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Leadership Reflections for the Week of July 14th
July 14, 2014 | No Comments »
Wisdom
Is wisdom dead in our society? Try this experiment. Watch the nightly news for a week or two focusing on stories dealing with major challenges or grand opportunities. Pay attention to the dialogue and try to find a single mention of the word wisdom as an essential prerequisite to success. Likely you’ll detect barely a whiff of the word wisdom. Why is that so? Because we’ve become accustomed to easy answers, afraid of tough questions, conditioned to instant gratification, and therefore, we’ve developed an inability to live in tension and temporary suffering long enough to break through to wisdom. We readily embrace information and intelligence because we see these as factual and empirical; but these are not the true realms of leadership wisdom. Wisdom is the next level of knowing—which comes from intuition, a kind of “wisdom seeing,” where leaders break through the limits of a single field of knowing into a unified field of knowing. So, how do we reawaken an expectation for wisdom in our leaders?
A Vital Balance
There’s much written about the need for leaders to achieve “work-life balance.” I think this goal is misdirected. Why? Because I don’t think there really is such a thing. We are given time, and time is unchangeable. The issue, therefore, is what we do with ourselves, and our energy, in time. In other words: we have to make hard choices. Thinking of work and life as two detachable elements is flawed and leads us into a false paradigm in which we wrongly believe we can carve out equal amounts of time for all the many things we’d like to do. This does not lead to balance, but to a steady dissipation of energy and mental fatigue. Leaders must be brutally honest about priorities and make discerning choices about the few things that really matter. I call this Vital Balance. Find those things in life, which when done mindfully and consistently, bring you vitality and generative energy. I do not believe we become tired from too much mindful exertion, but rather, from too much mindless work. Leaders must make choices and invest energy in those few things producing vitality and renewal.
Pot Luck Progress
A consistent challenge I encounter with companies dealing with progress is simply the need to begin. People can feel the need to change but despite this feeling, remain paralyzed. Consider this paradox: Planned change is more frightening than unplanned changed. I believe the biggest cause of progress paralysis is one of appetite and portion control. When companies deal with change their tendency is to envision change in its full, complex, and enormous manifestation—like a holiday meal—in which only those few senior leaders at the very top partake. Everyone else in the organization feels they have no seat at the table and no role to play. Result? Paralysis! A better approach, one that will break the paralysis and create action is to treat change as a pot luck affair. Everyone, regardless of role or experience, has a seat at the table and has an expectation to contribute—to bring their best dish. Remember this: Big problems are solved most effectively by many people doing many small things well. Pot luck progress leads to powerful first steps. There’s a magic in momentum called unity of purpose.
Be The Change
My favorite Gandhi quote is, “Be the change you want to see.” Unfortunately, often in our lives and work, when confronted with external shortcomings, it’s easy to bemoan the problems and look for someone “out there” to create the change. Result? Lots of finger pointing, blaming, and angst. Venting may feel good, but the reality is, positive change does not happen this way nor does it necessarily start at the top. More likely, positive change happens at the edges and from the bottom. Or said simply: Individuals change themselves, then they change their worlds. Regardless of our position or our level of authority, we must be accountable for ourselves; namely–our leadership, our behavior, and our attitude. If you want others to be better leaders, then commit to being a better leader yourself. If you want a better culture, then create a healthy climate in your own space. If you want more positive energy “out there,” then create more of the same “in here.” The best thing we can ever do to keep our groups growing and improving, is to grow and improve ourselves. Be the change you want to see.
Leading in Front of a Mirror
I equate leadership to a master craft because leadership is a way of life requiring pursuit of self mastery. As an example of a master craftsman, consider a master dancer, who hones her craft by the 90-10 rule: They spend 90% of their time practicing only to perform 10% of the time. Think of that–a master dancer spends most of their development dancing in front of a mirror. And the mirror does not lie; it tells the dancer exactly where strengths and weaknesses reside, where blind spots lurk, and where perfection still awaits. The mirror reflects back to the dancer, honestly and candidly, her affect. Now, what if we leaders had to perform in front of a mirror, reflecting back to us in real-time candor how we were influencing other people? Actually, we do have such mirrors. Our leadership is mirrored in those we lead. Our followers’ growth and development mirrors back to us the quality of our character and the virtue of our leadership. How they grow, or don’t grow, is a direct reflection on us. Therefore, reflect on this question: Is the person you see in the mirror the same person others see when they look at you?
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 July 7th
July 7, 2014 | No Comments »
Vitality
For youth today there is a growing tendency to devote large portions of the day tethered to electronic gadgets, which among other things, means less time doing physical things like play, sports, camping, hiking, etc. The question is, from a leadership and life paradigm standpoint, does this matter? I prefer to avoid dramatic predictions of doom and gloom as I believe things are never as good or bad as we initially believe them to be (remember the prediction that TV was going to destroy us?). However, I think classic wisdom has something to offer here. When I think of great leaders past, I am hard pressed to find one who did not possess vigor and vitality. I don’t mean they were all athletes, I mean they all had a positive energy, a tangible physical dynamism, even if bound to a wheel chair like Roosevelt. And I believe those attributes—being hardy, resolute, resilient, mentally tough, optimistic, enthusiastic–were born of a vigorous disposition and a rigorous life. Vitality, I believe, comes from rigor and exertion, not from being sedentary. So…how can we reawaken vigor in our modern society so we produce vital leaders?
