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Archive for January, 2015

Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of January 26th

January 26, 2015 | No Comments »

Triumph and Disaster

I suppose it’s natural we mostly refer to successes when studying leadership. We revere champions and, as such, we are inclined to study the how and why of victory. But much is to be learned about leadership in studying disaster; maybe more. What I find most compelling about leadership, when it comes to the extremes of triumph and disaster, is not what led to each outcome, but instead, how much did each outcome change the nature of the leader? I have long believed the nature of a leader is best seen in the extremes of victory or defeat, because extremes present a crucible capable of stripping away any false masks. Who we are as leaders will be tested most directly during highs and lows, but if we are centered and anchored–these extremes should not change who we truly are. In this vein, I admire this wisdom from Rudyard Kipling: “If you can, meet with triumph and disaster, and treat these two imposters just the same.” Winning and losing are imposters; who we are inside endures.

All Days Are Key Days

In pursuit of masterful leadership there’s a tendency to believe there exists a key date just over the horizon when we finally arrive at mastery. We tend to think of leadership excellence as an exact destination with a finite time and place, where we might say: I have arrived. I call this the illusion of “some day” leadership (some day, when I have all the experience and training, then I will be a great leader). This illusion incorrectly focuses on a future day when all the stars align, all conditions are right, and a magic switch turns on. Sounds nice, but excellence doesn’t work that way. Here’s a more truthful reality about leadership excellence: All days are key days; all moments are key moments; all events matter. Each moment is key because within that moment resides a teacher; a vital opportunity to experience the feeling of leading and internalize its lessons. So yes, all days are key days on the path to excellence.

Lead Like There’s No Tomorrow

Lead now because soon enough it will be time to go home
Lead now because soon enough it will be time to go
Lead now because soon enough it will be time
Lead now because soon enough it will be
Lead now because soon enough
Lead now because
Lead now
Lead

Lost and Found

Reflect on your life and your path as a leader. When you look back at your journey you see highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain, smooth and rough. The texture of the leadership path seems to contain these contours for everyone, just in differing degrees and situations. What I find most interesting, though, is  what appeared to be true at the time of these highs and lows looks now, in retrospect, to be much different. The highs, when experienced, were heady stuff, and we surely felt they had much to do with our excellence. In hindsight, we see the highs had more to do with our teams, some luck, and a good dose of grace in most cases. The lows, when we experienced them, hurt a lot and seemed like total inconveniences. Now we see those setbacks much differently; they were necessary teachers, and with the passage of time, their lessons guide us more fully than any victory.  My point in this? What is lost is nothing compared to what is found. Our setbacks and defeats, compared to wisdom gained through the crucible, would barely fill a thimble cup.

Yearning

I am often asked, “What is the best way to teach a young person leadership?” I think the best place to start is to cultivate in the person a yearning to be a great leader. For example, say we wanted to teach a young man to be a master sailor, or a young woman to be a master dancer. We could start with some technical training like how to rig a sail or how to properly fit dance shoes. But a far better place to start would be to teach each of them to yearn to be excellent; for the man how to yearn for the sea, for the woman how to yearn for the stage. Yearning becomes the unforgettable fire strong enough to sustain the person along a life-long path of development. Yearning becomes the internal true north capable of setting the right heading, azimuth, and vector. When mentoring young leaders we have two basic choices we can select; teach them what leaders do, or, teach them who leaders are. I believe we must start with the latter (who leaders are), and we can do this best by creating a yearning to become masterful leaders. Yearn for the sea and you’ll learn to sail. Yearn to guide others towards excellence and you’ll learn to lead.

Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!

Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of Jan 19th

January 20, 2015 | No Comments »

An Old Home

Growing up in the Boston area I recall many colonial-era homes in my neighborhood. The character of these old homes always strikes me, not simply for their architectural appeal, but for their longevity. Great leadership has much in common with the upkeep of old homes in this crucial way: foundations are in need of constant renovation. Foundations of leadership, both personal and organizational, contain the cornerstones of strength and excellence, muck like the foundation of a home. These cornerstones—things like ethos, meaning, purpose, and character—can atrophy unless maintained by a devoted caretaker. The silent artillery of time, as Lincoln referred to atrophy, can chip away at once solid foundations, leaving them, like a house in disrepair, as only faint memories of their once vibrant condition. Great leadership, we learn over time, is more a case of renovation than creation. It is therefore a leader’s sacred obligation to attend to foundations–the cornerstones of excellence—to ensure our leadership and our organizations survive the silent artillery of time.

