shoot…Shoot…SHOOT!!!

This past weekend at my son's ice hockey game, I found myself shouting the same thing every parent yells during an empty net breakaway: "Shoot… shoot… shoot!" He was already having a great game, racing toward the open net with the hat trick waiting for him.

Instead of firing from the red line, he hesitated. He carried the puck a little farther. He drifted wide. The chance disappeared.

After the game, a few parents told me it was a smart play. Kill the clock. Protect the lead. Make the unselfish choice. Honestly, that explanation made sense to me.

But when I asked him what happened, he said something I did not expect.

He told me he held the puck because he wanted to give his teammate a chance to score. That teammate had been struggling, and my son said, “I already had enough goals today. I wanted him to get one.”

And suddenly the whole moment looked different.

We talk a lot in leadership about decision making under pressure. Most of us default to one of two instincts: the self-focused move or the strategic move. But every now and then someone makes the empathetic move. Not because it is optimal. Not because it earns them anything. Simply because it lifts someone else.

That is what he chose. And it made me think about how rare that instinct is in the workplace, especially when the pace is fast, expectations are high, and everyone feels like they have something to prove.

The leaders who stand out are not the ones chasing their version of the hat trick. They are the ones who see the person next to them. They are the ones who make room for someone else to take the shot. They build confidence, not just outcomes. They create momentum that spreads beyond their own performance.

And that is what teams remember. That is what builds cultures worth being part of.

If this season has you racing down the ice with pressure coming at you from every angle, this might be a moment to pause and ask yourself a different question:

What does leadership look like when you are not the one taking the shot?

If you want support building that kind of deeper awareness and leading with more intention, that is work I care deeply about. It is some of the most meaningful work I get to do with executives and teams.