Master Your Space
I am often asked, “If I am not a senior leader in my organization, what can I really do to make a difference?” The answer I always give is, master your space! We often mistakenly think of leadership as something we will do “some day” when we have achieved enough rank or authority. This faulty concept violates a foundational truth of leadership, which is this: We are always leading. Consider this reality: The moment one engages with other people, one is creating influence, and influence is leadership. If we understand leadership this way then we will rightly place accountability upon ourselves to act like, and see the world as, leaders. No matter how large or small our position, rank, or scope of responsibilities, the space we influence is a world needing positive leadership. Therefore, it is a leader’s ultimate responsibility to master that space, create a positive atmosphere and healthy culture, and cultivate meaning and purpose. Wherever you land, master your space.
Climbing Down the Ladder
Early in our leadership development we are all naturally involved with climbing up the career ladder. The first half of life is involved with defining ourselves, doing things, and mostly, getting things. This is the time I call “B&B”—badges and bravado—when we seek promotions, awards, certifications, and qualifications. But about midway through life, we reach a vital threshold where, once we reach the top of the ladder, we start to ask ourselves— is this all there is? We start to see all the “B&B” is not only unsatisfying, but more worrisome, this early ego identity we’ve built for ourselves as leaders can become a quicksand in the second stage of life if we don’t change. Think of it: Have you ever seen an older person, well into their 50s and 60s, who is still prisoner to their ego? This is a person who has reached the top of the ladder and refused to change. Wise leaders, conversely, begin to climb down the ladder, convert their gaze from themselves to others, and strive to give away their wisdom. Great leaders do their best work coming down the ladder and giving away the best of themselves.
The Path
Like all forms of master craft, leadership is a life-long journey. As in Odysseus’ unyielding quest to reach his home in Ithaca, heroic leaders are likewise constantly journeying home, with home understood to be self mastery. We will always find ourselves back on the path, moving again towards some higher plane of knowledge and growth. In this way, the journey’s path is our necessary crucible. And understood correctly, the life-long path we take as leaders becomes the handmaiden of our destiny. Walking the leader’s path, therefore, is not really something we do; it is something that is being done to us. The leader’s path isn’t something we do, it is something we endure. And in enduring the path, we come out different. If we stay true to heroic ambition and the leader’s path, we gradually move from the circumference of life to the center…the place of meaning, purpose, conviction, and yes…wisdom. And, like Odysseus, we find that though Ithaca may have been our destination, the journey was our real destiny. It is the crucible—the path–that makes us and shapes us, if we let it.
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 June 30th
June 30, 2014 | No Comments »
Gratitude
I was recently asked, “what gives you energy during each day?” This question wasn’t focusing on occasional inspiration, but day-to-day vitality. The answer I kept coming back to was this: Gratitude. Sounds strange because we usually think we have to be the receiver of something to feel energized, and with gratitude, we are actually giving something away. When I contemplate my leadership experiences—sports, the Marine Corps, volunteering, Corporate—what I see as the great energizer of my daily leadership was actually giving more than getting. And when good things were accomplished by others in support of common goals, showing genuine gratitude to those whose efforts carried the day was actually energizing to me. Being grateful is not soft leadership, it is iron leadership; it requires each of us to be aware of other’s contributions and service and then—having the self-awareness and self-control to personally acknowledge it. It may seem counterintuitive, but to keep one’s leadership battery charged daily, look to give, not get. Show gratitude and bring vitality to the receiver and to yourself.
Building Bridges
Today, more than any other point in our history, there are more generational groups coupled in the workforce. For example, one might see members from the Korean War Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y inhabiting the halls of a single company. This fact brings increasing criticality for the production of wise elders—or bridge builders—in our groups. Like successive waves of climbers ascending a mountain, our society needs our wisest and most experienced members to serve as Sherpas–trusted guides who can describe the journey, navigate the terrain, help during slips and falls, and keep the group pointed toward the summit. Too often, though, older leaders are encouraged to focus only on their own career paths and their own retirement plans. As such, they reach the summit for themselves but do not return to base camp to help others make the climb. This is not a model for enduring excellence. Instead, we must rekindle our value of, and expectation for, the production and retention of wise elders, and then set them loose to serve as bridge builders between generations.
The Spinning Wheel
If we are honest about our development as leaders, we see a circular or spiral pattern to our growth and development. Our path is neither easy, direct, nor predictable, nor is it a consistently upward trajectory. I equate a leader’s true growth to a spinning wheel; at times we are on the right path, at others, we forget and fall off the path. At times we are on a purposeful quest, at others, we are adrift. At times we are elevated by higher meaning, at others, we are mired in the drudgery of daily details. This spinning wheel is a reminder that great leadership and heroic ambition are difficult and require constant fidelity and self discipline. It seems to me leaders often cycle back-and-forth between remembering our purpose and then forgetting. This is the cycle of the wheel: Remembering and forgetting, loss and renewal. But what is most illuminating, when we realize this circular reality, is this: The spinning wheel is really our teacher. The spiral nature of our leadership path is actually guiding us to go to the places we usually avoid but most need to go, and towards the experiences and lessons we most need to learn.