The Off Season

Watching the College Football playoffs this year, I heard a TV commentator say, “Champions are crowned at the end of the season.” Though true, this statement misses a more important point: Champions are made in the off season. And so it is true with great leaders. It is in the off season, when the lights are turned off, the stadium empty, and no one is looking, where hard work and the crucible of preparation forge the soul of a champion. In so many ways, the outcome on the field of play is actually determined months before the team steps into the arena. As leaders, our performance in the present moment will be determined, by and large, by actions taken or not taken months or years before. So it is wise for all leaders to heed the call of the off season, to pay our dues on the practice fields and along the dusty road of preparation, so we are ready for prime time when it comes. Yes, Champions may be crowned at season’s end, but they are made in the off season.

A Sofa or a Springboard

Leadership is the blending of vision and action. Yes, leaders must first see where they are going before they can effectively prosecute their plan. Vision is the necessary first step. The potential pitfall of vision and planning, however, is this: A completed plan can become like a sofa; an all-too-comfortable place to pause, sit and admire our position, and luxuriate in plans we’ve made. Great leaders recognize this pitfall and quickly move into bold action. Through initiative, they turn the sofa into a springboard. Leaders must learn to value action as highly as vision, and likewise, leaders must nurture the courage to move with conviction once an azimuth of march has been selected. Getting from here to there isn’t about perfection; it is about moving in about the right direction with will and purpose and then, making agile course corrections. Great leaders choose the springboard over the sofa through bold initiative and decisive behavior.

Collapsing Stars

I read this interesting fact yesterday: In an average day, a young child laughs over 100 times; an adult, 5 times. What happens to us along the arc of our lives to diminish this internal optimism? The pressure of work? Stress? I am not sure, but I do think there is a lesson here for all leaders to consider: Who we are, and what we project, matters to those around us. Our inner world is much like a star. If we cultivate a positive and rich inner life, we will burn brightly, and positively illuminate our surroundings. If we devolve into negative emotions of anger, pettiness, and cynicism, we become like a collapsing star, pulling everyone in our orbit towards an increasingly small, toxic, and diminished core. I have seen both types of leaders—those who shine brightly and illuminate the path to excellence and elevated performance, and those whose inner dimness sucks the life out of a group. Leadership is a sacred obligation, and those fortunate enough to lead others should consider carefully the core of their inner world and the quality of their inner light.

Horizons

Leadership is the story of how we go from here to there. And let’s face it; many of us don’t want to leave here to go anywhere. It takes a masterful leader who invites us to go on a journey of growth and change. And in this movement we are pulled towards a distant horizon initially measured in miles and great expanses. This is the stuff of leadership vision, end states, and strategy. Distant horizons are necessary as the broad aiming points of our collective azimuth; the sunlit uplands to which we collectively aspire and move. But not all horizons are measured in broad strokes. Once we start moving, horizons are often measured in feet and inches. This is the stuff of tactics and execution. This is the realm where everything matters, even the smallest details and the finest lines. So as we move from here to there, it is wise for leaders to embrace horizons, both distant and near, and never forget that victory is won, quite often, when horizons are measured in feet, not miles. Small things matter.

Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!

Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of January 12th

January 12, 2015 | No Comments »

Illumination

Great leaders are beacons; they illuminate the present realities while also shining light on the path to future end states. And the source of their illumination, burning at high candle power, is their self-leadership and self-mastery. Great leaders are able to take a flickering light from the past, turn it into a flame, which in the future shines across the broad trajectory of possibility. Conversely, poor leaders possess no such inner illumination. Poor leaders lack self mastery, and as such they act instead as black holes, absorbing into themselves any positive spirit and or any elevating purpose. Illumination simply cannot escape a poor leader’s negative gravitational pull. The light we emit as heroic leaders is meant not for our own use, but to light the way for others. The question we must therefore always ask ourselves is this: Are we generating illumination?

All Hat, No Cattle

I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies —The Outlaw Josey Wales. Whatever one feels about the fictional character Wales, he was certainly a person who “walked the walk” and didn’t simply “talk the talk.” This reminds me of a timeless truth of leadership and excellence: action and substance matter more than words and pretenses. Heroic leaders are committed to meaning, and project their high purpose through a compelling vision. More importantly, they execute their vision through right action. Conversely, poor leaders often fake high purpose through superficial means and thin gestures and never complete their goals because they fail to take action. Poor leaders are like the city slicker who wants to be seen as an authentic cowboy; they are all hat, no cattle. Heroic leaders, via real tests and trials and a commitment to authentic living, learn to actually become a cowboy.  Great leaders, like the fictional Josey Wales, walk the walk as people of substance and authenticity.

