Be The Umpire

This isn’t really about sports.

As a teenager I spent a summer refereeing kids soccer games. It was a great job, mostly. There was one incident where a middle aged coach chased me off the field yelling at me for not knowing a relatively obscure rule and improvising a call that was my effort to be as fair as possible. But I digress.

On a podcast this month I heard acclaimed documentary film maker Ken Burns describe his role in recounting history as being like a baseball umpire. He meant that it’s not his job to take sides in disputes, debates, and conflicts, but to tell the truth with as little bias as possible. His phrase was “call the balls and strikes for both sides”.

As leaders we need the intention and ability to address situations with as much fairness as we can. Whether it’s dealing with an outside complaint, a contentious issue, on the frustrations of interpersonal conflict among our people; we can’t lead well if we take sides too quickly.

This may be obvious, but we are being constantly trained by the power of algorithms to never remain impartial about anything. Some of the smartest and most financially incentivized people in the world are very skillfully manipulating us into having radical loyalties. Arguments are more engaging than actual evidence.

I see this in the teenagers in my life, and in us adults too. We have an almost compelling pattern of taking a position on every matter, from the most important to the absolutely trivial. And we need to do it instantaneously.

Obviously this is perilous.

Being a fan is fun when we keep it in perspective. (I’ll be rooting hard for Canada at the Olympics and World Cup next year). But we all know people who let the outcome of a sports event control their mood way too much.

And the same goes for politics, theology, family squabbles, and your workplace. Healthy leaders are able to see both the positive and negative aspects of issues and people, even when we have a preference.

This seems to be a dying skill.

So, I’m going to try to keep Ken Burns perspective in mind more often. “Be the umpire” instead of a rabid fan so I can bring perspective and wisdom to situations instead of just more ignorant opinions.

(I would hope this doesn’t need to be said; but I’m not saying we shouldn’t take a stand on things. I’ve written about this before. Being an umpire doesn’t mean we don’t make a call, it ensures we make calls based on the most accurate assessments we can make instead of basing them on our bias.)