Seven Generations
I have long admired the traditions of Native American culture. Their warrior ethos had much in common with my chosen profession and my vocation as a US Marine. In particular, I admire a legend concerning Iroquois elders. It is said they would assemble as a council to decide on matters of great importance, and when they did, they would make decisions not just for today but “for the good of the next seven generations.” What’s the lesson for us? First, in the first half of life we are drawn to climbing our own ladders and gaining personal credentials. However, to become great leaders we must cross over in the second phase of life to giving back, and giving away, what we have reaped. Second, we should cultivate wise elders within our groups and then place these elders in a position to guide, shepherd, and mentor emerging generations. Finally, when we work for the next generations, we create a culture and atmosphere that shuns instant gratification and small private worlds and instead opens us to larger and more elevating ambitions. This is true heroic energy.
Warrior Spirit
I recently read a book about Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits. What struck me about Loyola and his remarkable companions was their heroic ambition and their healthy warrior spirit. A true understanding of warrior spirit is akin to positive energy, ambition, and aspiration directed toward larger purposes and elevated meaning. Warrior spirit is like a mythic Knight’s quest–a person devoting oneself to greater good, willing to transform to gain self mastery. This is the true meaning of warrior spirit; to be on fire for a vocation, a calling, and a commitment to something larger than self. I was drawn to and remained soulfully bound to the US Marine Corps for nearly 30 years due mainly to its ethos built around this classic understanding of a warrior ethic and warrior energy. So what is the lesson for us all? It is this: People will always value being taught about healthy boundaries, traditions, discipline, respect, dignity, and sacrifice if linked to a healthy warrior spirit because it elevates us towards, and binds us in, common purposes and a larger view of life and leading.
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 June 23rd
June 23, 2014 | No Comments »
New Eyes
Ever feel stuck in a kind of inertia where things aren’t clicking and your group can’t quite break through the quagmire, gain unity of purpose, and generate positive momentum? We’ve all been in this malaise at some point. When I reflect on my personal experiences, I find the answer to breaking out and through usually lies in finding new eyes. Here’s what I mean. When we are stuck, what we are actually experiencing is the classic conundrum of being between a rock and a hard place; the rock being things we simply can’t change and the hard place being things with which we can’t do much good. But it is precisely when we are fully between the rock and hard place where that stuck situation actually does something to us. We don’t change it, it changes us. We are given a chance to see anew…a chance to gain a new set of eyes. When we are uncomfortable, this is the shattering that often does change us, if we let the lessons teach us. The environment doesn’t change; we do. And when we gain a new set of eyes, we re-engage the situation with new leadership energy and the vitality of a heroic leader.
Retreating Forward
Paradoxically, I often have to step backward—actually retreat–to find the clarity needed to move forward into positive engagement. Many communities and groups embrace retreats as healthy forms of renewal and rejuvenation. On a personal level, I try to discipline myself to create space and time each week to completely detach from my normal routine and customary pace, and when I do this, I find this purposeful solitude, this break from my over-stimulated life, creates a still learning space in which deeper thoughts emerge. Leadership is, among other things, deep sensing, deep knowing, and true discerning. I don’t think we ever come to any kind of knowing, or any real wisdom, in the midst of frenzy, chaos, or hyper-stimulation. This is why it is so important for leaders to find time to retreat from the rat race, to “make time for break time.” We must find places and spaces that present quiet time, allowing us to see and hear new questions, and equally, new answers. Sometimes as leaders, we must retreat to move forward.
Giving Away Your Gold
When I reflect on truly significant leaders, one of their hallmarks is their willingness to share their knowledge, gifts, and wisdom. They freely give away their gold. This is what distinguishes significant leaders from merely successful ones. A leader can achieve great capability and capacity, to become successful in the external trappings of the public eye, but if that leader does not share his boon, then he will never become truly significant. A willingness to share one’s gold, to give away one’s knowledge and wisdom, is one of the hardest thresholds for leaders to cross. Why? Because society worships success and the external earmarks of accomplishment, such as rank, position, salary, perks, etc. And when leaders fall pray to the siren’s call of personal success they will ultimately crash against the corrosive shores of self interest and self aggrandizement. Conversely, when leaders give away their gold they elevate themselves into the realm of significance, and doing so, they ensure the enduring excellence of their organizations long after they have departed. Give away your gold!
Images
When I think about how I honestly learn the deeper truths about leadership, I realize most of what I ultimately come to understand, and then fully internalize, is done through images and experiences rather than ideas and concepts. Why is that so? I believe images more fully teach us, and convert us, because images touch a deeper part of our soul—our unconscious—which is the place real transformation and conversion occur. For example, though I have been presented numerous leadership theories and concepts throughout my life, nothing has more fully transformed me as a leader as images of leadership in action, such as Lincoln at Gettysburg, King on the Washington Mall, Churchill’s resolve in the darkest hours of WWII, or Malala Yousafzai’s incredible courage in the face of near death in Pakistan. I have stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial many times, in total silence, and absorbed more about heroic leadership than I ever have from reading an essay on leadership concepts. It seems to me that images, pictures, and stories deeply touch our unconscious and call forth our better, more heroic selves.
