The Fires of the Forge

Leadership: Time and Timing--Part 2

I believe that in order for a leader’s life and work to feel purposeful, that leader must have found the (a) meaning of life. I do not know how it can be any other way. There are lots of folks more than willing to guide you into finding your purpose—lots of books, seminars, workshops, etc. Right?

Have you considered the absurdity of looking for your life purpose if you have not reached your own understanding of the meaning of life? That is like trying decide what sporting goods you need to pack for your vacation when you haven’t decided where you are going on vacation, what you want to get out of that vacation, who is going with you on vacation, whether you want to play sports on vacation, and if so, what sports are available to you there.

What is the meaning of life? None of us, I guess, can truly know. We certainly can have strong beliefs about it, but is it possible to unequivocally know beyond all shadow of a doubt? I don’t think so, but tell me if I am wrong. So, we must make one up, I suppose. And perhaps making up that meaning should be based on some observation of what we are seeing over time. What can you see, my friend?

I see a planet that appears to revolve, and life that appears to evolve. And what else do I see? I see a continual conflict, a conflict between the light and the darkness, between love and fear, between oppression and liberation. What else? Relationships, relationships everywhere.

So what can I surmise about the meaning of life? That it moves. That the movement seems to be an evolution. That the evolution tends to revolve around friction and evolve through relationships. So, to me, life (and therefore leadership, which is simply a part of life) is about evolution.

So if your leadership actions are not inherently tied to fostering evolution, you will never consciously tap into the power of timing. All you will have to work with is time, and you will lead with a significant disadvantage compared to those leaders who are now developing a sense of what timing is.

So what does this have to do anything, Otis? Well, in prior posts we’ve talked about the inner angst, and how it is related to an unresolved wound. But there is another source of the angst, and it seems to be the insatiable desire of the human being to find a sense of completion, of fulfillment, of peace, to end the feeling of lacking something we cannot quite put our fingers on.

Just as a baby’s cry has the undeniable and uncannily powerful effect of stirring the mother to notice and to act, so our inner angst spurs us to evolve. Without that drive to evolve, new lands wouldn’t be discovered, new markets would not be tapped, paradigms would not be broken and oppressive regimes (and bosses, you've had one) would never be toppled. All gets swept up in the wave of evolution, and your purpose is to engage in it and your leadership is about using that wave to translate vision into reality in a way that uplifts people and positively affects life itself.

But we have lost our way in that. So many leaders have misplaced their angst, and further, have misinterpreted what will soothe that angst. Nothing will make it go away, I suppose, for to be a human being is to feel a lack of something. But you can understand the meaning of it, and you can participate in it, and therefore it you can find it very purposeful. And herein lies a need to understand time and timing.

More on that in the next post.

Leadership: Time and Timing--Part 1

The recent election has me thinking about the implications on leaders and leadership.

What does/will this election mean? Many leaders are sorting through the tangible implications, such as what it means for income taxes, credit markets and new market opportunities. And all those things are important and must be considered.

What are the deeper implications? I believe if we are going to be relevant leaders in the future, we need to look at the deeper implications of this as well.

Regardless of your response to the outcome, you have to admit this was an election of epic proportion. No matter who won, history was going to be made. The question on my mind is whether Barack Obama’s election is signaling something about a societal or cultural change, an evolution of some form. And what of the timing of it? And why am I here, alive, now, in the middle of this? And what is an appropriate response, now? And what are the opportunities I can engage in and cannot yet see?

I don’t have any answers. But I can tell you what is working on me, and what I am working with. One is that I am revising all my products and services to align with where I think leadership is headed, and where I need to go as a human being. As I do this, I am taking myself through the new processes I am designing. I am surprised by the degree to which I am affected by this. A strengthening and a softening.

How I feel inside is changing: And things outside of me appear to be in a parallel change. What I sensed around Obama’s election, a softening of the people by the people and for the people at the same time a degree of dawning that there is no free lunch and that something is now possible that wasn't before.

The people I talk with don't believe Obama alone will be able to do much. The general sense of the people I talk with is we the people are going to have to put our shoulder to the wheel if we are going to move forward from here. Obama can possibly lead it, but it is up to you and I to actually do it. That seems to be where things are headed.

This concept of putting the shoulder to the wheel (effort) brings me back to the concept of timing. Most leaders I know get things done through sheer force of will—I will not be denied. They select their goal. They define and control their means. They pick their time. And they drive towards it. That requires extraordinary effort, and in our society, we glorify it. Have you thought about that?

But what of timing? What would happen in your business and life if you shifted from managing time to engaging in timing? What would happen to the effort expended for a given unit of outcome? And what would become possible that has been impossible? And, will willpower and effort be enough to remain effective, successful—relevant, even—in the future we face? And who would you and I have to become in order to make the shift from "time" to be able to also actively include "timing"?

