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Archive for April, 2015

Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of April 27th

April 27, 2015 | No Comments »

When Things Fall Apart

What holds us together when things fall apart? This is a particularly important question to consider because of the speed and complexity of change in today’s world. So, what holds us together when things crumble around us? Ethos, meaning, and purpose! Like the underground root system of a tree, ethos, meaning, and purpose provide the perennial wellspring of vitality, resilience, and shared intentionality allowing the above-ground trunk to flourish, even during times of strong headwinds and draught. Change is always impacting us, threatening our resolve and imparting a centripetal force that, if not countered by a unifying ethos, will gradually rip organizations apart. History is strewn with the rubble of once great civilizations, companies, firms, and teams whose rise and fall played out in this way. With the erosion of ethos is lost the edifying root system once able to positively galvanized the group. Great leaders must always remember their role as cultivators and caretakers; pruning and watering the deep root systems of their organization’s ethos, which in turn allows for the blossoming of meaning and purpose.

The Heroic Lens

“I don’t think of leading as just leading; work as just work; travel as just travel; learning as just learning; failure as just failure; success as just success. It’s all living. Heroic leaders do not differentiate leading from living.”

– Paul Callan

Shooting For Something Higher Than Fun

Our modern world, if we let it, can be awfully superficial. This has nothing to do with the quality of modern people; the young generation has every bit of latent greatness in their DNA as any past generation. I think the problem is, well, life is just too easy for most people and technology provides instant knowledge without any demand for wisdom. We seem on a path of amusing ourselves to death. A steady diet of fun does little to call forth our better angels or provide the crucible needed to develop character, humility, and reverence for something greater than self. So, I think it high time we start shooting for something higher than just fun. Don’t get me wrong; I am a fan of fun. But I’d like to commit my life to deeper meaning, believing that fun is merely transitory, while deep satisfaction, dare I say bliss, comes only from fidelity to higher purpose and doing what life calls us to do. When our lives center on fun, we remain adolescent in character and mindset. When our lives focus on purpose and heroic ambition, we move into the realm of wisdom, maturity, a nobler moral code, and lives of significance.

Two Types of Character

I believe we’re capable of two types of character in life; Character of ascent or character of descent. Character of the ascent is the persona of the public square and ego; our accomplishments, successes, titles, degrees, bona fides. The ascent is generally the first phase of our life, when we see the career ladder before us and we willingly climb it. The character of the ascent places us, the climber, at the center of all stories and all dramas. This is the time of the I; “Ain’t I great?!” Some people reach this stage and remain, even into old age, and thus engage life solely from this ego mindset. Others realize the character of the ascent is limiting and not fully honorable, so they turn and head back down. Thus begins forming of the character of the descent. Descent is a time where humility, brought on by necessary defeats, slowly emerges. Our ego cracks, our successes seem less relevant, and we start to turn away from “I” and instead look to “other.” Great leaders, people of heroic character, followed the descent into the belly of the mythical whale and emerged from this crucible not just better people, but changed people. Such is the hero’s path.

Exemplars

To become great at great, including as a leader, one must have a deep inner yearning to gain self mastery. Therefore, I don’t believe one can think their way to excellence. No amount of academic study will transform one into a master. Example is the best and truest teacher. This is why I spend most of my time reflecting on exemplars of excellence like Gandhi, Lincoln, or MLK. When we contemplate the lives of truly great people from all epochs and cultures we discern a common path, a familiar pattern, among their journeys. Yes, they were unique people, and equally, they were all broken and deeply human at times, but what I find common in them all was a kind of conversion period, a turning around, in which they first confronted their inner self, and through this inner crucible, they transform themselves, from the inside–out, into models of virtue. Leadership, understood correctly, is a matter of the heart and soul. Hearts and souls are not taught in a classroom; they are cultivated and transformed in the cauldron of experience. We are wise to reflect on exemplars of excellence and see that, yes, we can build virtue within ourselves.

