GET OUT OF THE GRANDSTAND

BY CRAIG WITT, CEO – UNITED STATES

Chances are you’ve come across them and may have even been one yourself without even knowing it; a Grandstander. The Grandstanders, as Author, Seth Godin refers to them, are those who “show up toward the end, when most of the work has been done and it’s almost time to ship [and] make a suggestion that would require changing a great deal of what’s been done. It might even be a good suggestion on its face, but it’s hard to tell.”

These are the people who yell from the bleachers at those in the field, unencumbered by their comfortable perspective, far removed from the knee-jerk demands of being submersed in the arena fray. Just as Theodore Roosevelt said in his Man in the Arena speech, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Even just reading that, it’s clear that none of us want to be seen as a Grandstander, and many will tell you they care little for advice or leadership from those who don’t have at least some experience being inside the arena as well. This is both understandable and yet unfortunate, because it’s also true that we can sometimes get so engrossed in the doing that we miss the bigger picture.

You have to get into the field and share your ideas...You also have to be willing to own the outcomes no matter what they may be.

Perspective is everything, so to get out of the grandstand you have to get into the field and share your ideas very early on. It’s not just about getting the training and showing your work either. You also have to be willing to own the outcomes too, no matter what they may be. There are well-intentioned people, with great innovations worth looking at, so the opposite is equally true. It’s always a good idea to take some time out of the arena once in a while to look in from the outside at what you’re doing.

In a world full of Grandstanders, instead be an empathizer, collaborator, or cheerleader. We need those more than ever.