This is what I’d like to explore this week, and perhaps tie in how the inner angst relates to it. (And you thought I was done with that.)

Leadership Perspective: How to Help Your People in These Times

How are your people handling these stressful times? And how are you helping them? A CNN news poll just reported that 66% of Americans are scared and 75% are angry and stressed out. Here's the article. CNN Poll: Americans angry, worried over state of the nation.

Just before this poll, I traveled to upstate New York to visit a client, Tom, and his management team. Tom and his team run a top-notch organization and have their sights on some exciting growth and expansion.

During my trip from Santa Fe to his location, I was very surprised how rude and angry people were being to one another. At one gate the way the airline's personnel were treating one another was shocking. Tension and terseness between passengers was evident and amplified. What is going on?

Tom said to his team, "We have two hours with Otis. Given where you know we are taking our company, what would you like to talk with him about?"

We had a very engaging conversation, and it wouldn't be appropriate to cover it here. But part of what came out of that surprised me and is appropriate to share. Two of the managers were very open--heartfelt, actually--about their concerns about where this great country of ours is headed and the impact that would have on their company, and them. I cannot verbalize to you the way that affected me.

We are in to the unknown and our people (and family and friends) need us in ways we are probably numb to.

So what can you do to help your people?

1. Look for signs: When you see people acting out of character, rather than dismissing the behavior or whacking them, sit down for a minute or two with them. Connect. Take 10 extra minutes and find out what is on their mind. Then, respond to them. Two out of three people you are working with are scared, my friend. When people are scared, they do stupid, hurtful things. Help them.

2. Find your center and keep it: If you are amped up, your people will be, too. If you have drifted away from your prayer, meditation, quiet time, spiritual reading, etc., get back to it. Now. And, more importantly, take that centeredness with you through the day. Slow things down a little bit.

Do you remember the mood after 9/11? Can you feel that again? Feel it now. Treat everyone like you treated them when you were feeling that feeling after 9/11, where people were more real, more authentic, more caring, more slow, more dialed in to what truly matters. Do we actually require a disaster to trigger, well, warmth? Give it proactively.

3. Prepare your self internally: Louis Pasteur said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." The funny thing about that is the rational mind is inherently fearful when it is uncontained by the heart. So your mind cannot possible be prepared if your heart isn't. Further, your rational mind is practically useless when it comes to navigating the unknown. You have to feel your way through the unknown and feeling is about being open-hearted.

So here is the drill. Most everyone around you--given that they are angry and fearful--are trapped in their minds. Do not join them there. Stay attuned to what you are feeling, good or bad. Acknowledge it and accept it. Keep your heart open. One of the best ways to do that is to truly listen with every fiber of your being and noticing all the little details of life all around you. By keeping your heart open, not only do you help calm and steady others, but your intuition will help you find your way through these times.

4. Don't buy in to the fear: There are people in high places right now that are having their way with us. It is very easy to manipulate an entire people when you can whip up enough fear in them. We are there. I am not saying you should be a Pollyanna. I am saying see it straight, yes. But also know that there is a tremendous amount of manipulation going on right now. Do not join your people, your friends and family in being caught up in that. If you do not succumb to the fear-mongering, you provide a steady light for your people to find their way out of the fear, too.

5. Provide a sense of context: When people are fearful and angry you can pretty much count on two things. First, they will blame. Second, they will freeze. Clarity overcomes fear. So, for clarity, ask very powerful questions.

Do you suppose others like us have been through unprecedented times before? How'd they get through? Do you suppose that we all have contributed to this situation? If not, will blame get us anywhere? If so, how have we contributed?

Do you suppose that if we stopped doing those things, you and I, that perhaps that would help?

Are you feeling you should do something to prepare yourself and your family that you haven't done? What is that? Can you do that with the motive of simply being more responsible for your self--like the founders of this country were--rather than doing it out of fear? What is the next action you could take to feel more secure?

What good might come from this crisis? Based on your spiritual beliefs, what good might come of it?

Etc.

6. Prepare your self externally: What do you feel you should be doing, if anything, to best prepare your self and your family to be more self-sufficient? List them on a sheet of paper. Do those things. What, if anything, do you need to do to have you and your family live in a more balanced way? List those things. Do those things. When you take the actions you feel you should take (as long as you are not acting out of fear), you gain power. If you don't act, you may end up with a case of the regrets like you've never experienced before.

7. Keep pushing your self open more and more widely: When leaders feel under seige, they contract and strap on armour. That is a survival response ages old--when we are physically attacked, our muscles harden like armour to protect us, and we contract into the lowest profile possible to present as small a target as we can.