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 April 20th

April 20, 2015 | No Comments »

One Four Zero

At the heart of expert leadership is the ability to provide vision and compelling end states to those we lead. However, in presenting vision many leaders use overly complex descriptions and mind-numbing bureaucratic language. We often do this because we believe more words, and more complex words at that, are more valuable in terms of reaching our audience. Actually, the opposite is true. When conveying vision and strategy the best filter leaders can employ is clarity. I like to call this The Law of One Four Zero: Like a tweet, if a leader cannot succinctly convey his message in 140 characters, then he/she doesn’t understand it well enough and should therefore go back to the drawing board. The Law of One Four Zero forces leaders to seek message clarity by asking, and then answering, this key question: What is the one big thing I am trying to convey, and therefore, the one big thing I want people to understand? The Law of One Four Zero is based on the proven leadership maxim that, in winning hearts and minds, less is often more.

Origin Story

I write often about the power of ethos in creating and sustaining organizational excellence. I have publically stated my firm believe that, if one had to distill lasting greatness down to a single distinguishing quality, ethos would be the one indispensable ingredient. I like to think of the power of ethos like the origin story of all great heroes. Whether mythic or comic book, all great heroes have their own big-bang tale describing the crucible of development calling forth their greatness. Similarly, magnificent organizations have similar origin stories. These stories may be partially mythic but these big bang stories nonetheless provide powerful insight into the perennial knowledge forming the heart and soul of the group. Leaders at every type of company, team, or firm would be well served to study, master, and bring to life the origin stories of their group. These origin stories should be told early and often as a way to reinforce camaraderie, esprit, élan, shared intentionality, and resilience. All great pursuits are fueled by heroic ambition, and all great companies are made of companions forged by heroic purpose.

Give Away Your Gold

“Behind Every Successful Young Leader Is A Mentor Who Sees The Protégé’s Success as His Success; The Protégé’s Failure As His Failure. Great Leaders Gain Mastery, Then Give It Away.”

– Paul Callan

White Hot Memories

Sam Young. That is the name of my senior Drill Instructor at Marine Officer Candidate School over 30 years ago. I can tell you with certainty; I will never forget Sam Young. Why? Because he has formed what I call  white-hot memories in my mind. When we have novel experiences, events impacting all our senses, we register those memories in a specific part of our brain and those memories get chemically coded for heightened recall. This is why most of us can recall exactly where we were on 9/11 yet we can barely recall what we had for breakfast yesterday. So, how is this important to leadership? If we want people to remember key messages, things like our ethos and our purpose, then leaders need to find novel ways to tell those stories. We need to create emotionally charged events, through creative use of symbols, ceremonies, traditions, and rites, to imbue white hot memories in the minds of those we lead. White hot memories help us remember key information, but more so, they help us care, and connect, more deeply.

In Repair

The more I reflect on leadership excellence the more I’m convinced we’re always in a state of repair. Though we grow and mature, there’s always a nagging sense we aren’t quite there yet. Know the feeling? This is why I believe great leadership, and equally, building great teams, is more a matter of renovation than creation. Much about excellence is known, but often, this knowing atrophies and becomes neglected and forgotten. The ability to hold oneself within this tension, between knowing yet not yet fully knowing, is extremely hard. It takes great moral courage to stay on the path to excellence when confronted by the inevitable twists and turns of winning and losing. It takes great conviction to keep one eye on the distant high ground when the other eye sees only the daunting barrier in the foreground. So yes; aspiring leaders are always in repair and our groups in need of constant renovation. Though sobering, this insight nonetheless reveals the fidelity required to keep striving; to trust these acts of renovation are necessary steps in a purposeful life and key components to heroic ambition.

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 April 13th

April 13, 2015 | No Comments »

Is There Time?

Is there time?

…to lead.

   …to follow.

      …to mentor.

         …to learn.

            …to celebrate.

               …to mourn.

                  …to act.

                     …to dream.

Is there time?

There is.

