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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of September 22nd
September 22, 2014 | No Comments »
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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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of September 15th
September 15, 2014 | No Comments »
Soul Work
When I contemplate championship performance I discover ethos to be at the heart of peak achievement. Think of it–whether a sports dynasty, an enduring Fortune 500 company, or a world-class University—at the center of enduring excellence is a galvanizing ethos creating deep meaning, elevating purpose, unity, resilience, and perennial knowledge bridging generation to generation. Why is this true? Because our souls are drawn to meaning! Sure, our minds crave logic and reason; but enduring excellence does not emerge from logic and reason. Peak performance comes from soul work; when leaders create an ethos built on deep meaning, noble purpose, honorable aspiration, and right action. When leaders do this soul work within their groups, they pull their followers out of their heads and into their souls—the source of lasting excellence. It is only when individuals learn to commit to something greater than themselves that magic happens. And it’s the leader’s obligation to create the conditions for such magic.
Balancing Ambiguity and Action
We like to think of leadership in black and white terms; see a problem, fix it. Certainly, yes–leadership involves action. However, the greater truth about leadership is this: We have to become comfortable with balancing ambiguity and action. The most important word there is “and.” There exists in every decision process a period where we just don’t yet know. So, we have to learn to develop a tolerance for ambiguity and a willingness to live in, and with, the tension of not yet knowing. This ambiguity generates internal anxiety, and the natural impulse when we feel anxious is to just decide—do something. Impulsive reactions usually don’t solve problems; they make them worse. Great leaders learn to live with ambiguity and they learn the habit of leading in tension. They retain self control, self regulation, and self awareness even in a state of anxiety. It is only when we learn to live and lead in ambiguity, and learn to go deeper into the problem or crisis while holding the tension, that we can break through into deeper knowing. Then, and only then, can leaders act and lead with clarity.
Expansion or Contraction
As we age we’ll all reach a crucial threshold that will fundamentally define who we will become in the second half of our lives as leaders. I call this “the leadership crossroads.” We usually reach this crossroads about mid-life, in our forties or fifties. At this crossroads, not unlike the literal juncture of two major paths, we will have to choose our way—our defining paradigm–to guide us into the second stage of life. One path is the course of contraction. This is the lens of diminishment and small mindedness characterized by increasing negative energy, ideology, grievance, victimization, and polarization. Contraction is a leadership death spiral in which the person gradually loses all capability to inspire, elevate, and transcend. Luckily, there is another path–the course of expansion. This is the lens of broadening horizons and wisdom characterized by positive energy and vitality. Expansion is the beginning of an internal leadership renaissance—the explosion of masterful leadership, wise stewardship and expert mentorship. The crossroads await us all with this crucial question: Which path will you take?
Rapport
Rapport is a word I used a lot as an athlete and throughout my career as a US Marine. Rapport, however, is another classic quality losing its meaning and relevance in our modern world. Before we can reverse that unfortunate trend, we first need to reawaken our understanding of rapport and rekindle our respect for its value. So, what is rapport? It’s deep harmony and accord among people who are joined in a common endeavor. Rapport must be nurtured and developed by leaders, as it is based on a foundation of empathy. Moreover, rapport requires deep mutual focus, what we might call “group attention,” on those things we share in common. And how do leaders do this? By celebrating through customs, courtesies, and traditions the bonds creating affinity! When people are in accord with their ethos, and with one another, the resulting affinity becomes natural, resilient, and galvanizing. Rapport is not something you do; it is something you feel. Rapport is not something you give to others, it is something you call forth from others. Rapport is not the wall; it is the mortar binding the bricks in a strong wall.
Peak Work
An essential question for leaders to reflect on is, “What produces in people the conditions to perform at their peak?” This is what I like to call peak work…a place where you feel in the zone and in total flow. This state of peak work, or flow, doesn’t happen often, however, which reflects how hard it is to produce and sustain peak performance. In my opinion, these are the key elements that, if intentionally created by leaders, set the conditions for peak work. First, identify the meaning and purpose of the enterprise. This purpose must be real, but it must also be elevating and inspiring. Second, align people with what they are excellent at—the things that fully engage and motivate them. This is where passion comes from. Third, connect their ethics with your ethos—those things in which they deeply believe and are worth fighting for. When leaders create these things (meaning, purpose, engagement, ethos), they create perennial knowledge, shared intentionality, and full absorption into the wellspring of the organization’s soul. This is the source of peak work, elevated achievement, and championship performance.
