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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the week of May 5th
May 5, 2014 | No Comments »
Holding Tension
Leadership is inherently stressful. Stress creates anxiety and tension within the leader and also within the groups we lead. This sense of tension is even more pronounced today due to social media, 24-hour news cycles, and the constant connectedness of modern living. Because “high anxiety” is a natural state of modern life I believe leaders need to be acutely aware of this fact: The higher one moves up in leadership responsibility and position, the greater the need for that leader to be able to hold anxiety and tension. A leader must live in the midst of the anxiety and, through disciplined self-regulation, make wise decisions while holding the tension. Too often leaders react to tension with a fight-or-flight mode, and when they do–they implode. When leaders lose their ability to self-regulate they emit a toxic by-product in the form of bankrupt, weak, and undisciplined behavior. Great leaders develop an ability to hold tension and govern themselves effectively in a whirlwind of anxiety, much like a seasoned skipper at the ship’s controls on a roiling sea.
A Necessary Teacher
Watching TV recently, I decided to count the number of commercials focusing on some form of pain relief or self-help gimmick. I stopped counting after twenty. This observation made me realize we have very little tolerance for temporary failure, inconvenience, or pain. Now to be clear–I am not suggesting anyone welcome these things with open arms; however, I do believe there is such as thing as necessary failure and necessary pain. We often fail, or feel pain, because we are off track, off balance, or somehow misaligned with a healthy course of living. I have found the wise aphorism, which states “wherever you fall, there lies your teacher”–to be so true and so full of wise counsel. Failure, properly understood, often transforms us if we allow ourselves to be open to its lessons. Failure is a necessary teacher. In our society, though, we often don’t tolerate temporary pain or discomfort long enough to learn its lessons. If we can cultivate hardiness and resilience in ourselves, and trust the temporary pain of setback or loss, we just might avail ourselves to the lessons we need most to hear and see.
Initiation
As a young boy, I enjoyed reading about Native American warriors. One facet I really admired was their tradition of rites of initiation. This warrior society understood that young men would not naturally move beyond adolescence, beyond their self-centered private worlds, without being ritually forced to do so. Something had to be done “to them” to force the break from adolescence and invite movement into responsible adulthood. Sometime during a young warrior’s teenage years, he’d be forced to go on a quest—literally breaking out of the normal tribal life—and seek his new identity in the barren plains or desert. And interestingly, he was often mentored in this quest by his uncle or another wise elder in the group, someone whom had made a similar quest in the past. These rituals of initiation were the means through which the society ensured the creation of wise and responsible elders. Today, I reflect on our society and wonder: how can leaders rekindle this need for healthy initiation and rites of passage to guide emerging leaders in their growth and to create within our society a reservoir of wise elders?
Travel
When I was in high school I had a teacher who constantly extolled the benefit of travel. He implored us to do whatever it took, throughout our lives, to regularly break the rhythm of our routines and see the larger world. Looking back I see his advice not only for its basic wisdom, but interestingly, also for its relevance to leadership. Here’s why: Traveling removes us from our parochial views and through exploration of new places, cultures, and challenges, helps us see things through a larger, more expansive lens. I honestly can’t name one leader whom I would call truly exceptional who did not possess such an expansive view, and with it, an ability to see the great and enduring patterns of history, and then lead out of this elevating mindset. This wanderlust—a natural desire to wander, explore, and see the larger world—is one of the surest ways leaders can learn to see in new ways and capture larger horizons. Traveling is much like reading history: it creates an expansive paradigm through which leaders gain a clear(er) vision of ones life, purpose, and a commitment to heroic aspiration.
Expectation
On my desk at work I keep a quote attributed to Plains Indian Warriors whom, as legend has it, reportedly started their day with the following exhortation to their sons: “Today is a good day to do great things.” I keep this quote within easy glance because it reminds me of the daily need to retain positive expectation. I increasingly find at the heart of great leadership and championship performance is an unquenchable expectation for great things. Without soaring ambition, without majestic expectation, our default set point often devolves to inertia and doing things as we always have. Status quo, even when destructive and depressing, can become strangely comfortable when it becomes routine. Great leaders expect excellence and are stirred by heroic impulses. We need some great cause, some majestic purpose, that calls forth from us the hero within. And for the groups we lead, we need to point to a future end state similarly defined by elevating and grand ambition. So….master the day. Today, and everyday, is truly a good day to do great things.
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 28th
April 28, 2014 | No Comments »
Hardiness
In watching the news I’ve become aware we are becoming a more fragile people; easily bruised, readily offended, and lacking in healthy confidence. So today I am contemplating hardiness; what is it that makes individuals, and groups, resilient? I believe the answer is mental toughness–knowing you can take a hit, move through the pain and be transformed by it, and then bounce back without sacrificing your honor, virtue, and courage. Mental toughness—the ability to focus, operate under duress, and press through pain thresholds—is both a state of mind and a habit. So, what is the lesson in this for leaders? We must develop mental toughness in ourselves first, and then cultivate it in those we lead. And the benefit if we do? We transform ourselves from fragile, brittle, easily-offended people into resilient, confident, and hardy folk who understand there is such a thing as necessary suffering and, if we endure suffering heroically, the abyss actually transforms our raw elements into gold.