The Role of Legend and Lore

As a Marine, much of my deep appreciation for the term “Marine” was conveyed to me via legend and lore.  I like to think of legend and lore as the vitally necessary mythology of all great organizations. To fully understand the perennial knowledge, foundational ethos, and unifying symbols of our organizations, we need epic stories to move us out of our heads and into our hearts. We need legend and lore to point us to broader patterns of living to help produce coherence and meaning beyond the limiting lens of the moment.  There are three essential qualities legend and lore help bring to organizations: They illustrate truth; they illuminate meaning, and they elevate ambition. Leaders everywhere should tap into the heroes of their organizations, and find every opportunity to tell, and retell, stories of legend and lore. Moreover, these stories help bind different generations through the common reference points found in these tales, a sort of rallying call toward shared intentionality.

Nix the Quick Fix

Some things in life clearly deserve quick fixes: Long lines at the DMV; a fire in a packed theater; a stuck elevator in a high rise. We are right in demanding instant gratification in these cases. How about becoming great leaders; should we expect a quick fix? I don’t think so. It’s not that we can’t contrive ways to dumb down leadership into tidy list and menus; many people do this every day in blogs. But when we make this mistake; when we demand instant gratification on things like leadership that, by their very nature defy quick fixes, we simply create illusions and false promises. More worrisome, we degrade things that are meant to be majestic and we denigrate them into mindless tactics. Leadership is a master craft, no less awesome, and, yes, no less mysterious, than great art, poetry, or music. Imagine walking up to a great artist like Rembrandt and asking him to teach you to become a master painter in “3 easy steps.”  Why then do we approach leadership as if we could teach someone that way? So, let’s nix the quick fix. Is this harsh medicine? Perhaps. But it is the only path to excellence and the only way to produce masterful leaders.

Rapport

Rapport is a term we should always closely associate with great leadership, yet I find hardly a mention of it in modern leadership speech. Rapport is genuine empathy existing between people fused in common purpose and meaning. Rapport is deep emotional relating; an almost DNA-level trust shared by groups galvanized in the crucible of common sacrifice and collaborative pursuit. I find I can walk into a group of co-workers and, within minutes, discern whether rapport exists within the group. When rapport is present in a group, a kind of esprit and élan naturally exudes. The group is animated by confidence, respect, mutual affection, and resiliency. Conversely, when rapport is absent, the group exists in a wasteland environment, barren of vitality and low on optimism, and the most telling characteristics tend to be divisiveness, pettiness, and tribal allegiances. But here’s the key point for us to remember: Rapport is cultivated by intentional leaders. Rapport is not automatic; it is manufactured purposefully, act-by-act, day-by-day, year-after-year. You want to be a champion? Build and sustain rapport in your group.

Too Many Choices, Too Little Time

On a recent business trip to Asia I again saw the raw power and pervasiveness of technology in our world.  From the airport, to the taxi, to the hotel and all the other virtual realities in between, we truly live on a tech-centered globe. Amazing stuff. But in spite of this I was equally struck by how harried, detached, and episodic many of us are becoming. Too many choices, too little time. And what does this observation have to do with leading? A lot. Leading requires occasional solitude, presence in the moment, awareness, and the ability to regularly reflect on broad arcs of time and broad patterns of living. The vortex of social media, if not self-controlled, can pull leaders out of awareness, ensnaring them in increasingly transitory impulses. And here’s what we know from history: Nothing great comes from a limited, harried, and episodic lens. Too many choices, coupled with too little time, produces too many burned out souls.

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 April 6th

April 6, 2015 | No Comments »

Breaking The Bonds That Limit Us

Unfortunately for many, work is just a slog; a mind numbing, soul crushing sameness. But it doesn’t need be. If leaders can somehow tap into meaning and purpose, then bonds can be breached and new heights reached. It is a leader’s cardinal obligation to find in the work, even in the labor, a higher aim and a deeper calling, and then to explain these things to people to inspire them to reach beyond the banalities of work. Here’s what I have found in my life: When I am bound up in some great enterprise, or great purpose, even a truly extraordinary undertaking, my aspirations break their former bonds and my heart soars. This is precisely what happened to me during my nearly 30-year journey as a US Marine. One moment, before OCS, I was stuck in a slog. Once I endured the crucible of a place called Quantico and touched deep meaning, my soul was freed to transcend limitations, embrace peak experiences, and celebrate the timeless virtues of excellence. Great leaders and great organizations, through uplifting vision and deep meaning, help us break the bonds that once limited us and take us to places our souls want to go.