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 September 8th
September 8, 2014 | No Comments »
The Hero’s Stance
I have always liked the quote attributed to the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Archimedes, who said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever, and I will move the world.” This image is a great metaphor for heroic leadership because it reminds us that great leadership always balances two vital components: reflection (a place to stand) and action (a lever). The hero’s stance, as I call it, is the self discipline to create the reflective space to master oneself. Before we can exert the lever of leadership on others or the outer world, we must first master ourselves and develop inner authority. When we create time for reflection, and do the hard work of self mastery, we create a solid ground on which to stand, and a trusted fulcrum upon which to lay our lever of influence. This is what creates trustworthiness, dependability, self regulation, and consistency. Once we have developed the hero’s stance we can then move more confidently into outer action. In the end, great leadership, truly heroic leadership, will always be the admixture of reflection and action. This is how great leaders move the world.
A Unified Field
I was recently asked, “what is it that allows Marines to cohere around common purpose and common intentionality—to become as one?” My answer was this: Marines operate in a unified field. What did I mean? Through deep, almost DNA-level grounding in ethos and cornerstone principles, Marines are gradually transformed from small private worlds into a kind of grand parade fusing past, present, and future. This unified field is like discovering a solid wholeness—the perennial foundation—underneath otherwise passing and superficial phenomena. Look around society today and it is hard to find many organizations or companies operating in such a unified field. Instead, we see a lot of folks operating in fractured fields characterized by episodic meaning, trivial experiences, and passing phenomena. When people operate in a unified field they become sure, confident, and focused on elevated meaning. When people operate in a fracture field they become unsure, lack confidence, and remain focused on selfish purposes. Heroic leaders must lead us across the threshold from fractured to unified fields of existence.
Expectations
One of the most important things leaders do is set an expectation for leadership. By this I mean: Create clear expectations from the moment a person joins the group that we prize leadership above all other qualities; we expect individuals to lead; and we are, at our core, a culture of “leaders creating leaders.” When I think of my own vocation as a US Marine, I see how the Corps does a superior job of creating this expectation for leadership. Within the first 24-hours of my arrival at Officers Candidate School, I knew, without doubt, leadership was the sin qua non, the alpha and omega, of life as a Marine. Past accomplishments, current specialties, or future ranks did not matter; all that mattered was leadership. Leaders must therefore assess these key questions in their current organizations: Do we create an expectation for leadership in our culture? Does a person joining our ranks understand our expectations for leadership, our core leadership behaviors, and our demand for all leaders to develop other leaders? If not, go back to square one and build these expectations.
Shadow Boxing
When I was young I spent a lot of time at the Boys Club and YMCA in our city. Our area had a rich boxing legacy–home to champs like Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler. I recall some of the old trainers in these gyms teaching us to shadow box; to learn first to master our stance, our balance, and our movements before we ever tried to engage another in the ring. This image of shadow boxing is a great metaphor for leadership development. Before we can effectively lead others, we must first master ourselves. We must shadow box as we grow as leaders, carving out the necessary time and devoting the required energy to see our shadow on the wall as we move and act, reflect on our state of mastery, and continue to work on the basics of our craft. Yes, we will have to get into the ring—to lead and gain experience—but we must never stop honing our craft away from the ring. We must never stop shadow boxing and assessing the state of our character, our inner authority, and our inner mastery. This is how champions are built–far from the ring and before the fight ever occurs.
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 September 2nd
September 2, 2014 | No Comments »
Grit
Today I am reflecting on words ripe with meaning for leaders, but whose use and reference seems to be waning in our modern society. Grit is one such word. If we reflect on long-term excellence, true significance both as individuals and as groups, it is hard not to find grit to be among the small handful of qualities enabling such enduring excellence. For me, grit is at once an expectation, a mindset, and a habit in that leaders need to create a demand for inner fortitude in themselves; form a deep-seated belief in the criticality of fortitude as a guiding principle, and then, through self-discipline, cultivate the habits to call forth mental toughness and hardiness. Grit, a kind of DNA-level resilience, is conditioned over time by withstanding the searing pressure of tests, trials, challenges, and the rigor of pursuing high standards. Grit is like weathered skin, only internal; it reflects a kind of toughness and durability reflective of having been exposed to, and transformed by, the cauldron of experience. Grit is a quality we all should re-acquaint ourselves with, and a characteristic we should expect and develop in our groups.