Feeling Our Past in the Wind
I am often asked why I use myth, legend, lore, and history in almost all of my leadership teaching. A valid question, for it is easy to believe today, given the exponential speed of change and the globalizing effect of interconnected economies, that history doesn’t matter any more. I disagree. Great cultures have always had at their core a deep, vibrant, and acute awareness of their perennial knowledge–where they came from; how they got here; on whose example they relied for heroic guidance; and the rejuvenating wisdom that flowed from this broad arc of perspective. I equate this sense of history as being able to feel our past in the wind. Yes, we still move forward into the future and towards the horizon; however, as we do march forward we remain respectful of our part in the greater patterns to which we belong and on which we rely for wisdom. We need to remind ourselves via this historical lens that, yes, we have been here before, and yes, we can succeed again. Great leaders study history, uncover its patterns, and confidently feel their past in the wind.
Tuning Out
If I detach for a moment and observe the normal frenzy around me I become acutely aware how hyper-stimulated we are as a people and a society. 24-hour news cycles, cell phones that never power off, sound bites that drone across the web page, and a torrent of text messages and tweets. I raise this observation not to criticize technology. It is amazing, yes. However, I don’t believe deep insight, wisdom, or elevating leadership ever emerged from such a state of over stimulation. Hyper-stimulation only produces episodic reality—a state of being where right here, right now, is worthy of attention only until the next tweet rolls in. Is this stimulation fun? Maybe, yes. Is it capable of calling forth great leadership? No. I believe history teaches us that self-mastery, transformation, and genuine growth actually comes from silence and contemplation; from being under-stimulated. It is in occasional solitude that deep thoughts emerge, penetrating insight becomes possible, and wisdom reveals itself. So I remind myself daily: power off and tune out to make room for insight, thinking, and reflection.
Boundaries and Limitations
One of the truths I believe we are rediscovering after more than a half-century of “If it feels good, just do it” is the absolute need for healthy boundaries and limitations in the maturation of youth. It is essential we provide young leaders solid boundaries such as a clear sense of identity, a reverence for tradition, and an appreciation for self-discipline and personal accountability. Though it may feel good to begin without such boundaries, what our generation, who came of age in the 60’s and 70’s, knows all too well is a lack of boundaries just creates a lot of aimlessness and reactionary living. Just ask my dad about me! This is why I have always loved mythology and hero tales because these archetypal stories always show the hero starting out with firm boundaries and solid limitations (he’s an idealist at heart), and it is only when he is ready for the quest, and transformed by it, that he is able to move into a world of nuance and less boundaries. The hero needed early boundaries to prepare him for a later life of wisdom. Wise leaders must set boundaries and limitations to likewise guide the ascent of their emerging leaders.
Healthy Traditions
In my youth I had little interest in, or patience for, traditions. Instead, my gaze fell mostly upon the ladder I was climbing while pursuing my personal ambitions. Though surrounded with lots of healthy traditions—family rituals, church rites, sports icons, and later, the rich ethos of the US Marine Corps—it wasn’t until later I came to appreciate the role of traditions in my life. Traditions are not some pesky, antiquated leftovers from a by-gone era; they are the vibrant reminders of deep wisdom and enduring truth. Healthy traditions guide us as more effectively than any modern signpost we could create because traditions help move us from the circumference of life to the center of meaning. Moreover, healthy traditions convey a sense of timeless authority, helping us see a trustworthy bond linking generation to generation. Consider for an example this simple yet eminently powerful tradition: the family dinnertime meal. Healthy traditions teach, they instruct, and they inform, and when activated purposely by leaders, traditions give us a sense of belonging to something greater than 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 21st
April 21, 2014 | No Comments »
Being Intentional
I learned early as a Marine Officer the necessity of intent; the obligation of a leader to purposely describe compelling end states and objectives. As leaders, we must be very intentional in, and about, our leadership. Being intentional is for me a kind of mindfulness; knowing ourselves, being aware of the moment and the need, and then being very intentional about actions, focus, and energy. Too often we idolize concepts, theories, and plans and never move from this intellectual state. Great leaders develop an ability to start with vision but then move purposely into intentional action. We must be deliberate in our life and in our leadership. Yes, vision is necessary–it places us over the horizon to pull us forward. But once clear on that future azimuth, we must then return to the present—to a state of deliberate, mindful, and intentional action. Being intentional is to be mindful of our purpose and our end states; the opposite would be mindlessness and incoherence. Great leaders are deeply intentional and mindful; it is the only way to become great.
Greater Patterns
An essential thing heroic leaders do is lift us out of our private worlds and into the greater patterns of excellence and wisdom. When I reflect on heroic performance in any endeavor, a key ingredient to excellence is a leader intentionally binding individuals to a broader and more expansive view of history. The greater patterns are those heroic, transcendent, and archetypal examples that have and always will define excellence of behavior and performance. Things like service, sacrifice, reverence, obedience to something larger than self, fidelity, courage, and wisdom. These greater patterns remind us that we are truly part of a larger world–a grand parade. Today’s leaders must be particularly aware of this need to bind their people to greater patterns, because we live in a society defined by episodic living, present-tense context, and a narrowing focus on private feelings. Reading about and reflecting on heroes is one particularly effective way to connect to greater patterns, greater minds, and elevating models, which helps us break free from the tyranny of me and bind us instead to the power of we.
