝟯. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲:
Across the globe, Taylor Swift fans (present company included 🙋‍♀️ ) are in our Superbowl 2024 era.

There was so much doubtful speculation and concern that Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce’s iconic girlfriend couldn’t make it in time from the Eras Tour in Tokyo, the Embassy of Japan released an early statement to assure Swifties worldwide that she’d make it on time:

“Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the Embassy can confidently Speak Now to say that if she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins,” they wrote.

Showing up isn’t always easy, it often takes effort, and is always the right thing for us to do as leaders: sometimes showing up is all we can do, and sometimes showing up is the BEST thing we can do. 

Whether it’s for our teams, our staff, our families, or hey – our 6’5″ boyfriend, often it’s the act of making the effort to BE there that demonstrates our commitment to the cause, making it known that we are IN THIS together.

Football is famous for its relentless strategies, next-level mindset, and ability to problem solve through near-impossible margins of success; if we as leaders can take away the reality that winning is a shared experience, getting results is an amalgam of factors, and showing up is worth the effort, we are in a much better position to live, lead, and succeed on our own terms.

Your turn: what did you take away from this huge event that resonated with your professional development? 

Hit reply and spill that tea.

Warmly and with thanks,

xx Leisse