The Myth of Multi-Tasking
Many leaders and managers believe that the path to expanded capability comes through increased multi-tasking. The theory goes like this: Because of technology, I can do multiple things at one time, and do them all well; therefore, I am more productive. In reality, and as supported by lots of research and testing, the opposite is actually true. When we try to multi-task, what we actually do is “switch-task;” we unwittingly jump from task to task in an arbitrary manner. Great leadership and management require focus and purposeful attention. Great leadership also requires discerning choices on what to work on, and when to work on it, and yes…even what to say no to. And when engaged in that effort—to be fully and totally focused. Great leaders focus attention. Like glass refracting light, effective leaders capture the full spectrum and then, with intentionality and discernment, they reduce the broadband to only the most critical, high pay-off issues and then make concerted, intentional investments of time and energy.
The Paradox of Solitude
In our society, we generally don’t value quiet time. Actually, we think of quiet time as somehow wasteful, unproductive, and lazy. For leaders, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Great leadership is about deep knowing. Deep knowing, such as wisdom, judgment, discernment, empathy, and detecting, comes only from a place of quiet and solitude, when deep thoughts can emerge, and better questions and answers can arise. Leaders must therefore intentionally, and with great self-discipline, allocate time every day for solitude to call forth the following qualities of expert leadership:
- Deep Thoughts
- Discernment
- Sensing & Detecting
- Deep Knowing
- Wisdom
Peak Performance
To achieve and maintain peak performance, truly championship-level execution, we must adopt a better model for defining peak achievement. Leaders cannot legislate or mandate peak performance from others via a menu of carrots and sticks; rather, peak performance must be invited from others by an organizational ethos built around purpose, performance, and heroic leadership. Moreover, to create a truly generational effect—an enduring culture of “leaders creating leaders”—we must break free from the tyranny of now and develop a broader arc of perspective that links generation-to-generation and creates broader patterns of excellence.
The Danger of a Present-Tense Culture
As our society becomes increasingly dominated by technology and information systems, leaders are confronted with a conundrum. On the one hand, technology provides tremendous improvements in the speed and volume of information, while on the other hand, this exploding volume of information can lead to constant distraction, living in sound bites, and a growing tendency for people to live solely in a “present-tense” dimension. It is becoming normal for “now” to be important, but only until the next email or tweet arrives. We run the risk, as a society and as groups, to become distracted to death and lose sight of a broad arc of perspective essential to wisdom. If we devolve into this present-tense only culture, these are some of the deficiencies that will emerge: No context; a mania for instant gratification; imprisoning people to small selfish worlds; and creating lots of “white noise” resulting in a loss of focus, attention, and balance. It is leaders who must break through this present-tense culture and lead outwards to a broader arc of meaning.
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 August 25th
August 25, 2014 | No Comments »
Camaraderie
I am often asked, “What is the single most important measure of excellence in a company or group?” For me the answer is camaraderie. Camaraderie reflects the depth of genuine companionship within the group; the almost DNA-level bonding of brothers and sisters locked shoulder-to-shoulder in common purpose. Camaraderie, and its close relative esprit de corps, are extremely hard to produce in groups and even harder to sustain, which further attests to their supreme importance for excellence. Among our most important leadership obligations, therefore, is to create the ethos, culture, and climate producing camaraderie. This work is deeply soulful, not intellectual. This is the realm of a threshold crossing, which begins with shallow work-place familiarity and then converts, through shared sacrifice, elevated standards, and masterful leadership, into a deep wellspring of fraternal love and unyielding trust. The measure of camaraderie in a group is the pinnacle metric, and it reminds us, interestingly, that the words “company” and “companion” share the same root, which we should never forget.
Small Things
One of the psychological hurdles young leaders must overcome is their belief they are not truly leading until they have achieved high rank or position. They believe they are not really able to create influence until they can do something great on a grand stage. I call this “someday” leadership: Someday, when I have higher authority, then I will do something grand! We need to deconstruct this limiting paradigm and teach young leaders a more fundamental and elevating truth, which is this: We are always leading, because we always exert influence when we walk into a room and interact with people. Once we accept this cardinal truth, “someday” leadership transforms into “this day” leadership. To remind myself of this truth I keep on my desk this powerful quote attributed to Native American warriors: “Today is a good day to do great things.” The reality is, yes; most of us will not be called to the global stage and be asked to lead in the national spotlight. Most of us will not be famous leaders. However, we can all do small things, each day, with great commitment, passion, and fidelity. In the end, this makes all the difference.
