Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of December 29th
The Smooth and The Rough
Leadership is a uneven path strewn with victories and defeats, broad avenues and twisting lanes, steep inclines and easy downgrades, dark valleys and sunlit uplands. As leaders we must learn to master both the smooth and the rough. During smooth times, when our team is winning, we must celebrate excellence, give credit where credit’s due, sustain positive momentum, and infuse our people with alacrity and spirit. When times get rough, when we’ve taken some hits and, per chance, lost; this is when true character and heroic leadership must ascend. During gloomy periods leaders must pierce the darkness with rays of renewed energy, a truthful dose of hard reality, and gritty optimism. Leaders must project to their people, in word and deed, this vital sentiment: I have your back in adversity even more so than in good times.
Willpower
That leadership is the blending of thought and action is fundamental. So, what quality distinguishes Heroic leaders in this regard? Willpower. Great leaders are fiercely willing: willing to learn; willing to sacrifice; willing to master themselves; willing to remain resolute against long odds. What is true in leadership is also true in any field of struggle, be that war, sports, or business: victory is usually gained through superior willpower. Too often leaders devote too much time to planning and dreaming and become paralyzed in action. Once a leader is confident in an azimuth of direction, the characteristic most essential to achieving excellence from that point forward is the will to succeed. Leaders, through constant vigilance and willpower, apply great exertion to bend fate towards their chosen trajectory.
History
Reflecting on great leaders from the past is one of the best ways for us to discern the timeless truths and trustworthy patterns of excellence. Though we see in each historical figure a separate and distinct person, we also recognize, in spite of this uniqueness, a common path of development. I have noted before my firm belief that we do not read history to go back in time; rather, we read history to bring its wisdom into us. We read history to pull the lessons of the past into us, but oriented to our modern realities. Leaders must have a deep appreciation for the arc of history, what I call the “grand parade” of time, to correctly see the greater patterns of truth from which excellence emerges. More importantly, today’s leaders should never forget that we study history not simply for its broadening and expanding affect, but also to remind us of this more pressing reality: We are making history, right now, by virtue of our leadership action or inaction.
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