Being a leader is about action. You must lead to be a leader. But at some point you must learn to lead better.

I played a lot of baseball when I was growing up. I was an infielder and loved catching ground balls. I also hated to make errs so I practiced all the time. One of the most embarrassing errs was to let the ball go under my glove and between my legs. My coaches were always yelling for me to stay down on the ball.

In order to reduce that kind of err, I developed the technique of getting down on one knee to help block the ball. It worked well in little league where the field was smaller and runners were slower. I led the team with the fewest errs. However, as I move to a bigger diamond and runners gained speed, that method was way too slow. By the time I went to my knee and then back up again, my throw was too late to throw the runner out. Even though, I thought I was a team leader because I was making the fewest errs.

Eventually the coach pulled me aside and said I was going to have to learn to stay on my feet, flow through the ball and use the momentum to beat the runner. I argued that making fewer errs was most important. He said I was missing the point. Making the fewest errs was nothing unless it kept the opponent off the base and not scoring runs.

In little league, I was a team leader by eliminating errors. As my leadership responsibilities increased, I had to learn new skills. At some point, it’s not enough just to lead; you have to learn to lead better.