Negative Energy
A key element of self-mastery is the ability for leaders to be confronted with negative energy but not be lured into it. And let’s face it—that’s not easy. All energy, particularly negative energy, is highly imperialistic. If we are not self aware, negative energy will seize us and pull us in destructive pathways. For example, reflect on how easy it is to be initially exposed to forms of negative energy like grievance, entitlement, bickering, cynicism, spite, and pettiness, and if not initially contained, to be pulled fully into the widening gyre of that toxic energy. What this seems to tell us is, when we attack negative energy frontally, we become that energy ourselves. It co-opts us. We become the very thing we dislike. What is the better way for leaders? Through self discipline and self-control, learn to recognize when we are getting lured by the siren’s call of negative energy, be conscious of it, and then, choose not to fight it frontally. Instead, be the better example and let your example radiate as an alternative choice. The best correction of the bad? The modeling of the better!
Great Stories
When I was young I was drawn to hero tales and epic stories. Even today, these legends still call to me and I am compelled by their deeper meaning. I believe there is a vital lesson in the study of legend, lore, history, myth, and hero tales because they remind us of the greater patterns, the larger truths, animating the human condition. We need great stories to remind us of the broad arc of which we are still a part; that grand parade of history that informs us, coheres our experiences, and reminds us of timeless truths. Today, with the dominance of technology and its pull to only a present-tense reality, leaders must teach great stories to the younger generation. Without this broad perspective, young people run the risk of remaining prisoner to their own private, limited worlds. Moreover, a present-tense reality can be awfully brittle, fragile, and shallow. Without the great stories, youth will think present happiness, instead of deep meaning, is the end state of living. It is a leader’s obligation to pull people out of their heads and into their hearts, and we do this by teaching the greater patterns of excellence and heroic ambition.
Caught, Not Taught
As I reflect on how I’ve learned as a leader, the many twists and turns, successes and failures, I realize most of what I can honestly say I have internalized, I did so from experience, not book learning. Most of the deeper lessons, the things I have made part of my interior life, were more caught than taught. It may sound too simple to say it this way, but it is true, at least in my experience. Great truths that we internalize actually “rub off” from others we are exposed to; great teachers, dedicated mentors, significant role models. I can honestly say that I have not internalized any great breakthroughs in leading by studying lists or memorizing menus. It was only experiences, and deep exposure to principles in action, that ultimately converted me. So yes, masterful leadership is more caught than taught. But what’s the lesson in this for us all? To get on the path and move forward. It is only through the crucible of experience, and the good fortune to be exposed to wise teachers and mentors, that the necessary lessons will “rub off” and become authentic to who we are as leaders.
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 August 18th
August 18, 2014 | No Comments »
The Great Chain
One of the most vital things leaders do for their groups is provide coherence; a sense of meaning, purpose, and shared intentionality connecting past, present, and future. I like to think of coherence as “the great chain”—the perennial knowledge that links and binds individuals into groups across time. There are several ways leaders can build the great chain. First, define and celebrate the group’s ethos. Ethos answers elementary questions such as who are we? What do we stand for? What do we do? Second, create a deep sense of meaning around which all tactics, techniques, procedures, and policies align. Third, clearly articulate those things which are non-negotiable. When people know and trust the enduring cornerstones of our groups, the non-negotiables, the links in the great chain become stronger, and interestingly, people don’t need to be told to keep them strong; they do so on their own accord. Leaders should focus great effort on building and maintaining the great chain—those primary and unbreakable links that create coherence, congruence, and peak experiences.
How You Knew
One thing I recall from my Philosophy 101 course in college was the term epistemology, which essentially means “how we come to see what we see.” I remember my professor saying we first had to understand how we knew, before we could ever start to understand what we knew. Why? Because we need to understand our lens—our inherent biases and preferences—which like a lens of glass will refract, magnify, or even distort what we saw. For example, this is why two politicians, one from the left and the other from the right, can look at exactly the same situation and see it two completely opposing ways. What they are seeing is objective and a matter of fact; how they are seeing it is highly subjective and not necessarily rooted in fact. As leaders, this lesson from my Philosophy professor is highly applicable. We too need to understand how we knew, and how we saw, before we can understand what we knew and what we saw. Through self awareness, reflection, and a willingness to hear truth from those around us, we can develop a truer lens, a better paradigm, to make us more effective leaders.
What Kind of Leader Do You Want To Be?
That leadership is hard, especially if pursued purposely as a master craft, is a fact. And in pursuit of masterful leadership, we often make the ends and means far too complex and technical. To gain a simpler approach to one’s paradigm, I believe answering this direct question to yourself will serve quite well for a trusty azimuth in one’s leadership journey: “What kind of leader do you want to be?” In all of us, there are two internal impulses that call to be fed; one is our higher impulses and the other is our lower impulses. Both impulses exist within each of us at all times. What differentiates great leaders from bad ones is their inner discipline to gradually honor the positive impulses and tame the lesser ones. I like this Native American Chief’s reflection on this very point, where he says “There are two dogs inside of me. One is mean spirited, angry, and petty. The other dog is positive, uplifting, and noble.” Someone then asks the Chief which dog usually wins, to which the Chief replied, “The one I feed the most.”
