Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of November 17th
Experience It, Own It, Teach It
What is the best way to learn leadership? Experience it, own it, and then teach it. It may sound counterintuitive, but I must admit this fact: I have learned nothing of significance about leadership from studying a list of traits or a checklist of do’s and don’ts. I have, however, learned the most important leadership lessons through reflection and experience. To really learn leadership, we must solve its mysteries ourselves. These lessons cannot be handed to us; they most be discovered. And once discovered, then and only then can they be personally owned. There simply is no other way. If you doubt this, ask master craftsmen from other vocations how they learned their craft—a painter, a pianist, a dancer, a wood worker—and I am sure they will tell you the same truth of self-discovery and self-mastery. And once we’ve come to own leadership truths, the next best way to keep learning is to teach what you have learned to others. We learn best by teaching–by giving away our gold.
A Culture of Leadership
When one looks at successful organizations, it’s tempting to look at bottom-line measures of accomplishment–revenue, profit, and market share. I prefer to look at a top line measure: a culture of leadership. I look for organizations where leaders lead leaders, are dedicated to succession development and mentoring, and genuinely commit to developing one leader at a time. A culture of leadership is a talent mindset seeking to attract the best and brightest, cultivate champions, and create a life-cycle of heroic leadership. Why is a culture of leadership so essential to enduring success? Because well-honed talent, turned into self-motivated champions, truly drives a company’s success across time. It is not the bottom line, it is this top line that endures. Understood correctly, a culture of leadership should be the cornerstone of an organization’s strategy. We don’t alter or sacrifice our strategy to do this; it is our strategy! Leaders must therefore change their gaze from looking downward toward the bottom line and gaze upward to the top line by creating a culture of leadership.
Wall Art
Walk the corridors of most companies and you’ll likely find a neatly framed corporate mission statement. Most will be professionally printed, prominently displayed, and written in soaring language. The problem is, this style of mission statement is really meaningful only to the person who wrote it. For the rest it simply becomes wall art; passed by frequently as one moves up and down the corridor, but seldom read and probably never a catalyst for personal motivation. Why? Because a company’s mission only becomes motivating when it becomes personal! Leaders must therefore find creative ways to facilitate this conversion; find ways to make an abstract mission statement a personal mission. Leaders can lead this conversion by explaining the meaning of the mission to people directly, and then, create actual experiences for people to “feel” the mission. People must experience the mission to truly know and then own it. Leaders must transform their mission statements from wall art to living levers of personal motivation.
The Day After Talent
We are all born with native talents, whether we catalogue them as left-brain or right-brain, IQ, or any other intelligence category. However, as many scientific studies have confirmed, our native talent will take us only so far in leadership and life. Which begs this question: What happens the day after talent? What do leaders tap once their native talent plateaus? I believe the answer is grit. Grit is a uniquely American word born from our resilient frontier mentality that shaped the American ethos. Grit is a deep determination to not simply set challenging goals, but to see them through no matter the odds. Grit is a bone-deep toughness and tenacity—a kind of pluck—providing the backbone to remain resolute despite long odds. And let’s face it; leadership is full of long odds and daunting challenges. Grit is what we are left with once our talent has been maximized. Grit is what lets us move beyond the inevitable limitations of our talent set point. And when all else is equalized in terms of talent, it is grit that sets apart those who thrive from those who stall. Great leaders develop grit to handle the day after talent.
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