Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of September 22nd
Adapting and Transforming
I recently traveled to Asia visiting a few countries. Whenever operating my electronic devices I used power adapters and transformers to handle the varying voltages. This image of power adapters and transformers is an excellent metaphor for leadership and how leaders channel energy because we all receive energy from our surroundings, from other people, and from the climate and atmosphere of our work place. The voltage of this energy is of two primary types: negative or positive. And recall this fact: all energy is imperialistic; it will pull us in the direction of its nature (negative energy diminishes, positive energy elevates). Poor leaders, who lack self awareness, self regulation, and self control, simply pass on the energy they receive. They become a kind of energy repeater; they pass negative energy like a toxin into the atmosphere. Conversely, great leaders transform energy via self mastery and self control. They transform raw energy into something more useful, helpful, purposeful, and intentional. We need to cultivate wise leaders who transform and convert energy.
A Third Way
Watching the Sunday morning round tables recently, I was reminded how much of our public discourse is built around negative energy and focusing mostly on what people are against. I was hard pressed to find any pundit or leader offering solutions borne of positive energy or visions reflecting what they were for. This may sound trivial, but I think this lens of “for” or “against” reveals a fundamental truth about great leadership: Nothing significant is ever produced from negative energy or from a viewpoint of what we are against. Today, I believe we are mired in this field of negative energy and opposition because we have accepted an infantile leadership paradigm built solely on fight or flight parameters. Whenever leaders are locked in fight or flight thinking, they remain captive to the noise of the problem and lack the internal clarity to see a way through, and then break through, to a new and necessary solution. Fight or flight are two ways of responding, but there is a third way. The third way requires enormous self mastery, self awareness, self regulation, and a deep reservoir of morale courage to seek truth. This is called wisdom.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
A fallacy of modern leadership teaching is the tendency to project leadership development as a straight and constantly upward trajectory. This is false. The truth about leadership development is that it’s an uneven trajectory characterized by successes and failures; wins and losses; triumphs and defeats. My own experience attests to this as my leadership arc has been a series of two steps forward and one step back. And interestingly–the one step back has always been the most important because it has been in failure, loss, and defeat that I have learned and grown the most. Why is this so important to acknowledge? Because if we teach leadership as a simple upward trajectory (all wins), we create a perception of leadership as a tactic capable of reducing to simple menus and, worse yet–capable of being mimicked and parroted. However, if we properly teach leadership as a uneven and rocky path, with ups and downs and twists and turns, we’ll create a truer paradigm built around self mastery, resilience, and inner authority. The crucible of development is not an inconvenience; it’s the handmaiden of our destiny.
Group Resilience
In the past I’ve reflected on the virtue of resilience from the perspective of the individual leader. But groups also need to be resilient to remain excellent over time. Group resilience is a form of what we might call social capital–a kind of collective toughness, hardiness, and fortitude enabling the group to take an occasional hit, even a major blow, and still bounce back and regain its core purpose. At the heart of personal resilience are qualities like mental toughness, focus, habits, and the inner fortitude borne from having entered into, and moved through, crucibles of experience. What is at the core of group resilience? I believe it’s these three qualities: trustworthiness, companionship, and cooperation. Groups possessing these three qualities will have a bone-deep toughness that may bend but never breaks. These highly resilient groups can absorb the temblors and shocks of disruption and adversity yet quickly rebound—all without losing their cornerstone principles. Like personal resilience, group resilience is cultivated by leaders through intentional actions and great self discipline.
Stagnate or Generate
If we correctly understand leadership development as a life-long pursuit, then we have to acknowledge there will be times we may find ourselves on or off course, moving forward or backwards, or even yet—moving sideways. At each stage of development we are confronted with a simple but profound choice as leaders: To stagnate or generate. At the heart of this choice is our personal paradigm and our willingness to stay faithful, or not, to heroic ambition and right action. Leaders stagnate when they fail to see themselves as responsible and accountable agents of change, regardless of the size or scope of their office. Leaders stagnate when self-interest eclipses a commitment to something greater than self, and when they lose the ability to constantly learn, grow, and remain vital. Conversely, leaders become generative when they stay true to the hero’s path, which always leads to increasing levels of self mastery, vitality, transformation, and energy. Stagnation is an ever tightening focus on self. Generative leadership is an every expanding focus on others, greater purposes, and enduring significance.
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