Larger-Than-Life Leaders
When I contemplate history’s most significant and enduring leaders—those whose personal example transcends time and place—a good description of them is larger-than-life leaders. They weren’t merely successful, they were significant. But here’s the most instructive lesson for us to learn from these historical examples: Each person actually started out, or hit a key threshold moment at some point in their life, where they were actually smaller-than-life leaders. They were less than they could be. At some key point they hit a road block and fell into an psychological abyss. They had reached a crucial breakdown, a point of no return, with no apparent way forward. But instead of lying down, they broke through, and then rose up. Instead of avoiding the crucible, they moved through it. Instead of asking another person to shoulder the burden, they chose to shoulder it themselves. And when they came out on the other side of this life-defining crucible, they were different, and the difference was forged from the inside, out. Enduring the crucible is what made them larger than life. There’s a lesson there for us.
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 June 16th
June 16, 2014 | No Comments »
Rituals and Rites
As I reflect on our society today it seems we’ve somewhat lost our understanding of, and respect for, healthy rituals and rites of passage. It appears these primal human foundations, once central to living and leading, have been shoved from the center to the circumference of our lives and our groups. As a man whose life was deeply influenced by healthy rituals (US Marines), I think a re-awakening of rituals in our groups would do us much good. Why? Because as we move through life and progress as leaders, we need to be reminded of necessary threshold crossings that distinguish our former (lesser) selves from our renewed (better) selves. For example, as Marines, our growth was guided by, and signified through, clear and honest rites and rituals. These symbolic events reminded us that our old skin was being shed and a new one emerging. When we move across thresholds we need the wise guidance of mentors and elders, and the teachable space created in healthy rituals, to ensure the messages we need most to hear are in fact seen, remembered, and allowed to convert us.
Turning Around
When I contemplate how leaders grow, I think there is a common misperception that leadership growth is linear and direct. What I believe actually happens is not this straight line movement, but rather, a constant turning around throughout one’s life. On the one hand, one turns away from a lesser self, and on the other, turns toward a better self. As such I believe true leadership development is more like an upward spiral than a straight line. The Greek word for such conversion is metanoia—which literally means “turning beyond the mind.” When I reflect on heroic leaders from the past—Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, and King for example–I clearly see this pattern of turning around; moving constantly from a former limiting mind(set) to a more noble and heroic one. And though we tend to domesticate our heroes and tell their stories as if they were linear paths, an honest biography of each illustrates how they had to turn around, convert themselves, and constantly move to more elevated forms of living and leading. We should remember this truth as we pursue our own leadership journeys.
Gifts and Blind Spots
As I reflect on my life I see some fundamental development truths that appear common to everyone’s journey. For example, our capacity to possess natural strengths and gifts, while at the same time, possess troubling blind spots and shadows. I am not sure we ever fully correct the blind spots and shadows. Instead, if we are wise and discerning, we learn to befriend the blind spots and incorporate the lessons our flaws can teach us. This is how we become self aware and the source of real wisdom. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I cannot think of a single great leader, someone of profound and enduring significance, who was not a mysterious blend of rare gifts and deep human frailty. What separates these great figures from others was their ability to know their shadows and weaknesses and move into wisdom in the second half of their lives. Consider this: As we move from the first half to the second half of life, the very things we called strengths in our early years can turn out to be faults later if we don’t transform ourselves as people and leaders.
Off Balance
Why is it that our greatest breakthroughs as people and leaders come, paradoxically, not when we are in balance, but often–when we are off balance? Here’s my thoughts. When we are in our comfort zones, a kind of automatic-pilot existence, we become tone-deaf to larger movements in the climate of our lives and work. Then, when we get knocked off balance through some kind of failure or unexpected adversity, our comfort zone is suddenly shattered and our prior support structures vanish. At first, we think this discomfort is debilitating and defeating, but if understood correctly, this feeling of being off balance is usually the time when we awaken to deeper thoughts and necessary changes. This has been so true in my life. I like to think of these off-balance moments as the great teachable spaces in our journey as leaders. It is in the times when our comfort zones are shaken we often find ourselves fully open to change. We may not wish to be off-balance, but interestingly, it is in off-balance moments, in this threshold space, where our greatest teachers reside. So, we must learn to live (and learn) off balance.
The Perpetual Recycler
Here’s an observation: Doesn’t it seem like the most crucial lessons of life and leadership, if not initially learned and mastered, simply keep reappearing in our path over and over? When I look at myself, I see how often leadership experiences constantly recycle back to me those things I need most to learn. Leadership, like life itself, is a perpetual recycler; we will constantly see the same barriers in our path until we learn to finally see, and then internalize, their lessons and their wisdom. When we find ourselves in such a repetitive pattern, this recycling action is a clear sign we have real leadership (and character) blind spots. Just like a person driving a car down a busy highway, blind spots prevent us from seeing truths and facts that are, actually, right there in plain sight. Yet somehow, our lack of awareness prevents us from detecting them. This is why self awareness, reflection, and self control are so vital to heroic leadership. Self awareness is the only means with which to see our blind spots, learn our tendencies, and then let the great recycler finally and fully educate us.
