I think by now
its safe to say that you guys have read at least one story about my time as an
athlete (albeit short-lived and unmemorable). Yeah. Now that I think about it,
I know for sure that we’ve discussed my affection for my coaches and the great
mentorship I’ve received from them. Well today I want to revisit that time and
share some new insights I’ve gained as I recently read John Maxwell’s book, The
17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork.The twelfth law, “The Law of the Bench,” explains how important it is for teams to have great depth. John says, “A great starter alone is simply not enough if a team wants to go to the highest level.” As I read this chapter, I considered my wonderful memories of bench-warming during my years as a basketball player. Now, let me say, that I look back on this time with affection and joy. Genuinely I do. I was never really a great athlete. Maybe I didn’t fully apply myself or maybe I just wasn’t created to be a “starter” or even the 6th man. I am good with that. I had fun in practice. I enjoyed building friendships with my team mates. I loved creating sideline cheers with LaTosha and Mindy (they played but when they were on the bench with me, we had fun). I loved practicing against the boys during summer workouts and beating them. (True story – for real. And don’t say the boys held back. It ain’t true. I even out ran and hustled them and I sucked.) I guess what I am trying to say is that there was purpose for the bench and there was purpose in me and others sitting on it. Let me explain.
The Law of the Bench says that “great teams
have great depth.” It also says that “every human being has value, and every
player on a team adds value to the team in some way.” I often joked how I only
participated in sports to get the “free” stuff. But truthfully, I loved playing
sports because of the discipline in brought to my life, the membership it gave
me (sense of belonging somewhere), the friendships I made, the excitement of
competition, and more. I sometimes wondered if I had any purpose being there. But
looking back, I now know that I didn’t need to be the star player, we already
had a few of those. I didn’t need to be the best guard, we had a few of those.
I needed to be the best Gina I could be. The goofy, silly, loud, laughing,
encouraging, cheering, dependable Gina. That’s what my team needed and that’s
who I was.
Studying this
law also brings light to the idea legacy building. How can your legacy last if
all of the important stuffs dies with you? What are you doing to make sure that
the skills, resources, and history is shared throughout your family?
This weekend,
my mother hosted our first annual Lillian’s Legacy Tea Party Fundraiser. The
purpose of this event is to raise funds to support the Lillian’s Legacy
Scholarship Fund at the Community Foundation of Fayette County. The fund was
created in 2015 during the inaugural Fayette Philanthropy Project. Named for
Lillian Stout Capozza, this fund was established to provide scholarships to
local servant leaders and/or award money to work that develops and honors youth
leadership, career development programs, and girls making a change.
My grandmother
was a true example of “leaders don’t just show the way, they go the way.” If
she had not “deepened the bench,” sharing the history of her family tree, teaching
her children and grandchildren to care for others, and serving at all times and
in any way possible, you may not be reading this article right now. You see,
the fund is called Lillian’s Legacy because Lillian built a legacy. She
deepened the bench. She knew that she could do some wonderful things on her
own, but what good would it have been if it only lived because of her and not
beyond her.
Lets consider
the Apostle Paul. You may already know this, but for those of us who don’t,
Paul was a great leader in the Bible. (Actually, when I’ve done personality
assessments, often times I register as Paul. I am flattered. I don’t know if
he’d be. Lol.) Paul wrote letters to several groups of Christian believers. The
book of Ephesians is a collection of Paul’s letters to Christians living in
Ephesus. In one section, Paul reminds the leaders that they have “at their
disposal immeasurable wealth and power, infinite resources sufficient to equip
every believer for the spiritual fight ahead.” In the Maxwell Leadership Bible
(another John Maxwell reference), John asserts that “Leaders are responsible to
direct other believers to a place where they can be enriched…[and] equipped…”
In short, it is our duty to deepen the bench. We are called to lead others in a
way that adds value to them and to the “team,” the “family,” the
“organization.” For Christians, equipping and serving with other Christians,
strengthens the Kingdom of God. For your team, deepening the bench means that
you understand “a great starter alone is simply not enough…to go to the highest
level.” For a family, it means, sharing history and showing the way for the
family to grow and continue the legacy left behind by the generation before
them.
Friends, how
deep is your bench? How strong is your legacy? What are you doing right now to
continually improve others around you? What are you doing right now to build up
your family members and sustain the legacy?