Creating Coherence
One of the surest signs of excellence in a group is the presence of coherence—a tangible sense of shared intentionality, unity or purpose, and deep bonds. When I reflect on how leaders best create coherence, here is what comes to mind. First, explain symbols, icons, and archetypes. A flourishing group has a living sense of its deeper truths and enduring wisdom—what we might call its “collective unconscious.” Leaders should weave symbols and icons into their speeches, stories, and gatherings to cultivate shared identity. Second, teach traditions. By incorporating rituals, rites, and ceremonies into the organizational fabric leaders can leverage powerful tools to teach traditions to emerging generations. Healthy rites of passage reinforce obligations and accountability. Third, celebrate customs and courtesies. By celebrating customs and courtesies, leaders can publically express shared values, promote shared beliefs, galvanize group identity, and create a feeling of positive healthy exceptionalism—a hallmark of championship performance.
A Sense of Community
When I look at those experiences in my life providing the greatest feeling of meaning I see a common thread, which is: a sense of community. Whether neighborhood bonds as a child; championship sports teams; unit excellence in the Marine Corps; or the current creative energy on our Callan Course team—at the heart of these peak experiences is a foundation of community and companionship. I believe this reflects two vital truths for leaders. First, it is leaders who must create these conditions–a kind of rich soil of shared intent and elevating meaning–from which community can emerge and flourish. Second, once this sense of community is created, it is the obligation of mindful leaders to cultivate companionship and deep mutual affection to galvanize solid bonds of fidelity between members. Private, individual dreams will never reach the level of excellence compared to shared dreams and common goals. The highest satisfaction a leader can get is to recognize one’s hand in helping create a community of companions, rooted in deep meaning, and aspiring to great things.
Awesome
One of the truths becoming clearer to me by the day is that leadership, done honorably and with fidelity, is truly awesome. I say this not in terms of superficial fun or trivial pleasure, but from the perspective of being involved in a majestic, elevating, truly peak experience. I believe we must always remind ourselves we still live in an enchanted world—a world still made better by good people doing small but great things. As leaders, we should view our roles as mentors, guides, and way finders with a healthy dose of awe. Think of this: What more profound undertaking, what more virtuous and necessary role is there than to devote oneself to leading and teaching others? And with this commitment to leading, consider the endless possibilities to be unlocked and released in terms of human potential, companionship, and excellence. As Native American warriors would say to their sons each morning as they set out across the Plains: “Today is a good day to do great things.”
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 14th
April 14, 2014 | No Comments »
Simplicity
As I look back over the arc of my life, one of the patterns I now see emerging is a growing appreciation for simplicity. As a young leader, I was enamored with sophistication; If a one-page mission statement was good, then two-pages must be better; If a five minute verbal brief was good, then a ten-minute version must be better. This mania for complexity is a natural pitfall for young leaders. What I now realize is that the beautiful, flowery, and glitzy communications I wrote were, in reality, only beautiful to me. I now find myself drawn to simplicity; a return to simpler language, simpler concepts, and simpler explanations. I find simplicity to be the backbone of the language of leadership. Our goal is not to impress, but to resonate; not to bewilder, but to clarify; not to confound, but to inspire. Simplicity and clarity are the antidotes for confusion, inertia, and incoherence. Simplicity does not mean simplistic; it means concise, unadorned intent capable of revealing the truth laying there in plain sight.
A Place to Stand
The ancient Greek theorist Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever, and I will move the world.” Thought of as a leadership metaphor, the place to stand represents the leader’s foundation; who are we in terms of character, virtues, values, self mastery, and self discipline. The lever represents the leadership influence we dispense; is it effective, resonant, and elevating? And the world represents the group we are trying to influence; what are their aspirations, fears, beliefs? All three are ultimately important, as together they represent masterful leadership; however, where we must start if we want to be truly heroic leaders is developing ourselves—that firm place to stand. We must anchor ourselves on firm ground via the development of inner authority, vital experiences, and timeless wisdom. Only with this firm and dependable place to stand can we then develop a trusted lever and an authentic fulcrum from which to connect with and inspire those we lead.
Submitting to Classic Disciplines
One leadership truth we seem to have forgotten in our modern world and desperately need to reawaken is the need for healthy submission. Classic wisdom teaches that willing submission to something greater than ourselves, and to time-tested disciplines that bring about authentic mastery, is necessary for excellence. Today, we seem to have developed not just an appetite for instant gratification, but an addiction to it. We act as if we no longer expect to have to submit to mastering ourselves, and mastering the disciplines that unlock greatness from inside, out. Consider a master painter. Classically, the aspiring artist would spend decades enduring the tests and trials of perfecting his craft until, after enduring this crucible, he finally internalized the wisdom to be genuinely called a master craftsman. Today, we prefer to avoid such discipline and avoid submitting to this necessary journey and instead just throw paint against the canvas and call ourselves artists. The former reflects deep insight and timelessness, the latter—superficial self expression and episodic mediocrity. Great leaders submit to timeless wisdom.
Mindset
People often ask me this key question with regard to developing leaders: “Where should one start?” My answer is always the same: Start with mindset! Too often, and I believe incorrectly, leadership development starts with a focus on what leaders should know and what leaders should do. Yes, this is admittedly important stuff. However, a far more important foundation and a truer starting point in developing leaders is to focus on who leaders are. We have to start with paradigm–how to see ourselves as leaders, and how to see the world like a leader. To teach leaders the ability to see correctly and develop a heroic leader’s mindset, we must start by grounding in these truths: (a) I am a leader and I am always leading; (b) leadership is a way of life, not an act; (c) great leadership starts with self-leadership; (d) self-leadership is based on self-mastery; (e) self-mastery is built on self-discipline, and; (f) the ultimate test of great leadership is to become significant, to become the lesson. If we can teach young leaders to see correctly—to manage their leadership mindset—all else will take care of itself.