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 June 9th
June 9, 2014 | No Comments »
Born or Made?
Today I am contemplating this question: “Are great leaders born or made?” Though I believe people are born with different inherent attributes, that is just a starting point. In the final analysis, I believe great leaders, like true heroes, are made. Why? Because great leaders are, foremost, great human beings, and they became great people through an arduous and life-long process of self-mastery. Whatever greatness ultimately comes forth from them, it does so from the inside, out. Like a diamond born of coal, the latent greatness must be slowly revealed through the pressure of time, experience, failure, and the constant crossing of growth thresholds. Great leaders are made in the cauldron of life and via the crucible of experience. Those who transform and convert via this crucible become significant; those who whither in this crucible are forgotten. Great leaders must pass through various initiations and rites of passage throughout their lives. Without some defeats and wounds, and necessary conversion, we become prisoner to our ego. Great leaders master themselves. So yes, great leaders are made, not born!
Know Your Lens
When I reflect on great leaders, truly significant people with enduring impact, I see clearly how each one came to possess self mastery in their life. Mastering oneself involves refining and improving one’s paradigm—or lens—which dictates how we see and hear. This is why I try to remind myself—“know your lens.” If we are not self aware, we can become victim to a negative paradigm and thus trapped in a corrosive view of living and leading. Whatever our lens is at the present moment is exactly how we will see and hear everything in which we engage. Our lens determines our biases, our pre-conditions, our agendas, and our preferences. For most of us, if we are not aware of our filters, our lens can be mostly focused on ourselves. This is why some leaders get older in chronological years but never lose their ego-centered lens. This is why it never stops being about themselves. Great leaders, however, learn to become aware of their filters, transform themselves, and consistently clean their lens. People who do not know their filters struggle to become wise leaders.
The Labyrinth
I incorporated the image of a labyrinth into my leadership logo because the mythic maze reminded me of the true nature of leadership. First, leadership is hard and effortful; we all must start in the center of the labyrinth and, through tests and trials, endeavor to make our way through towards excellence. Second, there are no shortcuts or gimmicks in leadership. Much like the hero Theseus trapped in the Cretan labyrinth, the best we can gain are subtle clues. It is up to us to listen for those clues, gain mastery by solving the mysteries of leadership ourselves, and courageously walk the twisting pathways. Third, the labyrinth reminds me that true progress as a leader is never a straight or smooth path. We will not progress as leaders in the shortest route possible. Leadership is a formidable journey of one step forward and two steps back, where paradoxically, the two steps back are often the most important and usually the most instructive. The labyrinth keeps us focused and centered on the leadership path. Fidelity to this labyrinthine path is, in the end, the most crucial ingredient to significance.
Gung Ho
Gung Ho is an Anglicized version of a Chinese phrase picked up by US Marines during duty in China in the early 1900s. Gung Ho conveyed a certain spirit of enthusiasm, and as such, was used to suggest an enthusiasm of working together in physical, mental, spiritual, and psychological harmony. Over time, Gung Ho became a common hallmark phrase in every generation of Marines. I’ve always loved the idea of Gung Ho, as I think it correctly captures the positive impact of individuals willingly choosing to be wholehearted in their efforts. Gung Ho is a necessary reminder to be mindful, fully engaged, and fully enthusiastic in things that matter. The spirit of Gung Ho also reveals one of life’s truest maxims: Anything we do wholeheartedly, in which we give our full measure, brings us the greatest joy and deepest satisfaction. I truly believe people do not get burned out from too much hard work as much as they mentally fatigue, and often quit, when they are involved in half-hearted or mindless pursuits. Purpose and meaning, pursued vigorously, do not tire us, they enliven us. Gung Ho!
Falling and Rising … Loss and Renewal
When we honestly reflect on the life of past great leaders, and comprehend the full arc of their lives, a pattern of falling and rising emerges, not just once, but repeatedly. Can you name one truly great leader, someone of profound significance and enduring excellence, who does not follow this cycle of defeat and re-birth? I can’t. It seems the falling and rising are both necessary to transformation and conversion of great leaders; the falling taught the lessons of the descent; the rising taught the lessons of the ascent. This cycle is the necessary crucible to hammer forth stronger and sturdier character. More importantly, the fall was as important, if not more, than the rise, for as we observe so often, the falling is most often the handmaiden of the birth of our better self and our more heroic leadership. This truth is particularly important because as leaders we don’t like to think of falling or failing. Winning is sexier. But understood correctly, any initial loss, dealt with courageously and with candor, is the very thing leading us to renewal and a higher plane of leadership and wisdom.
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 June 2nd
June 2, 2014 | No Comments »
Internal Compass
The result of cultivating true inner authority is the steady refinement of an internal compass; a “true north” wisdom keeping a leader on a heroic path. And as I reflect on the primacy of developing an inner compass, I believe there are four cardinal points of such a true-north touchstone. First, self mastery. Great leaders are self-aware and thus able to self-regulate, focus attention, and constantly spiral upwards towards excellence and wisdom. Second, a commitment to mentoring. Great leaders attain mastery in all forms, and then—they freely give it away. They focus on enduring significance of the group, not their personal success. Third, they build and maintain deep engagement with the group. They build deep bonds of affection, companionship, camaraderie, and esprit. Finally, great leaders celebrate ethos. By regularly extolling healthy traditions, customs, and rites and rituals, great leaders galvanize an elevated cornerstone of excellence binding generation to generation, and past to present.
