Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of February 9th
The Album of Your Life
There are many times I receive subtle prompts from my past: a phone call from a dear old friend; a memory rekindled by a rediscovered photo; a moving letter buried at the bottom of my desk drawer. These prompts take me back to times and people from my past, seen now in a different light, allowing me to see how each added real texture and value to my life and to my leadership. Such is the album of your life. When we flip through it and search for the people and places shaping who we are now, we see how clearly each was in some way a handmaiden of our destiny. When these people and places entered our lives at the time, we saw them as simply static events with no real purpose. In retrospect, their value as teachers, mentors, and guides becomes more clear and more pronounced. However dimly these past experiences may appear now, there is no denying how vitally they influenced our path and the quality of our journey. This insight helps me remember that all moments are in fact key moments, and all encounters with people are rare opportunities to give and receive.
Junctions
When reflecting on our development as leaders, we can mistakenly believe our path is mostly linear. We like the fairy tale telling us, as long as we work hard, our journey will be mostly upward and uninterrupted. Sorry; it hasn’t been that way for me. In my experience, particularly with the benefit of honest reflection, I see how many times my development has been determined at junctions. So many times through my life I’ve stood at crossroads and faced pivotal threshold moments. Do I move forward or retreat? Go left or right? Speed up or slow down? Or maybe, just sit in the center of the crossroads and do nothing? Junctions represent thresholds we need to understand about ourselves. Often, if we ignore them now, life has a funny way of bringing them back to us again to face the exact same decision. Though I know with certainty I did not always make the wisest decisions at my personal leadership junctions, I know each one existed to teach me something. Moreover, I also know this: We are defined as much by the roads we have not taken as by the roads we have taken.
Pay Day
Why do you get up in the morning and go to work? Do you see yourself in a job or vocation? The answers to those questions reveal much about our true motives as leaders. If we see ourselves in a job, then let’s face it: we get up in the morning basically to make a living. We dutifully put in eight hours a day, five days a week, four weeks a month. Our minds may be fully engaged in our jobs, but probably not our hearts. Vocations, on the other hand, are the opposite; they reflect a deeper calling and have less to do with making a living and more to do with creating a life. The person going to a job does so because he has to. The person engaged in a vocation does so because he is called to do so. Leadership, understood correctly, is a vocation, not a job. If you are only in it for money, at the end of all your toil, money is all you will have. And when you finally retire, you will have to face this haunting question: Was giving all of my life worth the money? Leaders devote themselves to the vocation of leading, which is not measured in money, but in doing something the world needs done. Now that is a real pay day!
Daily Decisions – Lifetime Impact
I often get overly wrapped up in the end game; what will I become at the end of my journey? What will be the end state of our company’s strategy? How will things look over the distant horizon? The truth is, the answers to those questions are being determined now, each day and each moment, by the actions or inactions I take. Will I be brave today or a coward? Maybe not heroic on a grand scale, but at least in small ways, behind the scenes, which can make big differences in people’s lives. Will I be honest today or dishonest? Maybe not a major ethical matter, but just basic honesty in even the smallest things. Will I be a trusted friend today or an petty opponent? Maybe not in a life-saving way, but just authentic acts of generosity and companionship. Will I set a good example today or devolve to my lesser angels? Maybe not on the big stage, but a noble example nonetheless. What I realize is, some-day is really determined to-day. Whatever we ultimately make of ourselves and our organizations is being determined today through small, often unseen acts. Maybe, they are not so small in the end. Carpe Diem!
Where Your Legs Take You
It is important for leaders to study leadership and wrestle with its essential truths. However, in doing so, we have to be careful not to become too introspective. It is tempting to get pulled into an increasingly academic mindset, where one becomes paralyzed by seeking perfection or some imagined ideal such as: What is the ideal leadership style? What are the most prized leadership traits and principles? If we are not careful, we can spend all our time analyzing and assessing, to the point where all we are left with is an academic philosophy of leadership. If we really want to know who we are as leaders, our true self, simply look to where your legs take you each day. Look to where, and to what, you move. Wherever you are naturally drawn– there is your authentic leadership. So, if you want to know with clarity who you are as a leader, look to where and to what you move. Where ever your legs take you, that is who you are as a leader.
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!
Tweet Share