Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 2nd
Internal Compass
The result of cultivating true inner authority is the steady refinement of an internal compass; a “true north” wisdom keeping a leader on a heroic path. And as I reflect on the primacy of developing an inner compass, I believe there are four cardinal points of such a true-north touchstone. First, self mastery. Great leaders are self-aware and thus able to self-regulate, focus attention, and constantly spiral upwards towards excellence and wisdom. Second, a commitment to mentoring. Great leaders attain mastery in all forms, and then—they freely give it away. They focus on enduring significance of the group, not their personal success. Third, they build and maintain deep engagement with the group. They build deep bonds of affection, companionship, camaraderie, and esprit. Finally, great leaders celebrate ethos. By regularly extolling healthy traditions, customs, and rites and rituals, great leaders galvanize an elevated cornerstone of excellence binding generation to generation, and past to present.
Servant Leadership
There’s been much written over the years about the concept of Servant Leadership, about which I am regularly asked my opinion. Like many, I have a natural hesitation to take something as mysterious and truly artful as leadership and reduce it to a finite taxonomy, definition, or praxis. The danger in subscribing to a literal definition of leadership is not that it may be bad, per se, but rather, our unfortunate human tendency to turn a simple theory into overly literal rules and proscriptions. I believe leadership is a master craft that, at best, can be understood akin to a philosophy of life and living. Who we are, ultimately, determines how we lead. However, I do like the mental image that the term Servant Leadership evokes. For me, it suggests a leader who has rightly aligned purpose, actions, and intentions first inward, towards self mastery, and then outward towards the benefit of others. Servant Leadership reminds me of this personal observation: I can’t think of a single great leader in the past, or a truly satisfied person I know now, who wasn’t involved in serving some greater good. Can you?
Stuck
Leaders must learn to intentionally seek activities that break them free of the rat race. When we feel we are mindless in our jobs, we feel stuck. And when stuck, our leadership suffers, as do our followers. One way to break out is to align one’s leadership with a true calling or vocation. If we align our leadership to deep personal callings, meaning, or purpose, then the work begins to feel less like hardship and more like reward. This is the realm of peak experiences and deep satisfaction. Another way to break out is through recreation. Physical fitness and travel have always been deeply refreshing and rejuvenating elements in my life and my leadership, and in retrospect, I can see how deeply these hobbies have truly re-created me. When I work out or travel I always feel genuinely restored, rekindled, and re-awakened. And not just physically, but also mentally, spiritually, and psychologically. Most of my deep thinking, reflection, and self awareness comes when I am recreating. Recreation is therefore essential to sustaining self-mastery and to creating an upward spiral of growth.
Hints and Clues
Great leadership is mysterious and can’t simply be reduced to a set of menus and checklists. I prefer to avoid literal lists because I think that kind of simplistic approach misrepresents leadership as a tactic, instead of representing leadership in its true nature, which is more akin to a master craft. Leadership is hard, requires life-long commitment, and can only be mastered by solving leadership’s mysteries, one at a time, and by oneself. When we talk about truly great leadership, I think the best we can say is, “it is like.” I therefore believe a far more honest and effective way to master leadership is by studying what I call hints and clues…those gems revealed in reflecting on history, myth, legend, lore, metaphor, and parable. When we reflect on leadership mysteries revealed in these non-literal forms, we start to see subtle hints and clues of timeless leadership truths. We detect patterns. Moreover, we are forced to personally wrestle with these hints and clues and harvest the pearls of wisdom found therein. This is the only means to truly internalize the lessons, and thus, the only path for the leader to become the lesson.
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