My oldest son Jett is getting ready to finish up his regular season of baseball before heading into the tournament.  His team hasn’t done so hot this year and is headed into the tournament ranked pretty low. In fact, he’s really nervous because tonight they’re playing the number one team in the league.

He loves to play baseball. A matter of fact, a couple weeks ago I tried to talk him into skipping his game and going camping with me, but he refused stating he didn’t want to let his teammates down. Now that’s dedication.

With that in mind I knew something was up when last night when he told me he didn’t want to play tomorrow night. I said, “What, you don’t want to play?”  He said, “No, I was thinking maybe we could go camping.”

I proceeded to dig a little bit and discover he’s extremely nervous about playing this team which is ranked number one. He told me they were going to absolutely kill them and there was really no reason to even show up. “It’s going to be embarrassing,” he told me.

I’ve been really proud of Jett this year not only because of his performance, but because of his leadership on and off the field. It’s been fun to watch him develop. He’s usually the player that will yell out “Come on Ray’s. We’ve got two outs we need one more. Come on Ray’s let’s focus, we can do it.”

As we talked last night I asked him, “Son, do you want to be a player or a leader? It doesn’t matter to me, I’m proud of you either way,  but if you want to be a leader you’ve got to act like a leader.” He said, “Dad, I want to be a leader.”

I proceeded to tell him in the simplest of terms that a leader has a different calling than the player. A player just has to show up and give his best. A leader has to show up and not only give his best but make sure he sets the rest of the team up to give their best.

I said, “Son if you show up at that game tomorrow scared the rest of your team is going to be scared. If you show up thinking you’re going to get beat, the rest of your team is going to think they’re going to get beat.”

I’m often reminded that while part of my job is defining reality… seeing possibility is equally, if not more important as a leader.

Is there a chance they’ll get killed tomorrow? Absolutely

Is there a chance they’ll pull off the upset of the year? Absolutely. And that chance goes up if a leader steps up to the plate, looks each team member in the eyes and practices the art of possibility.

If you lead a church, an organization, a small business, or a family you need to be reminded the people following you desperately want and need to be led. They need you to define reality, but they also need you to practice the art of possibility.

They need not be reminded of what is likely, apparent, or impending for those things are obvious to the average person. They need to be reminded of what they cannot see on their own. They need to be reminded of what just might happen against all odds.

That’s leadership. That’s the art of possibility.