Holon
Holon is a Greek word meaning something that is simultaneously whole but also part of something larger. I like this holon image because I think it represents a leader with great integrity. Integrity fundamentally means wholeness of oneself; an undivided person whose interior life is fully in accord within itself and the outer world. When we say a leader has great integrity, what we mean is he or she is unbroken—there is no major schism in their personality and soul. I believe if one walked around a workplace and asked this question, “How do you describe a really great leader?”, the answers would all essentially reduce to integrity. What makes us willingly follow another is the leader’s wholeness; who they say they are, they in fact, are. And they are that same person every day. They are trustworthy, consistent, dependable, self-regulated, and accountable. So I like to remind myself of the holon–of the criticality of integrity–by reflecting on this simple question each day: “Is the person I see in the mirror each day the same person others see when they look at me each day?” It should be.
Wrestling
Every leader will face moral and ethical dilemmas in the course of their lives. We will constantly be in a wrestling match between our higher and lower impulses. Once we decide to be leaders, and live a life of leadership, inherent in our vocation is the constant reality of hard choices and vexing dilemmas. As leaders, we can’t limit or reduce these dilemmas; they are part of the geography and tapestry of leading. The best we can do, as we seek self mastery and a trusted inner compass, is to constantly remember this guiding principle: When confronted with a dilemma, choose the alternative that is the most morally demanding. Don’t settle for convenience or efficiency; chose the higher road and the harder path to ensure alignment with one’s integrity and virtue. As leaders, especially senior leaders entrusted with great responsibility, authority, and influence, we must always remember and strive to honor this maxim of leadership as expressed by others throughout history: “There is no right way to do the wrong thing.”
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 August 11th
August 11, 2014 | No Comments »
A Still Point
A condition today’s leaders will have to confront is the widening band of white noise—distractions of all sorts—generated by technology and information systems. I like to imagine this increasing overload of information as a rapidly spinning wheel, expanding its centripetal force, creating within people feelings of disjointedness, mania, and incoherence. I believe it’s a leader’s obligation to find, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “a still point of the turning world.” The way leaders can find this still point, a trusted fulcrum, is by identifying for their groups edifying principles, unifying aspirations, givens, and yes…some timeless absolutes. Today, more than ever, we need to remind people that there are transcendent principles in leadership to which they can cohere and in which they can trust. Things like honor, courage, service, sacrifice, willing obedience, and fidelity. These absolutes help us find that still point, a place of clarity and confidence, and once found, that still point helps us maturely manage the ever-turning world.
Elders
My mother is fond of saying a person’s face and body language, later in life, start to reflect their true inner world and character. Those whom are integrated are mellow, positive, and smiling; those who are not are rigid, toxic, and frowning. At the very time in life we need them to be generative, many have actually regressed to become bitter. Yes, we do see some vibrant wise elders around, but we just don’t seem to value them. We do a lousy job of incorporating wise elders into our groups because our society values youth, good looks, and instant gratification more than it values wisdom, discernment, and the balanced mellowness of a well-lived life. So, what to do? We need to find ways to not only generate more wise elders in our society, but also seek to actively incorporate wise elders into our groups. And why is this important? Because history reminds us that no society has long endured unless elders were expected (and allowed) to pass wisdom to the young.
The Sage
I believe the definition of truly masterful leadership is when the leader becomes the lesson. In this definition, the “leader as lesson” is akin to the classic concept of the sage or wise man. Here I am not referring to a shaman or soothsayer; rather, to someone who has mastered oneself and integrated the inner and outer dimensions of life and leading. Sadly, this classic concept of the sage is diminishing in its importance and its expectation in our society. Most people today are taught that the end state of their development as a person and leader is personal success; to gain acclaim, notoriety, position, and status. That’s it—end of the road. The problem with this paradigm is it creates a population of leaders trapped in a diminished vision of thinking locally and living locally, with no elevating ambition beyond their private worlds. We need to rekindle a vision calling for leaders to break free from a self-focused paradigm of personal success and move outwards…to become seekers—and discover ways to expand their knowledge and wisdom. Sage leaders, true wise men, think globally and act locally.
