041: Being Right vs. Getting it Right

One of my managers walked into my office last week with that look. Arms crossed. Eyes a little too wide. Story rehearsed the whole way over.

She’d had a run-in with a parent. And she was right, actually right. The parent misread the situation, came in hot. My manager had the receipts.

And she still lost.

Not because she was wrong. Because she was so focused on being right that she forgot to ask a completely different question:

Do you want to be right, or do you want to get it right?

There’s a difference. A big one.

Being right is about you. Vindication. Needing the other person to see it, say it, acknowledge it. It feels like justice.

Getting it right is about the outcome. What does this situation actually need from me right now?

Those two paths sometimes lead to the same place. And sometimes they don’t.

My manager said her piece, clearly, with documentation. The parent left feeling attacked and embarrassed. Now there’s a bigger problem than the original misunderstanding, a relationship that might not recover, a family quietly looking for the exit.

This is the justice trap.

I see it everywhere. Someone on your team spots a problem. A parent misreads something. A colleague makes a bad call. And the person who caught it is genuinely, completely correct, but so focused on proving it that they blow past the actual goal: getting the other person to a better place.

Here’s what I’ve learned, usually the hard way:

Not everyone is ready to hear all the truth. Not all at once. Not in that moment.

Timing matters. Delivery matters. The relationship matters. Information dropped on someone who isn’t ready to receive it doesn’t move the needle, it just gets ignored or resisted. You haven’t changed anything. You’ve just defended your position.

So before you dig in, ask yourself:

What does being right get me right now?

What does getting it right get me six months from now?

If those answers are the same, hold the line. But if they’re different, you have a choice to make.

Sometimes the most strategic move is to give the other person a graceful way to shift so they can actually hear what you need them to hear. That’s not weakness. That’s not backing down. That’s playing a longer game.

And in leadership, in this business, in any relationship worth keeping, the long game is usually the one that matters.

Sound familiar?

Choose your battles. But more than that, choose what you’re actually fighting for.

– Casey

PS This is something I think about a lot with how NinjaZone is built, and honestly, it’s one of the things I’m most proud of.

Getting the information? The skills? That’s the easy part. You can hand a coach a curriculum binder and walk away feeling like you did something. But having the right content doesn’t mean anything lands.

What actually changes a gym, a program, a coach, is the sequencing, the implementation, and the iteration.

Sequencing means introducing concepts in the right order, at the right moment, so the coach is actually ready to receive them. Before they’ve had enough reps on the floor, some ideas just don’t click yet. They need to be earned.

Implementation is where most programs fall apart. The gap between “I understand this” and “I can actually launch, hire, train, & grow this program for years to come.” NinjaZone is built to close that gap, with tools and support that meet owners and coaches where they are, not where we wish they were.

Iteration is what makes it stick. Coaching is a skill, and skills don’t develop in a straight line. The feedback loop matters. What’s working? What needs to adjust? What happens when something goes wrong? (aka coach transition). Real growth happens in the revision, not the first attempt.

But NinjaZone isn’t just what happens on the floor between a coach and a kid.

It’s the way a parent feels the first time they walk through your door, that first information online, that first look at your program, on the floor. It’s how you communicate with families about progress and benefits. It’s the calendar structure that keeps your program feeling intentional and alive in month eighteen the same way it did in month one.

It’s a whole program, from launch through every hard transition. New director. New coach. A tough stretch that makes you wonder if you’ve lost the thing that made it work.

NinjaZone is built to hold all of that. Not just to teach. To sustain.

If that sounds like something your gym needs, I’d love to talk: theninjazone.com/licensing