Even though we are not under physical attack now, we do the same thing. When leaders contract, they become increasingly guarded. Their thoughts and actions become increasingly separative. Leaders with low emotional intelligence place armour over their vulnerability.

Emotionally intelligent leaders know their strength lies in their vulnerability. When leaders with high emotional intelligence are under stress, they expand, becoming ever more inclusive and sensitive to all of life around them. They are fearless, because the heart is fearless. Push open your warrior-heart, and envelop all of life around you...

You are more powerful than you can possibly know. Find that power, and help your people, your family, your community and your country. Do it now. And watch the impact you have on all of life around you.

That is leadership.

 

Leadership Perspective: Nothing Can Grow Forever

I was reading Michael McKinney's blog Leadership Now today and his post Nothing Can Grow Forever. He summarized there some of Peter Drucker's writings from the 1980's along the same lines--that things expand, sometimes for decades, then they contract. Part of the reason nothing can grow forever is that continual exponential growth is simply unsustainable--it takes more and more to keep up the same percentage increase.

I was with Automatic Data Processing for some 12 fantastic years. During the first ten of those years, ADP was a "ruler stock". It sold at a 28x earnings multiple (a premium for the industry) because ADP had more than 140 quarters of year over year double-digit earnings per share growth. A Wall Street analyst's darling.

Eight years in to my 12 years there, the whispers began about the potential end of that run. Purely from a statistical standpoint it was becoming increasingly probable that the exponential growth could not be sustained because growth on top of compounding growth becomes, well, huge. Fear mounted. Empowerment of its executives--its hallmark--submitted to micro-control. It happened. The string ended.

The net is, we are obsessed by growth. Nothing has value unless it is growing, right?

I attended a presentation on the unsustainability of growth by Dr. Albert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Colorado on growth. This charismatic man's presentation was amazing. He's made this presentation to Congress. It should be a must-see in CEO circles, boardrooms and business schools. The core of his message is dead simple: anything that grows continuously is harmful, that we are obsessed with growth, and we do not understand the implications of it. In his own more scholarly words, "THE GREATEST SHORTCOMING OF THE HUMAN RACE IS OUR INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE EXPONENTIAL FUNCTION."

Listen. Part of leadership is seeing things differently than other people see them. You have very likely bought into a notion that growth is good and contraction is bad. In fact, you have bought into a notion that what we should strive for is continual growth. I am not asking you to change that perception. But I am challenging you to see growth from a different perspective. How?

Well, one way is to watch Dr. Bartlett's presentation. I just did a little research for you and the CU Bookstore sells a DVD of his presentation for a whopping 12 bucks (plus $10 shipping). You can get it by clicking here: Sustainability 101: Arithmetic, Population and Energy. I cannot vouch for the quality of the DVD, but I can vouch for this man's message. It is strong. And anyone who uses examples such as the price of Vail lift tickets to explain the exponential function is my hero.

I just ordered my copy.  And you?

Leadership Perspective: The New Civil War

I am taking some time this sabbath to look at other leadership blogs (which are not as easy to find as I thought) and came across Unfolding Leadership by Dan Oestreich.  I enjoyed his message from his post, Our Civil War, describing his reflections on these times. Dan, like me, works with leaders and emphasizes self-knowledge as the greatest skill a leader can possess.

As Dan described his reflections on these times as he walked through a rainforest in Washington State, his words reminded me that neither pole--not the Republicans nor the Democrats--have the answer. The anger that we have seen coming up is nothing more than an identification with a given pole. With that identification comes concretization. The two-party, two-pole system has gotten us here. But what got us here won't get us to where we need to go.

I find solace in knowing that, at the end of the day, the government and everything else is nothing but a reflection of the people--remember, "a government for the people and by the people?" If government is out of control and imbalanced, who can we look to but ourselves? I find solace in the fact that when enough leaders--and who is not a leader--reclaim their power, that we will all begin walking towards a common ground, a new ground, a higher ground.

It really isn't any more complex than each of us inventorying how we give our power away, and how we contribute to all the imbalances around us, and, step-by-step doing the work. The smallest of acts is significant.

For example, when I traveled last week, a carried my own bar of soap, shampoo and conditioner. I left the hotel's supplies totally untouched, moving my small bar of soap from tub to sink and back as needed. It was one small act, and yet is was a choice, a mindful act, a disciplined act. 

Each week, I will find and take more actions like that. And my hope is that my unconscious reactions to this world situation become more like intelligent responses, and that the fear I get caught up in becomes increasingly like unconditional love in action--speaking the truth fearlessly, supporting unconditionally and caring enough to act courageousely. That is how this country started, and I believe that is the crux of how it will either evolve and thrive, or will have served its purpose and its time.

Unfolding Leadership blog