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Archive for December, 2012

5 Leadership Skills to Survive the Holidays

December 11, 2012 | No Comments »

By Jenn Herman

It’s that time of the year when business meetings, dinner parties, Holiday parties, special events, and family commitments have cluttered your calendar to the point where only a Jedi-master can make sense of it! It’s the Holiday Season and it’s year-end at work. If you’re like most of us, you’re starting to pull out your hair at the stress that is inevitably lingering on the horizon.

As leaders and managers, it is our responsibility to guide those around us and lead by example. Your employees and co-workers are looking to you to see how you handle everything right now. So, if this time of year is starting to bog you down, here are 5 key leadership skills – translated into holiday survival skills – to help you navigate the rest of the year.

1. Patience. In business, we know we have to be patient and use our time wisely. So why is it that when we hit the shopping mall during the holiday season, we turn into vultures pecking at parking spaces? Take a deep breath, and travel prepared and patient. Give yourself enough time to complete your tasks and understand that whether you’re in the checkout line at the store, at the airport, or really anywhere this time of year, so is everyone else. Plan your time, errands, and travel ahead of time so you’re not left scrambling on December 24^th.
2. Listen. One of the best skills of any leader and manager is the ability to listen to others to gain valuable insight through verbal and silent clues. When it comes time to purchase the gifts for those around you – listen to them. Are they giving you hints about what they would like? If not, what are their interests, hobbies, style? All of these “hints” will lead you in the right direction for the perfect gift.
3. Wisdom. Only with time and experiences can we really become wise. In business, you have gained valuable bits of wisdom over the years and are now experts in your fields and respected leaders. Likewise, we’ve been through countless holiday seasons before, so why do we keep repeating the same mistakes every year? Learn from years past. What worked, what didn’t work? What relieved some stress? What got the kids the most excited? Use that wisdom to help make this year go smoothly.
4. Innovation. Today’s business is all about innovation and doing something new. How can you be different from your competitors, what will set you apart? Let’s use that same idea to have our own unique holiday. If you have die-hard family traditions, by all means, keep them in place. But try adding something different this year to spice it up – drive around and look at Christmas lights in your neighborhood, buy a gingerbread house kit to entertain the kids, perform Random Acts of Kindness for strangers every day leading up to December 25^th. You’ll be surprised how one new fun holiday experience can lighten the pressure you feel this time of year.
5. Balance. We always strive to find that perfect balance between work and personal life. And on a daily basis we often have to set priorities to determine where that balance lies. This time of year increases those demands and only further encourages the need for setting priorities. Make sure that you set time for you as well. Whether it’s going to the gym, getting a massage, having a quiet dinner at home – do what you need to do to keep yourself sane for the rest of the year!

Hopefully these tips will help guide you to a less stressful, well-organized, and rewarding holiday and year-end.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year of health, happiness, and prosperity!

Following Ariadne’s Thread- Discovering Clues on the Path to Heroic Leadership

December 6, 2012 | No Comments »

By Paul Callan

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. Minos put Ariadne in charge of the labyrinth housing the dreaded monster–Minotaur. She helped the hero Theseus slay the Minotaur and then find his way out of the labyrinth by providing him a ball of thread as a means to navigate his way out. Ariadne did not tell him the way out, provide him a detailed map, personally guide him, or magically relieve him of this burden. Instead–she simply gave him a clue in the form of thread.  Theseus thus had one choice: Grab the clue provided to him to undertake the challenge and find within himself the courage, wisdom, and resolve to master both the labyrinth and his own inner limitations.

I have always found this story of Ariadne and Theseus to be a great metaphor for the challenges we all face in our pursuit of a heroic life and in our quest to become heroic leaders. Like Theseus, we all start at the center of a metaphorical labyrinth—a place of uncertainty and risk. Like Theseus, we will not be magically relieved of our burden nor given any significant advantage to guide us—just a thin thread of clues. And like Theseus, we too must summon the inner courage to find our way out of the labyrinth and then arrive at a higher state of living and a more elevated form of leadership.  Like heroes of old, we must reach down and grab the thread of clues and begin walking. Heroes, you see, are still made not born. And all great leadership starts with self-leadership.

So, aside from this being an interesting story, what do I think are the clues that help guide our journey to self-awareness, self-mastery, self-leadership and ultimately—heroic leadership of others? In creating my own thread, I have come to believe in the following 7 maxims to serve as trusted clues:

PARADIGM– A true leadership paradigm transforms the eye and re-tunes the ear. The filter through which one views leadership and hears wisdom is the single most important requirement to achieving authentic leadership and producing enduring significance.

JOURNEY– The path to enduring significance is a life-long journey. There are no leadership shortcuts, menus, how-to books, gimmicks or “killer apps” that one can download and then quickly master. The general characteristics of the path can be shown and the journey described—but each person must answer their own call.

TRANSFORMATION-–To reach the high ground, one must first endure the desert.  One must leave his comfort zone, take the journey, cross thresholds, endure the crucible of tests and trials, and be constantly re-made in the scalding cauldron of experience. This course—when walked with fidelity–will conspire to enable transformation. The events encountered in one’s life, understood correctly, are simply the shaping instruments of one’s destiny.

AUTHENTICITY–Authenticity is the foundation of resonant leadership. Like a diamond born of coal, authenticity gradually emerges via the cauldron of the transformative journey. Authenticity requires a shift from technical to emotional intelligence, attaining personal mastery and authentic internal authority, and then:  sharing the boon with others.

WISDOM—Wise leaders impart truth, balance, and a sense of deep time.  Having taken the journey and mastered their life, great leaders become vibrant Elders within their group. Embracing a kind of wisdom vision, wise leader are enormously resonant and generative.

SUCCESS– Success doesn’t follow a rags-to-riches trajectory.  Authentic leaders don’t rise from nothing, nor do they make it alone. Success is ultimately the by-product of a pattern that includes talent, recognition, practice, preparation, and personal readiness. Success is thus a self-disciplined pattern of action.

SIGNIFICANCE– Authentic leaders leave an uplifting legacy.  Like footprints in the sand, great leaders leave a residue of personal example for others to follow. Great leaders create an enduring echo enabling the group to thrive without the leader’s physical presence. Significance is achieved by repeating the pattern of success over and over and is thus a pattern of behavior. 

Though we will never literally find ourselves in a labyrinth or confronted with a breathing Minotaur, if understood correctly as metaphor and parable—we absolutely will face the same tests, trials, and realities of Theseus. And understood this way, we’ll be able to then comprehend the timeless truths of leadership and the wisdom that paves the road to a heroic life. The good news is—there is a thread of clues to guide us. The sobering news is—it isn’t easy and the burden is ours to shoulder. This is the path less taken, but it is the only path enabling the leader to become the lesson.