The Voice of Conscience – Part 1
When we’re young and beginning as leaders we are in many ways testing ourselves–our limits, thresholds, and beliefs. In a basic sense, we mostly know right from wrong, strength from weakness, good from bad, but as a natural condition of youth, we test those boundaries. One such test is of our conscience. What is at play in these formative years, when our conscience is tested, is the making of either good or bad habits. And like any habit, habits of conscience, with practice, can be made either stronger or weaker. It’s as simple as this: We can either learn to hear the voice of conscience, or learn to ignore it. If we hear it, our conscience becomes a strong guide to elevated character, trustworthiness, and integrity. If we ignore it, we fall to the siren’s call of our lesser angels. The Jewish tradition warns of this pitfall through this wise aphorism: Bad habits enter our lives first as invited guests, before long they become family members, and ultimately—they take over the house.
The Voice of Conscience – Part II
When we wrestle with our conscience we are waging a fight to determine what kind of person we will be. In this fight, our conscience calls us to our higher self, but our ego sometimes calls us to our lesser self. This wrestling match determines which call we will honor. But in this fight we can actually lose by winning. If we determine winning to be getting what our ego wants—greed, self aggrandizement, revenge, power—then what initially feels like winning is, in the long term, losing. To really mature as individuals and leaders we actually have to lose this fight with the conscience—to not get what our ego wants and to be forced to sacrifice, and suffer, the loss of ego gratification. And in doing so, reach constantly towards our higher self. It often hurts our egos to take the high road because we don’t get what we want. But in truth, it hurts far more to take the low road. When we take the low road, we often get a prize that wasn’t truly worth gaining, or far worse, we get neither the prize nor our honor.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of August 4th
August 4, 2014 | No Comments »
The Power of Personal Example
Today’s reflection is short, but very important. Let’s reflect on personal example and being a model of excellence in our behavior, actions, and character. Contemplate this quote:
“Speak the language of leadership wherever you go, even use words, if absolutely necessary.”
A Confronted Life
An unfortunate but predictable problem for leaders is this: As one climbs higher-and-higher up the career ladder, one will become increasingly removed from ground truth and become more distant from close associates willing (and able) to tell the emperor he is not wearing any clothes. Senior leaders (“the boss”) can get to a point where they live a totally un-confronted life. They reach a point of seniority in which they no longer have a group of trusted, courageous companions willing to confront them, especially in areas of behavior where the boss most needs to be challenged. Sometimes this vacuum of confrontation happens insidiously; sometimes, and more worrisome, this vacuum is purposely created by bosses who themselves lack the wisdom, self regulation, and courage to receive honest feedback. The more senior the leader (General, CEO, President, etc.), the more that person needs people who can challenge and confront them. If we live an un-confronted life, like the mythic emperor with no clothing, we end up in a private fantasy, destroying ourselves and those around us.
Emerging and Merging
One of the transitions all leaders need to seek in themselves, and facilitate in their teams, is the movement from emerging to merging. Think about this fact of leadership development. In the first half of life our focus is on accumulating things: successes, victories, medals, rank, titles, certifications, badges, etc. While we are in this first stage we are trying to separate and distinguish ourselves—to stand out from the pack. We are emerging. However, as we get to mid-life, we need to navigate a vital conversion if we want to mature as leaders. We must shift from emerging to merging. Internally, we merge by becoming integrated, authentic leaders who resonate self mastery, self-awareness, and self-regulation. In terms of the groups we lead, we merge by creating a sense of community in our workplaces and by fostering deep companionship and camaraderie amongst our people. Those who navigate this change from emerging to merging become champions. Those who don’t, become bitter, toxic, and totally forgettable leaders.
Unfinished Symphonies
A fundamental truth about leadership is, we never truly gain full and complete mastery. Like Odysseus’ constant movement towards Ithaca, leaders too are essentially always on the path towards home, which is self mastery. But even as we get closer and closer to our goal, there will be times when we have to move back outwards, and inwards, to grow and climb again. Essentially, our goal may be self mastery, but we never fully get there. Yet in this endless pursuit is nobility and virtue; the journey towards heroic leadership is both necessary and our destiny. Seen this way, we must accept that in leadership, “all symphonies remain unfinished” (Karl Rahner). Why is this important for all leaders to accept? Because we need to learn to live with the tension of unfinished work and unanswered questions. Great leaders learn to hold tension; to live betwixt searching and not yet knowing, and regulate their behavior, postpone instant gratification, and allow the crucible of experience to teach them. Great leaders learn to carry tension, and thrive in spite of unfinished work.