Servant Leadership
There’s been much written over the years about the concept of Servant Leadership, about which I am regularly asked my opinion. Like many, I have a natural hesitation to take something as mysterious and truly artful as leadership and reduce it to a finite taxonomy, definition, or praxis. The danger in subscribing to a literal definition of leadership is not that it may be bad, per se, but rather, our unfortunate human tendency to turn a simple theory into overly literal rules and proscriptions. I believe leadership is a master craft that, at best, can be understood akin to a philosophy of life and living. Who we are, ultimately, determines how we lead. However, I do like the mental image that the term Servant Leadership evokes. For me, it suggests a leader who has rightly aligned purpose, actions, and intentions first inward, towards self mastery, and then outward towards the benefit of others. Servant Leadership reminds me of this personal observation: I can’t think of a single great leader in the past, or a truly satisfied person I know now, who wasn’t involved in serving some greater good. Can you?
Stuck
Leaders must learn to intentionally seek activities that break them free of the rat race. When we feel we are mindless in our jobs, we feel stuck. And when stuck, our leadership suffers, as do our followers. One way to break out is to align one’s leadership with a true calling or vocation. If we align our leadership to deep personal callings, meaning, or purpose, then the work begins to feel less like hardship and more like reward. This is the realm of peak experiences and deep satisfaction. Another way to break out is through recreation. Physical fitness and travel have always been deeply refreshing and rejuvenating elements in my life and my leadership, and in retrospect, I can see how deeply these hobbies have truly re-created me. When I work out or travel I always feel genuinely restored, rekindled, and re-awakened. And not just physically, but also mentally, spiritually, and psychologically. Most of my deep thinking, reflection, and self awareness comes when I am recreating. Recreation is therefore essential to sustaining self-mastery and to creating an upward spiral of growth.
Hints and Clues
Great leadership is mysterious and can’t simply be reduced to a set of menus and checklists. I prefer to avoid literal lists because I think that kind of simplistic approach misrepresents leadership as a tactic, instead of representing leadership in its true nature, which is more akin to a master craft. Leadership is hard, requires life-long commitment, and can only be mastered by solving leadership’s mysteries, one at a time, and by oneself. When we talk about truly great leadership, I think the best we can say is, “it is like.” I therefore believe a far more honest and effective way to master leadership is by studying what I call hints and clues…those gems revealed in reflecting on history, myth, legend, lore, metaphor, and parable. When we reflect on leadership mysteries revealed in these non-literal forms, we start to see subtle hints and clues of timeless leadership truths. We detect patterns. Moreover, we are forced to personally wrestle with these hints and clues and harvest the pearls of wisdom found therein. This is the only means to truly internalize the lessons, and thus, the only path for the leader to become the lesson.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of May 27th
May 27, 2014 | No Comments »
Re-Cognition
There really is nothing new about the art of leadership. How can that be, you may be asking yourself, for surely today’s technology and scientific advancements must be changing the nature of leadership? I don’t think so. When it comes to primal leadership–that most basic but mysterious art of creating deep human resonance and influence—I am convinced of this fact: all the foundational truths are already known. What happens unfortunately is these primal truths can sometimes become lost to us. It as if these leadership truths become dormant, pushed underground just out of view, awaiting a wise cultivator to bring them back to vitality. This is the role now, as it always has been, of heroic leaders—to see leadership truths laying there in plain sight and then reawaken them. But awaken them not in some past or romanticized context, but rather, in synch with today’s reality. Thus, all great leadership cognition, in my view, is really re-cognition. Recognition allows us to remember what we’ve always known, but somehow, forgotten, and then rekindle that necessary truth in today’s context.
An Interior Life
At the heart of truly great leadership is a leader who has cultivated a rich interior life. This inner authority, born of self mastery, self discipline, self-regulation, and self-control, is the most crucial ingredient to creating lasting significance as a leader. This is why, when developing leaders, we must start with, and never lose focus of, whom leaders are. Too often, unfortunately, we start with what leaders do, and we omit the much harder work of cultivating self mastery and inner authority. Why do we do this? Because it is much easier to focus on what (other) leaders do rather than focusing on ourselves—which requires brutal honesty about our lives, our paradigms, our motives, and our character. To be great leaders, we must begin with mastering ourselves, and developing an interior life capable of exerting resonant, positive, vibrant, focused, and elevating leadership. Let me conclude with a timeless truth we should never forget: Only leaders with inner authority can use outer authority effectively.
What Needs to be Done?
Sometimes the hardest step in one’s leadership journey is the first one. Where do I start? Where do I focus? I think a great place to start is to ask this question: “What needs to be done?” In my view, this simple question forces one to seek an honest and authentic answer, and then….move into action. Moreover, there are two equally important dimensions to this question, one internal and one external. First, what needs to be done to me (internally)? What do I need to do to prepare myself to be a leader? How do I condition myself to see the world as a leader and commit to a life of leadership action? Second, what needs to be done in the (external) group, community, or society I live and work in? How can I best serve the group and bring my passion to something noble? Once a decision is made to act, momentum is born and one’s purpose is found. And when we find an authentic answer to this simple question, we align ourselves to our true calling—and begin a life of leadership, meaning, and service.