Rule Shows the Man

Aristotle often quoted the Greek proverb, “Rule shows the man,“ which means: No one knows with certainty how virtuous—or corrupt—a person might be until he holds office and has power. This has great relevance to leadership as I have long thought the greatest window of a leader’s true character, their real self, is to see them at either their lowest or highest points. It is during these two extremes, depression and elevation, where the external pressure is high enough to strip away any false masks and reveal the true nature of a person. Great leaders, ones possessing self mastery, actually become better—more virtuous—in times of loss or victory. They are the same person with or without power. Weak leaders, on the other hand, because they lack self mastery, become more vicious and bankrupt when they either lose or gain power. The greatest test of a leader, the real litmus test of heroic character, is what one does with power.

Wilderness Years

What becomes clear when studying heroic leaders from the past, almost without exception, are periods in their lives of loss and retreat from the lime light. I think of these phases as wilderness years; stretches of time characterized by feeling off track, discouraged, and beaten. Presidents Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill, King, Lincoln, Gandhi—they all had wilderness years. And what is clear in studying these people, with the aid of retrospect, is this truth: The wilderness years transformed them and defined their greatness. It is during times of loss when leaders often feel enough pain to finally welcome the break, which then leads to the breakthrough. It is as if the wilderness periods, much like an abyss, provide a defining moment, an internal crucible, able to either destroy or transform the individual. I have found myself likewise in such wilderness years as I look back across the arc of my life, and I now realize these wilderness times are often the greatest periods for growth and renewal.

The Only Time to Give In

I often reflect on the necessity of resilience in pursuit of heroic leadership because I see a resolute character, both personal and organizational, to be central to enduring excellence. I cannot find one historical example of supreme achievement or lasting significance not built up by, and sustained through, deep reservoirs of resolve. Think here of Winston Churchill as he exhorted his countrymen during WWII with these words: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never give in.” However, in contemplating this admonition, I do believe there is one circumstance when leaders should give in: In response to Honor’s call. We give in by hearing honor’s voice and by giving over to the better angels of virtue. So yes, we must remain resolute and determined to achieve excellence; but equally, we must occasionally give in by not only hearing, but also answering, honor’s call.

Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!

Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of January 5th

January 5, 2015 | No Comments »

What Do You See?

There are many ways one might distinguish heroic leaders from average leaders. Today, when reflecting on this question, this conclusion came to my mind: Where average leaders see mud, great leaders see gold. Heroic leadership does not ignore the brutal truth or the hard reality of our current condition (the mud); candor is necessary to be truly heroic. However, where the average leader becomes mired in the mud, emotionally and physically stuck, the heroic leader, through vision and conviction, sees how the mud can be transformed into gold. In my life, and the many times I have been in the mud, I recognize now the very real truth of the following sage wisdom: Wherever one falls, there lies your teacher. The mud exists and frustrates us, yes; but the mud also contains within it the opportunity for a breakthrough, and a break out. The mud exists to teach us something, as individuals and groups, we desperately need to learn. So yes, where average leaders see mud, great leaders see gold. The opportunity lies within the problem; the difference is how we see it. So, what do you see—mud or gold?

Between

In a recent leadership seminar I was asked this question: “What is the time when a leader develops most, before or after a challenging assignment?” My answer was: Between. It is between starting and finishing, between success and failure, between joy and sorrow, between high and low–where a leader’s greatest growth and transformation occurs. When we are between we are most challenged, our character put to the test, and our true Self exposed. “Before” is important as a time of readiness and preparation, and “after” is important as a time of reflection and garnering lessons learned. However, it is when leaders are between the rock of certainty and the hard place of doubt when the pressure of tension tests us most. If we are wise, we allow this pressure to convert and strengthen us.

Fighting Spirit

I write frequently about fortitude, resilience, and grit. Why? Because a fighting spirit is essential for building championship cultures and is inherent to heroic ambition. As I learned as a US Marine, there is no better friend or fiercer competitor than one imbued with a fighting spirit. I use the term fighting spirit in its classic form; reflective more of attitude than a necessarily physical application. Leaders possessing a fighting spirit are tenacious, highly optimistic, hardy, and able to face tough situations with alacrity and courage. But make no mistake, a fighting spirit does not emerge naturally; it must be intentionally cultivated in our self and our teams through constant preparation and rehearsal. A fighting spirit does not deny we are surrounded by challenge and risk; it sees the hard truth. But it inspires us to take this right action: Attack in a different direction until we find a way to succeed!

Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!