Questions, Not Answers
Too often in our pursuit of developing leadership we seek easy answers. We look for answer keys, menus, and checklists. I have found, paradoxically, that the truth in leadership is often found not in looking for answers, but in asking the right questions. When we reduce leadership to a simple answer key, we create a dumbed-down paradigm that falsely implies that leadership can be reduced to rote memorization. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like all master crafts, leadership is at its core a mystery; a kind of wisdom seeing that must be unlocked by each aspiring leader. It is only through solving the mystery oneself that wisdom can then be appropriated, deeply known, and then personally owned. We must therefore seek out the right questions and wrestle with them. Consider these: Why do people willingly follow? Given a choice, who would we chose to follow, and why? Why do some people choose to relinquish self interest and move to group interest? Why do others not? What are the true levers of passion and motivation? What are the catalysts of camaraderie, esprit, and companionship?
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 7th
April 7, 2014 | No Comments »
Self Mastery – Part II
A key component to self-mastery is self discipline. I believe truly great leaders apportion both time and energy to a disciplined control, regulation, and cultivation of their character. I believe there are three core elements of self discipline—think of them as investment zones or orientations, that distinguish great leaders from good ones. First, one must invest time and energy towards the future. This is what I call leadership projection. We must define the answers to these questions: What is it that we seek to become, and do, and leave as a legacy? Second, one must invest time and energy in the present—what I call leadership action. Leadership is an intentional set of actions that, like a muscle, must be constantly honed and strengthened. Each day, leaders should seek opportunities to practice, prepare, and perfect their leadership craft. Finally, one must invest time and energy towards the past. This is called leadership reflection. We must look at our behavior, performance, or lack thereof, and then courageously glean lessons learned to constantly transform ourselves. Self discipline is thus the means to self mastery.
Conversion
Conversion is a term I use describing the developmental journey of leaders. I focus on conversion because, as a concept, it naturally suggests an inner journey and self-mastery as critical prerequisites for leading others. The term conversion means “turning around,” which implies that to convert oneself there is at once both a turning away from something no longer effective and also a turning towards a new and more effective state of being. When leaders stay on the hero’s path, focusing on self-mastery and the perfection of their leadership craft, they will inevitably go through many conversions in their life. And what I have found in my own experience to be most catalytic in bringing forth positive conversions are experiences. It is experiences, felt deeply, which convert us and shape us, not concepts or ideas. All growth I have made as a leader, whether as a US Marine or as a leader in the private sector, has come through the crucible of experience and the cauldron of real life. Every person must solve for themselves the mysteries of leadership, and through personal experience, appropriate those truths so that they genuinely own the wisdom. Once owned and truly foundational to our character, this wisdom then becomes an authentic expression of who we are, how we live, and how we lead.
The Old Dusty Road
When I was enduring Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, our senior drill instructor always referred to the “old dusty road.” The old dusty road represented the grand parade of all Marines and the common tapestry of experience, tradition, and ethos that bound us together. I now see the wisdom of this metaphor. The old dusty road was meant to teach us that the private self was really an illusion and if we wanted to do something truly special, we’d have to leave behind our private world and orient instead to common purpose and selfless action. The old dusty road, like a great flowing river, was bigger than ourselves. Our solemn objective was thus to get on the old dusty road, stay on it, and be part of this grand parade. You see, on the old dusty road metaphorically marched every Marine who had ever served, and the last thing you ever wanted to do was let those other Marines down. Staying true to the old dusty road became a sacred obligation. It represented one’s responsibility to uphold the timeless essence of being a Marine, and in so doing—upheld the essential meaning of Semper Fidelis. We need more old dusty roads in our world.
Meaning
When I observe people and organizations from all walks of life and all sectors of business, I become increasingly convinced that what separates those who are satisfied and positive from those who are dissatisfied and negative, is meaning. One could say that, today, our society suffers from a lack of coherent meaning—a kind of crisis of meaning…which makes us feel unconfident, adrift, and fragmented. In the past, truly great societies and organizations always had an elevated core, a solid center of meaning, to which they were gladly reverent and willingly obedient; a common purpose creating a deep wellspring of shared intent and camaraderie. In my experience, deep meaning is found in the ethos of the group. It is ethos that describes for us the true meaning of our lives, our actions, and our aspirations. Ethos provides an elevated meaning—a deeper voice of wisdom, a greater pattern of excellence, and a larger truth capable of pulling us out of our private worlds and into the sphere of truly heroic ambition. Therefore, a sacred obligation of all leaders is to create meaning within our groups that elevates, creates awe, and results in peak experiences. Meaning is what ignites passion, unleashes excellence, creates confident and vibrant people, and allows us to bring cohesion to an otherwise disoriented world.
Enthusiasm
An unfortunate truth about today’s society is our incessant focus on what we are against, opposed to, or upset about. It seems we’ve become a society of highly offended, aggrieved, unhappy, and unhealthy people. Lots of negative energy refracted through a negative prism. The problem is, nothing great, majestic, or elevating was ever created from negative energy. Greatness comes from enthusiasm; from being “for” something. Heroic leaders must therefore break through current limitations, inertia, and malaise and point to what is possible, ennobling, and necessary to move us to the high ground. It is an unfortunate part of human nature that we get a strange satisfaction from complaining, bemoaning, and airing our petty grievances; however, great leaders know that being stuck in this negative energy will only make us more toxic and more feeble. Heroic performance will always be anchored in being positively “for” something, which is why Emerson reminded us, “Nothing great is achieved without enthusiasm.”