Make This Moment Better
When I contemplate a normal work day, I realize it is really made up by a series of moments, some of which are planned, many of them unplanned. Though our goal as leaders is to master ourselves and thus, master the day, in truth what we are really doing, if we lead effectively, is to make each moment better. The moment is what we are given; what we do with it, makes all the difference. Whatever leadership moment arises, inherent in that moment is this crucial test: What will be the nature and quality of our response? As I reflect on any facet of truly great leadership–in sports, industry, politics, family, community—at the center of great leadership outcomes is a mindful leader focused on making this moment better. This truth is important to embrace because the reality is….most of us will not lead on a global or national stage. Instead, we will be called to lead far from the bright lights and great arenas. Our significance will be tested, and made, in the consistency and quality of our responses, to the smallest of things. And our obligation? To take each moment and make it better.
Escaping the Cacophony
I saw a cartoon the other day in which the main character was in a room, surrounded by hundreds of simultaneously ringing alarm clocks and whistles, as this poor soul tried to concentrate but could only wilt under the maddening cacophony of irritating sounds and distractions. In some ways, this image could well represent the modern office setting with its non-stop bombardment of texts, emails, tweets, “likes,” phone calls, and myriad other interruptions. This is just the way it is, you say? Well, for leaders, is shouldn’t be, because we know from experience that constant interruption and mindless busyness are the enemies of masterful leadership. Peak leadership emerges from cultivating quiet time; finding places of solitude to detach from busyness, read and think deeply, and summon deeper knowing. Great leaders must find time for sustained concentration, which allows for focused attention, to truly breakout of, and through, the mindless cacophony of busyness and into the rarer air of deep knowing and wise action.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of May 19th
May 19, 2014 | No Comments »
Nothing for Nothing
Today I am reflecting on this question: As leaders, what brings us great satisfaction and gratitude? I think this is a particularly important question to contemplate because we live in a society coveting instant gratification and easy answers. I keep coming back to this answer: People don’t ultimately respect anything they get for nothing. Anything we get easily or without personal sacrifice becomes a chimera, and ultimately, an illusion. What history seems to teach us (consider the basic theme of all hero tales) is this timeless truth: true satisfaction and gratitude are only discovered once we’ve paid our dues. Privileges, rights, and entitlements, to be properly understood and maturely governed, must first be earned. If these entitlements are given freely, they actually become destructive. To build heroic, responsible, and wise character, one’s character must first be tested. It is like metal that emerges from a cauldron. There is no other way, it seems. So, we must re-learn this necessary lesson: We will never respect nothing we get for nothing.
Bound Up
How can leaders today create a feeling of being bound up to something that is deeply inspiring for the groups we lead? How can leaders create faithfulness and elevation in our vocations? I offer four ideas. First, Create Meaning. Our minds are drawn to reason, but our souls are drawn to meaning. Second, Instill Ethos. A healthy ethos answers for its members these three crucial questions: Who are we? Why do we exist? What do we do? Third, Celebrate Traditions. Healthy traditions, rituals, and rites get us out of our heads and into our hearts—where all true greatness resides. And fourth, Teach Greater Patterns. Return to simplicity and see greater patterns of wisdom and excellence. Leaders must create the conditions of fidelity and companionship. This is soul work, not head work. This is cultivation, not engineering. This is hard, intentional, deeply personal work. But when leaders do this well, magic happens.
Master Your Space
I am often asked, “what is the most important thing I can do as an emerging leader?” My answer: Master your space! I believe this answer reveals two timeless truths of great leadership: One, great leadership ultimately rests on self leadership; and second, the scope of leadership challenge is not what ultimately counts, it is the consistency and quality of the response, even in the smallest things. Master your space places a clear obligation on the individual leader to be accountable. Wherever one lands, that is one’s space to lead, develop, cultivate, and foster. The scope of responsibility really doesn’t matter; what matters most is being accountable for that space and for everything that happens within that space, good or bad. When we hold ourselves accountable to mastering our space, we place healthy demands upon ourselves. We need a place of accountable community; a home plate to touch each day and remind us of our obligations. It is one thing to believe in excellence, it is far more important to be accountable for being excellent. Master your space.
Positive Example
A frequent question I’m asked is this: “How should one deal with a senior leader, or organizational climate, that is bad/weak/negative?” The human tendency when confronted with a less-than-stellar leader or climate is to rail against the weakness we perceive. Let’s be honest…sometimes is just feels good to vent and demonize. But if we are also honest, we must admit that any time we take on negative energy frontally, and directly, a destructive thing happens: we end up absorbing the negative energy and become negative ourselves. Instead of solving the problem, we actually infect ourselves, and those around us, with toxic and corrosive energy. A wiser and more effective approach is to attack negativity indirectly. How so? By calmly and quietly modeling the excellence you wish to see. It sounds trite to say it this way, but I find this to be axiomatic: The best correction of the bad is the modeling of the better. In this way, one’s positive example becomes an alternative–a new path. And if modeled consistently, this positive energy can create the momentum to actually change the environment.
