The Sideline Seat

Sent every Tuesday to build better leaders and teams.

Sports Story of the Week

Oh Oh those Summer Swim Nights

I did not grow up at a pool. Not one in the backyard, not members to a pool, just swimming as the opportunities were there.

Fast forward a large number of years, and my family and I now are walking distance to a community pool. Joining that pool led to joining the summer swim team, which led to meeting some amazing people, and also some of our most core summer memories.

And being who I am, I rarely am involved in something without truly getting "involved" so now, in true form, we jumped into the deep end and now I work on swim team emails, heat sheets, logistics, and the Monday meets that becomes our 10 week identity.

It's still "just summer swim". But its not.

Its where life lessons are learned, challenges come, the blend of the "year-round swimmers", the "10 weekers" like us, the ones just here for the pool deck snacks, and those who are crushing the strokes. Its a conglomerate of humans, skills, personalities, and goals.

And- its an amazing social experiment to watch. My leadership brain, and the peek behind the curtain has taught me so much about human behavior. About uncertainty, and about the power of a DQ.

The "DQ" in swimming is where you are disqualified in that event (meaning you get no time or awards) for doing one of the many things not allowed while swimming certain strokes, particularly the more technical ones.

I watch 6 year olds that are barely writing their own name navigating the many ways you need to swim the butterfly or the backstroke. The panic and wonder in their eyes when they come out of the pool looking up at their adults, the first question being "Did I DQ?" followed quickly by looking for the candy they get for attempting to swim.

I watch the 7/8/9 and even 10 year olds tear up when they DQ and event in what is sometimes the VERY FIRST time that they have even attempted this new skill.

I see both adults and children skipping an event rather than swim and DQ. Or arguing that they didn't DQ when it was called.

We have even seen a former Division I adult swimmer DQ at a the biggest meet of the year. Hey. It happens.

I started to think about the power that the DQ, and the officials, have over summer swim. This experience is built to get better, to build swim skills, friendships, and confidence. Yet those 2 letters get in the way for many of the swimmers. And then the other side, the swimmers that laugh, that learn, and that try no matter what.

I may be new to the swim world, but I have long had a seat watching the power of public failure. Maybe not as definitive as the arm raise of the official signaling the DQ, but perhaps just as difficult.

I love the people, the lessons, the individual growth that comes from summer swim, but most of all, I enjoy the lessons learned from the power of failure. The joy of success. The confidence when a swimmer works hard and is finally LEGAL. The cheers from the deck. The joy when seeing the posted results.

In business, we might not post the results as publicly as on the wall of the pool, but we know. We know who had a hard client meeting, we know who bombed the presentation, we know who missed a deadline. And we can learn a lot on resilience and culture from the summer swim DQ.

3 Lessons to learn from Summer Swim:

1. Turn Public Failures into Team Wins.

When handled well, public mistakes can strengthen a team. A DQ happens in front of everyone. That arm goes up and everyone; teammates, competitors, coaches, and parents see it. It can feel crushing. But everyone that is watching also learns something. Younger swimmers see that mistakes happen. Teammates learn a rule they may not know. Coaches have a teaching moment. When your team sees that everyone, from the rookie to the former DI swimmer, can make a mistake, it creates an environment for learning. It is the same in business. Teams that openly discuss mistakes, focusing on what went wrong not who did it, are more likely to get better. It requires us to shift the focus from "who messed up?" to "how do we fix it?" Trying to hide what goes wrong only leads to more hiding, and more fear. When you highlight what went wrong and how to fix it, you not only normalize errors, but the wins become more meaningful because everyone is invested in the improvement.

2. Feedback isn't the same as understanding.

The DQ slip is very clear and tells you exactly what rule was broken. But if you don't know a dolphin kick from a scissor, that won't help a swimmer know what they did or how to fix it. Same with our employees, or bosses. We deliver performance reviews, share customer complaints, survey results, KPIs, or have conversations that seem crystal clear. It often isn't. The more experienced you are, the more obvious it seems. The newer someone is, the more likely they are to walk away confused or discouraged. Most teams are blended with both newbies and veterans, each one with a different level of understanding. Therefore, the great leaders don't just give feedback. They translate it. They turn the invisible into tangible, actionable behaviors. Taking "You did this wrong" to "Here's what happened, why it matters, the impact it had, and how to improve next time."

3. You Can't Master What You're Afraid to Attempt.

Don't give failure more power than growth. The saddest part of summer swim for me isn't the DQ. It's watching someone decide not to swim because they might. The fear of those two letters holding so much power that it paralyzes people, causing them to choose the safety of the pool deck over the discomfort of growth in the water. We see it in the workplace as well. People don't volunteer for the presentation. They don't ask for the promotion. They don't make the sales call. They don't speak in a meeting. Not because they can't, but because they are too scared to try. When the cost of failure is too scary, innovation dies. Employees stop pitching bold ideas, stop volunteering for challenges, and remain in their comfort zone. They choose to "skip the event" as a way to protect themselves. But a company filled with people playing it safe isn't growing, its stagnating. Confidence is earned when you try, fail, adjust, and learn that you survived to try again. The only way to get comfortable is to be uncomfortable just long enough for growth to happen.

The Pep Talk:

"So here's my challenge: Swim the event. Lead the meeting. Pitch the idea. Encourage others to take risks. Speak up. Fail. Somewhere this week, you'll have a chance to choose comfort or growth. Choose growth. Because years from now, the failure isn't what defines you, its the courage you had to be uncomfortable and show up anyway."

-Katie Beach