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 March 31st
March 31, 2014 | No Comments »
Falling and Rising
I often use boxing metaphors in teaching leadership, not the least of which is the image of a fighter having been knocked to the mat, confronted with the decision to either stay down or get back up. The tendency in this image is to focus only on the getting up, which is admittedly very important if one wishes to become a champion. However, what we often forget is the fall; there are lessons learned in falling down. Therefore, In this metaphor there are two equally important elements: The fall and the rise. One teaches us about descent, the other, ascent. Leaders need to perform both with courage and dignity. When we fall, we often do so because we are unprepared. Experience is like that; it provides the lesson before we are ready. However, in the fall are often found our most important lessons. The descent is necessary to teach us how to endure the pain of the fall to open ourselves to conversion and to cultivate resilience. If we endure the pain of the fall and let it transform us, we then can rise anew as a better fighter. Both the descent and ascent are necessary to heroic leadership.
Crossing Thresholds & Rites of Passage
In the past, traditional societies knew youth would not willingly leave the nest of adolescence without being positively guided to leave their comfort zones and enter the new world of responsible adulthood. The principle way societies accomplished these threshold crossings was via rites of passage–usually involving a physical removal of the person from the old group and setting the individual on a kind of quest that would physically and emotionally signal this message: “You are leaving your old world and crossing over into a new one.” Today, we have largely forgotten the need for threshold crossings and the vital role rites of passage play in guiding young people to become mature, responsible, and accountable. In my life, Marine Boot Camp was such a rite of passage…a healthy and vibrant ritual that positively converted me and others from self-centered people into transformed leaders attuned to greater patterns of excellence and responsibility. So we must ask this question: What rites of passage can we incorporate today, in our groups, to help emerging leaders cross necessary thresholds and grow as individuals?
Right Action
Another core element of our Heroic Leadership philosophy is right action. I usually align aspiration with right action, as I think the former is the necessary first step—we must first aspire to noble purposes. But too often in leadership, people don’t follow through with the necessary next step—right action. Aspiring to great deeds without right action is folly, and ultimately, creates a hollow promise. Right action requires judgment and courage; judgment to see right from wrong, and the courage to act, even when that action is not popular or in the majority opinion. Right action is therefore a leadership habit—a personal conviction to move from thought into intentional action to affect a necessary end state. The operative word here is intentional—a conscious and deliberate action. See something that is true? Uphold it. See something wrong? Correct it. See someone who needs help? Assist them. See a mission needing to be done? Lead it. Right action is the muscle activating our purpose, vision, and convictions.
Commitment to Something Greater than Self
The fourth and final element of Heroic Leadership is commitment to something greater than self. This is the most important element because it calls on us to be utterly selfless and willing to sacrifice self gain for the greater and enduring good. This element reminds me of this fundamental truth in my life and in my leadership experiences: All great satisfaction, reward, and joy comes from group achievement, not individual achievement. For example, imagine climbing a high mountain and doing it alone. You train for weeks, make numerous attempts, and then, after many arduous trials, you finally reach the summit. You feel great, right? Now, consider the exact same challenge only this time you are doing it with many people. Imagine reaching the summit as a group and sense how significantly different is that feeling of satisfaction, bonding, and camaraderie. Our souls are called to deep meaning. And it is leaders committed to greater goals—purposes greater than oneself– that pulls us out of our heads and into our hearts and draws us out of our private worlds and into the more heroic ambition of group achievement.
Self-Mastery – Part I
The most important component to becoming a Heroic Leader is self mastery—the constant cultivation of character, wisdom, self regulation, vitality, and effectiveness. Self mastery is the essential grounding allowing us to develop inner authority. With inner authority, we can then, and only then, truly resonate with others and exert outer influence. To remind myself of the need for self mastery, I created a model I call The Archer’s Stance. This image of a master archer, upright, centered on the target, with bow and arrow drawn and at the ready, reminds me of this truth in leadership: Great leaders, like this expert marksman, must first attend to centering themselves in order to put the arrows of affect center mass on the target. Are the quality of the bow and arrow important? Sure. But nothing will more truly dictate the quality and consistency of marksmanship than the self-mastery of the shooter. The same is true in leadership; nothing will make us more effective leaders of others, than the ability to effectively lead 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 March 24th
March 24, 2014 | No Comments »
Ethos – Part II
Ethos provides the group what Adolf Bastian called “elementary ideas,” such as: Who are we? Why do we exist? What do we do? And what do we stand for? The answers to these elementary ideas must be provided by the leader to the group, and must be introduced early and sustained often to create an ethos affect within the group. When leaders cultivate a vibrant ethos they create a positive binding function—an almost cellular-level knowing of the groups identity, core purpose, and guiding principles. In this way, ethos is like great poetry; it evokes deep feelings, invites movement, and galvanizes shared intent. I have found in my experience as a US Marine, an organization anchored deeply in ethos, that the stories, legends, and morals linked to ethos are heard clearly, easily, and seamlessly by every new generation that enters–because good ethos transcends time and place and represents a larger pattern of wisdom. When a group’s ethos works, which it does so well in the Corps, no one has to be told what the stories mean, what the symbols stand for, or why the traditions matter. They know, deeply and intuitively.