Hardwired

The longer I live, the more convinced I am that we are simply hardwired for certain things. Here are a few. First, we are hardwired for camaraderie. I don’t care how technologically advanced we get, we will always crave, in the deepest reservoirs of our being, the kind of soulful bonding that comes from brothers and sisters who strive, shoulder-to-shoulder, in common purpose. Second, I believe we are hardwired for empathy. Empathy is the intuitive understanding of “the other,” or of the group. Empathy is like mortar holding individual bricks together in a sturdy wall. Many believe modern society is ridding us of this sense of, and value for, empathy. I say nonsense. Leaders simply must create the conditions, and cultivate the opportunities, for our natural empathetic senses to be activated. Finally, I believe we are hardwired for teamwork. Yes, we can fall prey to selfishness and self interest, but I believe we have a deeper desire for group achievement and unity of effort. Contemplate this question: What feels more deeply satisfying, climbing a steep mountain alone or climbing it with a group of friends? If we are honest, it is the latter.

Passion

Passion is a term often linked to excellence. So, what is passion? And is it really crucial to great leadership? Passion is a feeling; a deep wellspring of almost primal enthusiasm for something. Once felt, passion becomes something deeply foundational to one’s core. So a leader must ask: What am I passionate about? When we feel passionate about excellence, and passionate about leading, the pursuit of these things becomes something we cannot not do. We are compelled to pursuit. So why is passion a vital precursor to great leadership? Because passion leads to self mastery. As I’ve noted before: A leader cannot inspire others unless, and until, they themselves are inspired. Moreover, passion is contagious. A leader imbued with great vitality energizes those whom he leads. If one wants to be a great leader, then one must first see leading as something intensely meaningful and truly core to one’s identity. Leadership must be profoundly meaningful to you, not simply a passing fancy or an occasional tactic. So, does leadership and excellence make your soul sing? Then you have a passion for life and leading.

Mental Toxins

When I work out each day, sweating and churning through my routine, I can almost feel the bodily toxins leaving my system. Which made me think: what about mental toxins; do they build up in our mind and should we find ways to eradicate them from our leadership lens? Mental toxins, things like anger, jealousy, bitterness, and pettiness, surely do accumulate during the course of time. These toxins slowly corrode our attitude, stifle our optimism, and lessen our vitality. Over time, mental toxins destroy our ability to resonate with others and generate positive affect. So, yes; the accumulation of mental toxins can destroy a leader and can deteriorate a leader’s affect. Therefore, we must find ways to rid ourselves of these mental toxins. And the first step? Becoming self-aware of their existence within us, and more so, their control over us. Once self aware, we must then find mechanisms to regulate and flush them from our minds. Great leadership, in my view, ultimately is more about letting go then getting more. And one of the key things great leaders learn to let go of, are, mental toxins.

The Final Frontier

When we come to the end of our journey as leaders, what is the purpose of our travels? What is final frontier? I think the promised land of leadership is wisdom. I like to think of wisdom as a state of being in which we are still animated with great passion and determination for life, but now, we are stripped of all the former ego-baggage once limiting us. But there is a gate leaders must pass through to get to wisdom, and over this gate is written the word, humility. Some will pass through this gate, many will not. The wisest leaders I have met, those with a true trans-partisan view and a generative spirit, seem to me to be people of great humility and fully open to grace. Wise leaders seem to know this about life: Everything belongs, and everything matters. Some people I know rise to great rank or status, yet they never become wise. They simply can’t push down their egos enough to fit through humility’s narrow gate. A wise leader can laugh at himself, his failures and foibles, and still resonate excellence. An ego-based leader cannot let go of his ego, and therefore, exudes mostly toxins. One passed through the gate, the other turned away.

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!