Boundaries Are Good Mentors
One of the most essential things we can do to help mold and guide youth is to provide healthy boundaries. Today, possibly more than any other point in modern history, youth are bombarded with messages of narcissism, entitlement, celebrity, and a hedonistic worship of the self. In traditional societies throughout history, is was the role of wise elders to provide healthy boundaries for youth; to provide necessary limits, conditions, expectations, and guideposts that, over time, would move young people from their private worlds into the realm of mature, responsible adulthood. What these wise elders knew then, and what we must rediscover now, is that boundaries are good mentors. Entitlement, on the other hand, is a bad mentor; it makes us weak, brittle, and highly offended people. Boundaries teach us there are necessary limits and that these limits point us towards the center of the circle (wisdom and maturity), rather than the circumference (narcissism and selfishness). We need wise elders—heroic leaders—to set healthy boundaries to help guide the ascent of the emerging generation.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of July 28th
July 28, 2014 | No Comments »
Peak Experience
There’s been much commentary about the Millennial Generation’s work style, most suggesting the Millennials don’t value things like meaning, purpose, loyalty, and tradition. I think this is wrong. Every generation has a unique lens through which they view their world. For the Millennials their lens is technology. Moreover, youth, as a basic formative period in life, has always been characterized by a degree of immaturity, narcissism, being adrift, and wrestling with convention. Though Millennials have a technological lens shaping their paradigm, I do not believe that lens diminishes in them these timeless facts of all humans in all times: (1) We are “ultra social” creatures craving group identity and belonging; (2) Everyone yearns for something beyond themselves; (3) We want vocations providing deep meaning, purpose, and peak experiences; and (4) we all seek elevation above mediocrity and the daily grind. So let’s be honest: there has been no golden age or greatest generation. Each generation has had, as the Millenials do now, the capability to be great. Our obligation? Help them be ready.
Boomerang
Leadership, like classic virtue, is its own reward. When we lead honorably, attuned to noble purposes, the reward is inherent in the aspiration and the action. The reward is not given to us like a medal or trophy, rather, it is earned through fidelity to the vocation. And, in the end, the reward is done to us. I like to think of heroic leadership like a boomerang: What we originally release is the giving away of the best of ourselves, and in time, that leadership gift comes back to us in the form of gratitude, deep satisfaction, and the development of those we lead and mentor. The reward for having led well, and lived a life devoted to heroic ambition, is the soulful satisfaction of fidelity; faithfulness to a calling and faithfulness to a purpose beyond our self. But with this boomerang, we have to trust in the release…in the giving away of our best leadership and our best self. Because the return of the boomerang will not be immediate nor will it be on our terms. Leadership, like any master craft, will always defy instant gratification. So throw yourself into life and leading; give your best. The rest will take care of itself.
Growth
I read a very insightful quote recently, which said, “Problems aren’t solved, they are outgrown.” What I believe the author is referring to are inner problems; deficiencies of character, ego, pettiness, and small mindedness. In our youth, we are all servants of our egos. Much of our “lesser selves” emerge in the first half of life —anger, lack of self control, lack of empathy, mistrust, bitterness—all due to the inflation and protection of our egos. As we mature, and if we are courageous and develop the discipline to be reflective—to see ourselves as we truly are—we are given a chance to re-write our script. These inner problems in the first half of life can be out grown. We don’t so much solve these ego-centric problems; rather, we learn to recognize them, understand their root cause, and maturely outgrow their limiting and diminishing impact. This conversion must happen internally, and willingly, because inner conversion is borne of deep moral courage and a commitment to evolve as a person and as a leader. Some leaders never outgrow their problems. Great ones always do. This is the path to significance.
Obedience and Reverence
I’m reflecting on two terms that seem out of vogue in our modern world. The first is obedience. Classically, obedience was seen as a prized quality to be pursued in the service of a vocation or heroic ambition. Willing obedience reflects wisdom—in that we all need to have something eternal, timeless, and beyond ourselves to submit to. I learned the virtue of willing obedience in the Marine Corps; to be “always faithful” not because of a material gain, but because of the inherent value of fidelity. Reverence is another classic attribute worth remembering. To revere something—such as a truth, a maxim, a hero, or a model of excellence—is to align ourselves to a worthy ideal the pursuit of which teaches us humility and respect. What we revere, what we willingly bow down to, is the clearest reflection of who we are and what we stand for. Genuflecting is not very popular today; instead, we seem to prefer to bow to nothing except ourselves. As leaders, it’s healthy to relearn the value of healthy boundaries and the necessity of obedience and reverence to things greater than ourselves.