Heroic Performance
I believe there are two true ways to create heroic performance: (1) Great companionship or (2) great mutual sacrifice. To move out of our limited, self-centered worlds we must be forced to cross thresholds and we need crucibles to move us across those thresholds. When involved in pursuits creating genuine companionship–deep mutual affection and soulful bonds–the quality of this companionship transforms us from self-interest to group-interest. Similarly, great mutual suffering does the same thing. When groups strive together and toil together for a grand end state, and if first they fail, the suffering felt by that failure, if used positively, can also convert the group. At the heart of companionship and suffering is this common thread: Sacrifice! And it is through sacrifice that we make the experience sacred. Once rendered sacred, we are now operating on a much higher plane of performance. Does this sound like boot camp, a crucible event, or other rigorous rite of passage? It should, because it is these feelings of companionship and sacrifice that transform individuals and elevate teams from good to legendary.
Noble Purpose
One of the elements of Heroic Leadership is Noble Purpose. Purpose answers the critical “why” of our mission and objectives. Armed with purpose we can understand the end state of our aspirations and actions, which provides a compelling mental image of our group in a future context. A noble purpose is necessary to ignite passion, invite excellence, and inspire motivation because all truly noble pursuits are inherently elevating and catalytic. Humans instinctively desire to excel, strive, and be part of peak experiences; they just need to find a compelling purpose. When leaders provide their groups with a noble purpose, we move them out of their heads and into their hearts–from the circumference to the center of meaning–and call forth their highest ambitions. John Wooden, legendary coach at UCLA, was such a leader. Coach Wooden’s devotion to noble purpose, as exemplified by his life and leadership philosophy, transcended simple X’s and O’s and crossed into the realm of truly heroic leadership.
Honorable Aspiration
The second element of Heroic Leadership is Honorable Aspiration. Aspiring is about seeing; where do we need to go? What can we become? Aspiring to great deeds pulls us out of our private, selfish, and limited worlds and into heroic pursuits. High aspiration is the wellspring of peak achievement. We need honorable aspirations that stretch us, challenge us, and drive us towards excellence, mastery, and elevated performance. Noble aspirations provide this catalytic force and leaders should first instill, and then constantly reinforce, noble aspirations defining the arc of the group’s climb. But we must be forewarned of this sobering truth: this act of pursuing high aspiration requires enormous fortitude and moral courage on the part of leaders and followers alike. The silent artillery of time, as Lincoln famously said, wilts our lofty goals and tempts us to mediocrity if we are not resolute. We owe it to ourselves and those we lead to remain always honorable and aspiring, and thus, inspiring, in our leadership.
The Apprentice’s Mind
I am constantly reminded the most important component to great leadership is one’s paradigm. Yes, seeing correctly. We must therefore develop a clear lens through which to view ourselves, our leadership, and the role we play in the groups we lead. In our modern world, so consumed by present-tense living and sensory overload, we desperately need to develop disciplines within ourselves, and within our groups, to help us to know how to see, how to listen, and, most importantly—what is worth seeing. To create and sustain this heroic leadership paradigm, I believe we must have what I call the apprentice’s mind—the capacity to be devoted to acquiring mastery while also acknowledging we are constantly in beta: always developing and growing. We must keep an open mind and to retain a bias for learning. Heroic leadership is a master craft, and we—master craftsmen. To excel, we must be at once both master and apprentice, and constantly clean the lens of our leadership paradigm to see in noble, honorable, intentional, and elevating ways.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of March 17th
March 17, 2014 | No Comments »
The Leader as Learner – Part I
I often refer to leadership as a master craft, and heroic leaders as a master craftsman. I do this to remind myself that, like all other pursuits of mastery, leadership is a life-long journey in which we never stop honing our craft. Therefore, leaders should never think of themselves as a finished product; we must remain students of leadership, stay fully open to new knowledge, and seek wisdom by availing ourselves to a broad spectrum of experiences. When I reflect on heroic leaders of the past such as Lincoln, Jefferson, T.E. Lawrence, Churchill, and Gandhi to name a few, they all shared these two attributes in common: (1) An unquenchable curiosity, and (2) a bias for learning and understanding. Moreover, their curiosity and passion for learning never waned during their lives. They constantly renewed themselves, renovated their vision, and courageously converted themselves into more wise and effective leaders. When leaders personally model a passion for learning, they in turn create organizations with a similar passion to learn and grow—the true wellspring of enduring excellence.
The Leader as Learner – Part II
To effectively become students of leadership, and to grow as heroic leaders, we must embrace the crucial need to create quiet time and solitude to read, reflect, and discern. Our society often down plays the need for solitude because we erroneously equate busyness with productivity and effectiveness. We think: The busier we are, the more we must be getting done. Wrong! Busyness is a chimera, and being trapped in the chaos of busyness is the antithesis of great leadership. Great leaders, therefore, must discipline themselves to balance “to do” with “to learn.” In doing so, great leaders apportion time and energy to reading, learning, and thinking; they find a place of solitude to disengage from the work-a-day world; and they consider quiet time not only sacred but essential to remaining vital in their lives and in their leadership. Heroic leadership is a marathon, not a sprint; our objective is to be effective across time and to retain a consistent and dependable positive vitality across a broad arc of engagement.
