I was busted.  I could see the flashing lights in my rear view mirror and knew he was after me.

I couldn’t believe it.  I was doing the speed limit… sort of.  The speed limit was 110 km/h and I was well within my 10% allotment.

Everybody knows the police allow 10% above the speed limit.

This wasn’t a radar trap though.  This was a little different situation.  He was in the slow lane deliberately driving the exact speed limit.  And you know what happens when a cop does that: nobody dares pass them and traffic gets significantly backed up.

So, I thought I would pass him well within an acceptable range above the speed limit.  I was doing 119 in a 110 zone.  As soon as I passed him he pulled in behind me, hit his lights and pulled me over.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“I thought I was going the speed limit.  I had my cruise at 119.  We do consultation work with the RCMP and they’ve told me that 10% above the speed limit is no problem.”  I figured this factual insight would cause him to see that I was an insider – a friendly – someone he could trust to be law abiding and, therefore, give me a warning and let me go.

I was wrong.

“Well, I don’t know why they would tell you to break the law.  Driver’s license and registration please!”

Dang.

With my $138 ticket in hand I drove away – making sure I stayed in front of him.

As I ruminated on my encounter with the law I started to get more and more ticked off.  I came up with every reason why he shouldn’t have given me a ticket.  I know if I’d gone through a radar trap at that speed he wouldn’t have done a thing.  He was just ticked off that I had the gall to pass him.  The fact that I was in a black Audi A5 Cabriolet just made him more intent on busting me.  This was discrimination!

No Dave, you were just really stupid to pass a cop on the highway.  And, Dave, you know full well that you were going even faster than that before you caught a glimpse of the cop up ahead of you – you slowed down to 119 from 125.

If I’m really honest with myself, and quit justifying my behavior, I know I have a tendency to speed.  One might even say I have a problem with speeding.  I need to learn to slow down and drive the speed limit.

So, after my latter more honest thoughts began to overtake my former self-justifying thoughts, I realized I simply needed to “Pay The Man”.  I needed to submit to the justice handed out to me.  When I was really honest with myself I realized he was right, and I was wrong.

I need to put my ego aside and embrace the correction – I needed to Pay The Man.

Maybe I’m the only one who deals with this, but have you found there are times when someone confronts you on something, maybe not in the most caring and gracious way, and you don’t respond in the best way?  You push back, you rebuff them, and the encounter doesn’t end well.

And yet later, when you take the time to put your ego aside, you realize they were right.  When you put aside all the superfluous elements, you know they’re right and you’re wrong.  What you really needed to do was choose humility, embrace the correction, grow from it and move on.

You needed to Pay The Man.

If we’re really going to lead well we need to be able to be honest with ourselves in regard to our own issues and limitations.  Like it said on the wall of the Winnipeg Jets former dressing room,

“Check your ego at the door!”

When you get it wrong, check your ego at the door and Pay The Man.  Admit your error and embrace the correction necessary to move on.  You will be a wiser and better leader for it.  And, set a great example for the rest of your team to follow.