LeBron on the Importance of Engaging in Conflict
“Winning a championship is a process and it’s not right now when you accomplish a championship, but it is right now where you create habits.” LeBron James

“You have to go through something in order to create a bond—for the worse. We have to lose a ball game we should have won. We have to get in an argument, just to test each other out. It has to happen. I know is it going to happen. A lot of guys don’t see it, but I see it. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to grow. You don’t define yourself during the good times. It’s the bad times.” LeBron James

Here we can hear LeBron speaking on a topic where he has lots of expertise: Winning and getting the most out of your talent to win as a team.

Like our coaches told us in high school, LeBron is embracing the paradox that to win we need to be intense without being tense, we need to see the big picture to focus on the immediate picture, we need to engage in conflict (rather than avoid it) because it through 'the fight' and through taking advantage of the minor, lower stakes conflicts that are inevitable that we learn the skills we need to win, to SEE what others do not see, and to build the relationships that make winning possible.

This is another reason it is important to SEE the ongoing struggle over the meaning of the law and to understand the dynamics of the conflict, including those parts of the dynamic that are not black and white but paradoxical, like we do not win championships now even though we do create the habits needed to win championships now.  It is and it is not, at the same time.  Insisting on it being one or the other might feel better, but is not a pathway to victory.  LeBron gets it spot on here.