Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of April 20th
One Four Zero
At the heart of expert leadership is the ability to provide vision and compelling end states to those we lead. However, in presenting vision many leaders use overly complex descriptions and mind-numbing bureaucratic language. We often do this because we believe more words, and more complex words at that, are more valuable in terms of reaching our audience. Actually, the opposite is true. When conveying vision and strategy the best filter leaders can employ is clarity. I like to call this The Law of One Four Zero: Like a tweet, if a leader cannot succinctly convey his message in 140 characters, then he/she doesn’t understand it well enough and should therefore go back to the drawing board. The Law of One Four Zero forces leaders to seek message clarity by asking, and then answering, this key question: What is the one big thing I am trying to convey, and therefore, the one big thing I want people to understand? The Law of One Four Zero is based on the proven leadership maxim that, in winning hearts and minds, less is often more.
Origin Story
I write often about the power of ethos in creating and sustaining organizational excellence. I have publically stated my firm believe that, if one had to distill lasting greatness down to a single distinguishing quality, ethos would be the one indispensable ingredient. I like to think of the power of ethos like the origin story of all great heroes. Whether mythic or comic book, all great heroes have their own big-bang tale describing the crucible of development calling forth their greatness. Similarly, magnificent organizations have similar origin stories. These stories may be partially mythic but these big bang stories nonetheless provide powerful insight into the perennial knowledge forming the heart and soul of the group. Leaders at every type of company, team, or firm would be well served to study, master, and bring to life the origin stories of their group. These origin stories should be told early and often as a way to reinforce camaraderie, esprit, élan, shared intentionality, and resilience. All great pursuits are fueled by heroic ambition, and all great companies are made of companions forged by heroic purpose.
Give Away Your Gold
“Behind Every Successful Young Leader Is A Mentor Who Sees The Protégé’s Success as His Success; The Protégé’s Failure As His Failure. Great Leaders Gain Mastery, Then Give It Away.”
– Paul Callan
White Hot Memories
Sam Young. That is the name of my senior Drill Instructor at Marine Officer Candidate School over 30 years ago. I can tell you with certainty; I will never forget Sam Young. Why? Because he has formed what I call white-hot memories in my mind. When we have novel experiences, events impacting all our senses, we register those memories in a specific part of our brain and those memories get chemically coded for heightened recall. This is why most of us can recall exactly where we were on 9/11 yet we can barely recall what we had for breakfast yesterday. So, how is this important to leadership? If we want people to remember key messages, things like our ethos and our purpose, then leaders need to find novel ways to tell those stories. We need to create emotionally charged events, through creative use of symbols, ceremonies, traditions, and rites, to imbue white hot memories in the minds of those we lead. White hot memories help us remember key information, but more so, they help us care, and connect, more deeply.
In Repair
The more I reflect on leadership excellence the more I’m convinced we’re always in a state of repair. Though we grow and mature, there’s always a nagging sense we aren’t quite there yet. Know the feeling? This is why I believe great leadership, and equally, building great teams, is more a matter of renovation than creation. Much about excellence is known, but often, this knowing atrophies and becomes neglected and forgotten. The ability to hold oneself within this tension, between knowing yet not yet fully knowing, is extremely hard. It takes great moral courage to stay on the path to excellence when confronted by the inevitable twists and turns of winning and losing. It takes great conviction to keep one eye on the distant high ground when the other eye sees only the daunting barrier in the foreground. So yes; aspiring leaders are always in repair and our groups in need of constant renovation. Though sobering, this insight nonetheless reveals the fidelity required to keep striving; to trust these acts of renovation are necessary steps in a purposeful life and key components to heroic ambition.
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