The Leader as Cultivator – Part I
We’ve come to model organizational dynamics off an industrial model: Linear, production based, predictable. This is a faulty paradigm. Most organizations are more like ecosystems than industrial plants. Like ecosystems, most organizations are highly dynamic, multi-layered and multi-dimensional, have key thresholds and tipping points at the boundaries and core of the group, and are highly sensitive to internal and external changes. Seen as ecosystems, we then correctly understand one of our key leadership roles is that of cultivator. And there are two cultivation zones we must address. At the sub-surface zone lies ethos and cornerstone…the deep perennial knowledge, communal bonds, and non-negotiable principles linking generation to generation. The above-surface zone contains things like culture, climate, and atmosphere. Each of these zones must be intentionally cultivated, groomed, and tended by leaders with equal care and commitment. So goes the maxim that ancient cultivators knew so well that today it has become axiomatic: You reap what you sow.
The Leader as Cultivator – Part II
In the last post we discussed the reason why leaders must embrace the role of cultivator. Today, we’ll reflect on some of the characteristics of a well-cultivated group, be that a family, sports team, company, city, or society. Here are some characteristics I believe reflect a well, and perpetually cultivated, group:
- Vibrant ethos
- Unity of purpose and shared intent
- Self-policed behavior
- Shared and vigorously upheld standards
- Attention to small details
- Regularly celebrated customs, courtesies, and traditions
- Esprit, elan, and companionship
- Mutual affection and trust
- Dependability and repeatability
Ethos – Part I
Ethos—a Greek word meaning “the character or essential spirit of a people”– remains for me the most important determinant of enduring organizational excellence. With a thriving ethos, organizations thrive, remain vibrant, and effectively pass knowledge from generation to generation. Without a thriving ethos, organizations atrophy, recede, and die. Therefore, a cardinal obligation of all leaders is to understand the ethos of their group, cultivate it within their sphere of influence, and create mechanisms to sustain it. When present, ethos puts us in accord with the world we live—it provides the necessary defining answers that tell us of who we are, why we exist, and what we do. Ethos provides continuity between past, present, and future–a guiding path for both the individual and the group. Like the root system of a healthy tree, a thriving ethos provides positive energy, elementary information, and coherence. And like water tiding to the moon, ethos pulls us out of our selfish, private worlds into the far more rewarding realm of group affiliation, obligation, and the greater patterns of excellence.
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 March 10th
March 10, 2014 | No Comments »
The Leader as Communicator – Part II
There is such as thing as the language of leadership—a vocabulary peculiar to great leaders and necessary to unleash championship performance. One good way to understand the language of leadership is to understand what it is not: it is the opposite of technical or bureaucratic language. Technical or bureaucratic language (think here of those long mission statements or multi-page policy letters) are overly passive, impersonal, and burdened with complex terminology and techno-babble that neither inspire heroic action nor create a sense of ownership (beyond the person who drafted them). Conversely, the language of leadership uses basic conversational tones; speaks in the active voice; and is highly personal and contextual. The language of leadership uses stories, parables, metaphors, and analogies to create vivid mental images listeners can relate to deeply and feel intuitively. The language of leadership connects the listener to outcomes worth the effort of pursuing.
The Leader as a Beacon – Part I
Because heroic leaders focus on significance as the end state of their leadership, they become beacons to those they lead—true examples of expert leadership. Like a lighthouse on a high cliff, these leader’s example shines through the chaos of the daily grind, pierces the fog of an uncertain future, and elevates above the banal politics of petty cultures. As beacons, heroic leaders stand steadfast as examples of excellence regardless of time, circumstance, convenience, or political correctness. Leaders become trustworthy beacons of excellence by transforming their leadership fulcrum from technical expertise (TE) to emotional intelligence (EQ). Yes, early in our careers we need a firm grounding in cognitive intelligence and TE; however, as we expand our leadership frontage we must move beyond purely threshold technical capabilities and learn to master ourselves. If we are able to successfully navigate this movement from TE to EQ, then we’ll become that resolute beacon, that vital example, because we’ll be firmly grounded in self control, self regulation, and resonant social skills.
The Leader as a Beacon – Part II
One might ask: What if I don’t seek to master myself and move from technical expertise towards the higher ground of emotional intelligence? What’s the harm if I don’t become that beacon of excellence? The answer is simple and stark: You will fail yourself, and you will fail those you lead. As documented by Daniel Goleman’s research on this topic, leaders who failed to navigate the transition to emotional intelligence failed because of self inflicted “fatal flaws.” Like the blind spots on a vehicle moving down a busy highway, fatal flaws prevent leaders from successfully projecting resonant leadership because they destroy the trust and deep bonds necessary for championship performance. Leaders with emotional intelligence nurture things like camaraderie, companionship, mutual affection, and esprit; leaders without emotional intelligence destroy them. And as Goleman also documented, the two primary fatal flaws that ruin such leaders are rigidity (inability to adapt) and poor relations (alienated their teams).
