Every two years I swear I'm not going to watch the Olympics.
I convince myself that their reliance on professional athletes, the inevitable presence of doping scandals, and the political landscape have all served to crush the true spirit of the Olympics.
Every two years I'm wrong.
Despite the tragic death of the Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, there were plenty of breathtaking and awe-inspiring moments at the Vancouver Winter Olympics to draw me in hook, line and sinker.
I love the fact that I find myself rooting for participants from other countries, and that I'm introduced to athletes and sports I've never paid any attention to before.
And this year, after watching a dramatic gold medal match in hockey, a valuable lesson in leadership was made clear to me.
I was sitting on the couch watching overtime unfold in the epic match with a close friend of mine.
We had just commented that, for all the hype, Sidney Crosby of Team Canada hadn't been a dominating factor in these games.
Five minutes later, Crosby scored the winning goal and solidified his teams dream of capturing gold at home.
The announcer said something shortly after that was far more insightful than my comments on Crosby's performance.
He said, "When it matters, Crosby just seems to know how to get it done.
" It occurred to me that too often we judge the effectiveness of leadership by individual performance rather than their impact on the efforts of the team as a whole.
I commented on Crosby's seemingly ineffective individual performance without any understanding of the unseen ways in which he was helping to move his team towards their over-arching goal.
I see this happen all around me, from politics and business, to service and education.
We tend to evaluate leaders purely on their individual performance, regardless of what impact they have on those around them.
But leaders aren't created from top performances.
Leaders are individuals who impact and control the overall effectiveness of the team and, when it matters most, they help move their team towards their goal.
A lot of people had to have a lot of great performances to get Canada to the final round of hockey.
Those performances may have made them stars but in he end, it was a single goal that won them the gold.
Sidney Crosby, the leader of Team Canada, was seemingly quiet for much of the tournament but his team was more effective because of him.
And when it mattered most, he was the guy who got it done.