How to See
When I reflect on heroic leaders, past and present, I see in them a key distinguishing quality. Instead of focusing initially and primarily on “what to see” about leadership as many people do, they instead focus intently on “how to see.” This is a crucial difference. We must begin with “how to see” because this lens will define, and over time, refine our leadership paradigm. The lens through which we view life and leading is the single biggest determinant of leadership excellence. Why? Because our lens will refract and determine, for either good or ill, every decision and behavior. If we start with “what to see” about leadership, such as what do leaders do, then we neglect the biggest component of excellence, which is ourselves. We must master ourselves before we can exert positive influence over others. Self mastery and inner experience must come first. How to see as a leader, and how to see the world as a leader sees it, is the key ingredient to significant leadership. Focus first on how to see; then, what to see.
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Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of July 21st
July 21, 2014 | No Comments »
The Leader as the Lesson – Part I
I believe the highest form of mastery in leadership is significance. Significance, more than any other barometer, measures one’s impact after we’ve gone, not simply while we are present. Too often, when we think about leadership or teach leadership, the tendency is to reduce it to a situational tactic, and at best, talk about leaders in terms of situational success. When we perceive leadership through the lens of situational success, which is important but not fully sufficient, we succumb to a too-narrow lens on leading in which we try to distill leadership into tidy checklists and then try to package leadership success into “top 5 qualities of…” blog posts. A better approach is to expand our paradigm and move beyond situational success as our leadership aiming point and instead, target significance. When we do, we will create an expectation for leaders to generate an enduring affect, not just a situational solution. Significance is like indelible footprints; trusted guideposts for generations to follow long after the leader has gone. What’s the leader’s ultimate test? Become the lesson. You will leave, your example remains.
The Leader as the Lesson – Part II
Pope Paul VI said, “The world will believe teachers only if they have first been witnesses.” This insightful quote has much to teach about leaders too, who are, after all, and if done right–teachers. This powerful quote also reveals two maxims on which we should reflect often: (1) We must experience (witness) leadership as a personal crucible before we can honestly pass along its lessons to others; and (2) all that we can ever teach to others is, in the final analysis, what we have become. And what we have become is essentially our character, virtue, honor, courage, and fidelity. What we model daily as leaders, in the smallest things and especially when no one is looking, becomes a lesson we teach to others at a very deep level. The questions we must ask ourselves regularly are these: What do I model to others? Have I allowed the cauldron of leadership experience to convert me into a trusted teacher, and thus, into a trustworthy model of excellence worth following? Who we have become is our greatest lesson.
Vision and Right Energy
There are many problems leaders face guiding their groups, ranging from technical, to strategic, and even cultural issues. The way through these problems requires vision. However, vision alone is not enough. Leaders must also combine the right energy to propel their vision. Too often, unfortunately, leaders may provide the vision but tap into negative energy as the catalyst for movement and momentum. Always remember this: energy is highly imperialistic and will pull us in different directions depending on its nature. Healthy energy pulls us towards right action, while negative energy pulls us towards destructive action. So we must heed this timeless truth: Nothing great ever comes from negative energy born of grievance, victimization, bruised egos, partisanship, or entitlement. Yes, we need vision—a clear azimuth and end state for our group’s future. But the wind we harness to move towards that distant shore, the energy we select, must be positive lest we run aground by doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Attention
There’s a building next to our office staffed by young IT professionals. Each day at lunch many of them gather outside at a picnic table under a shade tree. This ritual at first blush seems to be healthy camaraderie but in reality, it’s the opposite. When they gather, none of them actually engages with the others. Instead of heads up, locked in attentive personal communications, they all are heads down, buried in their personal phones and tablets. They seem to lack full attention, and are oblivious to the present moment or present surroundings. I think this “heads down” image is a good reminder for all leaders about the difference between information and attention. Information is just distracting noise unless it is wisely filtered into intelligence, and then, deep knowing. When all we have is lots of unfiltered information that traps individuals in “heads down” posture, we get a decrease in focus and attention. Focused attention is at the heart of expert leadership and deep knowing. We need to teach young leaders about self regulation and the vital need to focus and be in full attention. A good start? Heads up and be present!
Inner Fire
When I think of leaders, great ones or bad ones, I envision within them different types of inner fire. Great leaders have a positive fire characterized by self-mastery, self-awareness, and self control. They are highly integrated people. Bad leaders have a negative fire because they have failed to master themselves; they have little-to-no executive control, are ego-centered, and thus are highly disintegrated people. That is a key difference between great and bad leaders: integration versus disintegration. If we are heroic, we funnel our inner fire into eros—positive and uplifting energy. If we are weak, we channel our inner fire into thanatos—Greek for destructive energy. Personal disciplines and habits will lead either to integration or disintegration within ourselves. And if we are leading others, we will, as a function of either our positive or negative inner energy, create either unity or division, respectively, within our groups. So we must always ask ourselves: What is my inner fire?
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!