The Leader as an Architect – Part I
It’s essential that leaders first focus on mastering themselves and developing their vision; however, we must then shift focus to execution: How do we realize our plan? How do we make it stick? It’s a mistake to focus only on vision and forget the concrete actions needed to materialize end states. When we move to creating execution plans, we are now moving into the realm of management. Here a leader operates somewhat like an architect, creating the blue print and mechanism to build an organization to last. We begin by properly seeing the organization as a “system of systems,” an ecosystem, comprised of three core elements: (1) an ethos (culture, climate, atmosphere), (2) authority (allocation of responsibility), and (3) technical elements (policy and procedures). As an ecosystem, each of these three elements has its own nature but the entire ecosystem must be understood and managed as a whole. The key architectural action is this: Create mechanisms to measure the entire organization, and create mechanisms that endure. People will leave, mechanisms endure.
The Leader as an Architect – Part II
Previously, we talked about leaders creating mechanisms to measure the entire organization’s health, vitality, and readiness. Why is that vital? Because teams don’t last; people will move on. Moreover, we never want to build an organization reliant solely on one individual leader. Yes, great leaders make a difference, often profound differences; however, organizations dependent upon a single great leader will likely atrophy and collapse once that leader departs if mechanisms are not built to effectively enable succession, knowledge transfer, organizational resiliency, and the creation of internal talent pools of younger leaders ready to assume the mantle of leadership. Enduring excellence cannot rest solely on the back of a single charismatic leader. To ensure a single leader doesn’t ultimately become a single point of failure, we must create, and then align, mechanisms to sustain our ethos, constantly renew the allocation of authority, and adapt technical policies and procedures to agilely respond to change.
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 March 3rd
March 3, 2014 | No Comments »
The Leader as a Visionary – Part III
Once leaders develop their vision they must then turn to implementation. The first consideration is this: Effective visions, in action, are more dreams to “be something” than to “do something,” and in activating these dreams, leaders should first target a critical mass of followers that can exert positive influence on the larger group. All groups contain key influencers; those people to whom others naturally turn for advice, counsel, and direction. If leaders can engage with and harness this critical mass of people, these champions of change, then the likely result is high peer-level coordination —what I call peer production—creating a contagion effect and positive momentum within the larger group. Once positive momentum is established, then the leader must focus on four actions to fully operationalize the vision: (1) Galvanize the vision (make it stick); (2) Manage resistance to change; (3) institutionalize the change via mechanisms; and (4) lead the way by personally modeling the vision.
The Leader as a Mentor
All great societies throughout history have had at their core a cadre of wise elders intentionally serving as mentors to the younger generation. Classic mentoring was seen as a way of life, not simply an act; a deep personal conviction—a sacred obligation—to obtain mastery and then give it away freely for the benefit of others and for the enduring elevation of the group. Mentoring is thus the essential means through which deep perennial knowledge is passed from generation-to-generation and the mechanism through which communal roots are established. In this sense, the mentor and the protégé become a braided cord, where the development, growth, and excellence of the protégé is seen to be a direct refection on the quality of the Mentor. A classic mentor serves as advisor, champion, guide, and teacher. Great leaders must fully embrace their role as mentor and create for their people opportunities to practice leadership, prepare for increased responsibility, and grow as responsible citizens.
The Leaders as an Adapter – Part I
A mistake leaders often make is thinking of change as an event, or thinking of change as simply a future planning component that can somehow be isolated from the present. A better metaphor for change is to picture a boat riding on a swift-running river, with a helmsman at the rudder of the boat. The river represents change: It is ever-present, constantly rolling, and always moving forward. The boat represents the organization, and the helmsman the leader. We cannot do anything to alter the nature of the river; however, can learn to build better helmsmen and better boats. We do this is by developing leaders and organizations who are comfortable with uncertainty and learn to master adaptation. Adaptation is a mindset in which one correctly understands and accepts the ever-present and uncertain nature of change. Adaptation is also a habit where leaders purposely develop hardiness and resilience in themselves and their groups which, like an immune system, enable us to “bounce back” when change occurs–yet still retain our cohesion, integrity, and core purpose.
The Leader as an Adapter – Part II
Leadership author Steven Covey used the image of a group assigned the mission of cutting through a dense jungle, and the need for the leader of that group to remain above the tree line to properly maintain a leader’s perspective. Covey’s metaphor illustrates a leader’s need to adapt; to keep our attention “above the tree line” in order to sense and detect change, and more importantly, to make necessary course corrections. Sensing and detecting are attributes allowing the leader to assess current conditions while also making the necessary corrections to our course, such as speed, azimuth, and tempo. For leaders to effectively adapt we must learn to scan our environment and pay attention to context. Leaders must avoid the temptation to stare at data and fixate on mind-numbing metrics, for in doing so, they risk becoming change blind. If leaders condition themselves to constantly scan and pay attention to changes in context, they will create an agile, flexible, and resilient organization capable of aligning inputs to end states, and outputs to course corrections.
The Leader as a Communicator – Part I
Communicating is one of the key distinguishing qualities of great leaders. It is through communicating our vision, our purpose, and our aspirations that leaders create deep resonance with their people and galvanize unity within the group. Like a great melody, communicating with others should touch people deep in their hearts and souls and result in genuine commitment. And in constructing that melody, leaders should always seek to strike these three chords: who, what, and why. When leaders communicate answers to who, what, and why, they help move people from purely transactional, tit-for-tat thinking into a more expansive communal feeling characterized by esprit, camaraderie, and mutual affection. When communicating, I believe we must always start with hearts before minds by creating mental imagery depicting a mission that is elevating and an atmosphere producing peak experiences.These are the qualities creating champions. And when we communicate, we must do so live, on stage, and in person, enabling our people to see our authenticity, our trustworthiness, and our vitality.
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!