Side by Side
Today I am reflecting on companionship and camaraderie. I am contemplating this: what is it that develops deep bonds of mutual affection, fidelity, and unity to a degree that far surpasses basic workplace familiarity? In my experience, it is mutual sacrifice, elevated and transcendent meaning, and here’s the final and most interesting part: toiling together in pursuit of a grand ambition. I truly believe we cultivate true companionship, such as I experienced as a US Marine, when we walk side-by-side with those we serve. For men in particular, it seems the alchemy of real bonding occurs much more prominently in doing rather than in talking. There is something magical that happens when people physically walk, run, or strive side-by-side, toiling and persevering towards a distant and challenging objective. This bonding affect is true in sports and the military, and can be replicated in boardrooms and offices if we create opportunities for people to toil physically, side by side. This arm-to-arm bonding produces a kind of rare companionship found in great organizations.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of May 12th
May 12, 2014 | No Comments »
Symbols and Stories
I just reviewed the top blog posts on several leadership sites because I wanted to see how many articles focused on reducing their leadership topics to a checklist or menu. You know the type, they are usually titled “The six steps for….,” or “The five characteristics of…,” or, “The 8 essential truths of such and such.” Here’s the problem with this checklist-style format: It creates a false paradigm that leadership is a tactic and can be reduced to basic checklists, menus, and to-do lists. This leads us away from the greater truth about leadership, and leaders, which is this: Leadership is a master craft, and leaders master craftsman, and therefore great leadership is a lifelong journey based mainly on gaining self mastery. Instead of reducing leadership to self-help jargon, we’re infinitely better conceiving of leadership, and teaching it, through forms like symbols, stories, legends, metaphor, myth, and parables. Why? Because these forms convey much deeper and timeless truths and, more importantly, these forms force the aspiring leader to wrestle with these truths, solve the mysteries anew, and appropriate the truth for themselves.
Reduced and Disconnected
In our modern world, a harsh reality leaders will have to increasingly deal is a growing sense of disconnection, diminishment, and reductionism in our society. As our society becomes more segmented and dispersed through technology, leaders may find their followers at a loss for trustworthy and timeless absolutes. It is as if we have slowly lost healthy criteria to anchor us and cohere to, such as norms, boundaries, and archetypes. When we lose these absolutes, we become adrift, unconfident, and trapped in small, private worlds dominated by personal voices and personal choices. Everything becomes relative. Not the stuff of greatness! Every generation can be caught in its own limiting quicksand. It has been heroic leaders throughout history who have broken this trap by reconstructing the climate in which people live and work. Today, the surest way for leaders to move out of a reduced and disconnected paradigm and into a more elevated and expansive one is to care about, and teach, greater stories, larger histories, soaring virtues, and wiser thinkers.
A Quest
I am convinced the study of leadership is best approached not from seeking easy answers, but from asking the hard questions. Here’s why. When we focus on getting easy answers, what we mostly end up with is a thin gruel of checklists, menus, formulas, and gimmicks which, though admittedly neat and tidy, tend to generate mediocrity. This focus on easy answers and self-help leadership results in a cottage industry of lots of people with lots of thin answers. Doubt this is true? Walk through a bookstore and peruse the Business Section, paying close attention to the titles and subtitles of the offerings. So, what is a wiser approach? To be on a quest; a purposeful, mindful, and intentional path of inquiry that looks first for the hard, vexing questions about leadership and followership. We have to learn to live for a time without all the easy answers, and work through the discomfort of searching but not yet knowing. Isn’t it interesting that the words quest and question share the same root?
Being Conscientious
Truly excellent leadership requires the admixture of two different, yet equally crucial, abilities: one, the ability to think in terms of system-level and strategic context; and two, the ability to focus and execute with laser-like intentionality. Today, I am reflecting on the latter; the ability to execute. So, what quality allows great leaders to remain mindful, intentional, and purposeful, even amidst the maelstrom of change, and execute their plans? I believe the answer is conscientiousness! Great leaders cultivate within themselves deep self mastery, self discipline, and personal resolve. To be conscientious requires deep habituation—an almost DNA-level mastery—which ingrains deep within one’s character qualities like organization, self regulation, self control, determination, punctuality, and resilience. We each may be born with different amounts of conscientiousness, but regardless of what we are born with, we can, and must, cultivate more, if we want to be truly great and impactful leaders.
Experience
I often state this observation publically when I teach: I have mastered nothing as a leader as a result of studying a list, menu, recipe, or formula. Yes, these lists are tidy and fine things in themselves, but I cannot truthfully say any of them ever fully educated me as a leader. Why? Because lists and menus cannot convert us; only experience can. And it is only through the cauldron of experience that we can unlock the mysteries of leadership, own the knowledge, and gain self mastery. Even when I think of this topic in a historical context, I cannot think of a single great leader, someone truly significant, who came to greatness by simply studying a list of “to do’s” or following a prescribed menu of attributes. Until we are forced to navigate the actual rocks and hard places of leadership experience, we remain outside true transformation. Great leadership cannot be gained simply as an intellectual exercise; it must be gained by going into the desert of experience and emerging, transformed.
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