Meditations On Leadership
These are my thoughts on leadership related topics and ideas. It is meant to be a sort of journal for me and if you find it useful than I am happy to have helped.
The world around you is very different from the world you have in your mind. I can't count the times that I made an assumption based on what I could see outside of my metaphorical window only to find out later that it was wrong. The scary thought is that most of the time we never discover we were wrong in our assumption and we go on living as if what we assumed was actually true. I can't pinpoint the moment when I first realized this but I do catch myself thinking differently. Just the other day someone was telling me about how terrible old so-and-so was because they had purposefully left them out of a social event. I asked if it was possible that it was an accident and the flabbergasted person very forcefully asserted their original position. Later, it was discovered that it was truly unintentional and no ill will was felt at all. But in that moment the individual that I was talking to was living in a reality in their mind that was far from what was real. In the book Leadership From The Inside Out the author Kevin Cashman talks about seven shifts that you need to make in order to make lasting change in an organization. I think they are good steps for changing yourself as well. Below are those steps and my thoughts about them. 1-Shift from problem focused to opportunity focusedThe Universe doesn't wish anyone ill and humans are extremely well equipped to turn even the worst situations into learning and growing opportunities. This can be plainly demonstrated in Man' Search For Meaning where the author Viktor Frankl chronicles his experience of surviving a concentration camp in WWII. Whatever problem you are faced with turn it into an opportunity. If it is a wide reaching problem that many people face it is usually even more of an opportunity than most people can imagine. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that is currently raging through the world one of the most impacted industries was the live events and entertainment industry. For obvious reasons people weren't getting together for those events. Now, well into the pandemic, some of those companies are gone. They just don't exist or they are a fraction of what they once were. Yet others have adapted to the new world we live in and have moved to virtual platforms. They all faced the same problem with different results. How can you make your problems opportunities? 2-Shift from short term to long term"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." -Seneca. In keeping with the thoughts of Seneca do not waste your time trying to get short term results or focus on short term goals. Think long term. Think about the impact your choices will have on generations. Not on how you will meet quarterly goals. Managers will figure that out. Leaders need to concern themselves with bigger things. Like former Secretary of State Colin Powell said “Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.” 3- Shift from circumstance focused to purpose focusedIt isn't very often that you can do much about the circumstances that you are placed in, at least not the challenging ones. You can choose to not go to the bar and thus avoid any negative circumstance you might find yourself in there, or leave the bar if you find yourself in a bad circumstance. What is important here are the circumstances that you have little control over. Like getting let go or being injured in an accident. If your purpose is your focus and you have something that you are working toward you can find your way through any circumstance. When I was in high-school I was involved in every program that I could get in to. I was on the student body council, I ran track, played tennis, was on the choir council and the drama council, I went to every football game, and attended every school dance. Then one Sunday when I was a senior I felt a pain in my back and went to lie down on the sofa in my living room. As I bent over to pick up a blanket I felt a snap in my back and was suddenly paralyzed by pain. It turned out that in all my activity I had fused two of my vertebra together on one side and when I bent down that day they had separated and the disc between the vertebra herniated. The swelling put pressure on my spinal cord causing immense amounts of pain. I missed the rest of my senior year and it took months of therapy to get back on my feet. It still bugs me off an on to this day. One afternoon during my therapy I was supposed to walk around the turnaround in my parent's driveway. I was using a cane at this point and I can vividly remember standing on the lawn leaning on my cane in pain trying to get the will to walk around that turnaround. I'm religious and I believe in the power of prayer so I started to pray. I didn't ask "God why me?" because I had been taught that was wrong to ask. Instead I prayed "God I need to know that there is meaning behind my suffering. Please give me meaning." To my surprised I felt a wave of the inspiration wash over me and knowledge poor into my mind. Suddenly I knew that what I was experiencing was giving me insight into the sufferings of others and would allow me to be more compassionate. I knew from experience what it was like to not be able to get out of bed for days on end. I what it was like to not be able to open a door because of the pain and what it was like to have to use a cane to support myself. I experienced so much in that time that gave me knowledge of the way that people who suffer feel. And in that moment my suffering gained meaning and I was able to find purpose in my circumstance. 4- Shift from Control focused to Agility focused"It's not the big that eat the little, it's the fast that eat the slow." - Jason Jennings. Returning to my story about live entertainment companies in the Covid-19 pandemic another reason why some of the companies succeeded and some did not was because some of the companies were able to change quickly and others were not able to change at all. Change is a constant in the world and rather than trying to control everything focus on being able to adapt to every change. That is how evolution works in the natural world and in the man made world of society and business. Those that can adapt survive and those that cannot become extinct. 5- Shift from Self focused to Service focusedI used to ask myself what venture I could undertake to make the most money. I even started my schooling in medicine because I thought that I could get rich as a doctor. I grew up poor and wanted more than anything to claw my way out of that. I never got anywhere with that though. All of my ventures that I started with that attitude failed and (thankfully) I never became a doctor. Now I focus on what I can do. Where I can make the biggest impact and I am much happier in my endeavors and I have a general sense of moving forward which is fulfilling. I encourage you to make the shift from being selfish to serving others. I promise it will be worth it. 6- Shift from being the expert to being the listenerEven if you are the expert it pays to listen. It literally pays to listen. During the Korean War General Douglas MacAthur was one of the foremost experts on war. Yet he refused to listen to (and sometimes the information never even got to him) information about the enemy. He relied on his expertise more than he listened to those around him. I don't mean to tarnish his reputation beyond the damage that has been done to it already. I still believe that he was a great General and did a lot of great things. But he stopped listening during the Korean War and it was a very expensive mistake in both lives and money. Don't make the same mistake. 7- Shift from doubt focus to trust focusIf you have ever been burned this is not easy to do. I once told someone I love and I am very close to something that was embarrassing about myself and asked them not to share it. Later (like happens all too often) I found out they did share it and I was devastated. That sort of thing happens and when trust is broken like that it is not easily repaired. There is another side of trust though. As a leader when you are questioning someone about a project or a task is it out of doubt or is it out of curiosity? The difference is important because people can sense when you are doubting them and that doubt will negatively impact their performance and your relationship with them. When you ask questions, and you should always ask questions, ask them from a place of curiosity and use questions to reinforce trust rather than reinforce doubt. It is all about the intention behind your words. You can ask the same questions with different intent and everyone will know what your intention is when you ask. People are intuitively smart that way. Hopefully this list helps you. Like I mentioned above I got it from the book Leadership From The Inside Out and I recommend reading it. It is important to shift your perspective so that you have a more clear view of reality. This list and the book Leadership From The Inside Out helped me to shift my perspective and I hope it can help you too.
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AuthorJ. LaVarr Roberts Archives
April 2021
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