Storms on the Horizon

No matter where you live in the world, storms exist. They also have very different natures. I come from Canada and am used to snowstorms. Imagine my wonder at the sight of my first sandstorm in Kuwait...

Here’s the leadership point... the kinds of storms you will face on your leadership excursion vary as do weather patterns around the world. Our storms are rarely repeated. Have any of these “weather patterns” affected your leadership life?

· A vision that is getting swallowed up in a fog of daily reality

· Employees rising up in a storm of anger, protest, resistance

· Economic turmoil

· The ‘perfect storm’ of multiple challenges that threatens to take down your leadership or organization

· Being frozen out of influence and realizing you are being sidelined

· A weather front from your personal life rolls in to affect your leadership

· ...

There’s a disturbance on my horizon. I started out here in Kuwait with a clear plan and confidence. But a storm started to brew, and things happened that I did not anticipate. Tried to wrestle it down, find a solution, and make mid-course corrections. In the end (actually I am not yet at the end), tough decisions had to be made that were right, but not easy.

How do you handle the storms? As I write this, I am still in a life & leadership challenge, so the things I am writing about are current. The following steps are helping me; some are still in-process. Some I take by faith that they will lead me to clear skies. So, as many blogs go, this is a personal journal of what I have come to know over the years can help me ride out the storms and emerge into clear weather.

So, as the weather gets bad around your leadership, or your life as a leader, here are some process considerations to help navigate the storm successfully...

Reflect

The default for many leaders is “dive in and solve this”. You are much wiser to step back and simply start reflecting. Reflecting is at its simplest: “taking a look”. Don’t bother analyzing yet. Take a snapshot of the storm. You can do this by asking some simple questions like:

· What is actually happening right now?

· Who else is affected by this?

· How might others be viewing this? (How can I get their opinion?)

· To what extent am I committed to successfully getting through this?

Process

At this stage it’s time to ask: “So, what does this mean?”

You can do this yourself, but I strongly advise against that! Most of us in reality are like a horse with the blinders on. We see only so far and usually in a particular direction. Involving others helps us get a 360 view of not only our situation, but also our thinking about the context.

Indulge me and let’s do some thinking about our thinking. The prefrontal cortex is where our executive functions are located. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. This area of the brain takes up about only 7% of our brain, but it consumes a high amount of physical energy. That’s why learning takes so much work! It's like the RAM in your computer... fussy and an energy drain! So, what our brain does is ‘hardwire’ everything it can, sending it to the "Hard Disk" so that it can be retrieved later with a minimum amount of effort. Our brains are wired so that we default to the ways in which we have thought in the past. It takes less energy to access that information, so we usually tend to ‘go there’. That’s what I refer to as ‘default thinking’; it’s the first thing we think about because our brain can access that thought (or pattern of thinking) without taking up so much energy.

But, think about this – in a storm, can we always rely on old patterns of thinking and behaviour to serve us well? This is where your friends and peers come in to help you ‘think’ from a different angle. You may find a new perspective that will help you face your storm. You may need help to learn a new way of not only seeing something, but of thinking about it.

And, if you have a major decision to make, you want the best of your brain on your side, not just ‘what comes to mind’.

Wait

Before a decision, it’s a good thing to create space between the issue and your need to make a decision. Walk away from it for a while.

Have you ever noticed how often an “AHA” moment occurs at some point after you have been hard at work thinking through a problem? There’s brain science behind that phenomenon too, but I won’t go into that here. (see the book reference below)

Decide

You do have to make a decision. They say that ‘not to decide is to decide’. That’s a half-truth. Not to decide is to:

· perpetuate the current chaos, which will control you if you decide not to control it

· live with lack of clarity and conviction, which will undermine your self-confidence

· create a destructive pattern in your thinking

Rarely, if ever, do we have all the facts in front of us when it is decision-time. We each make our decisions based on our own sets of criteria, which usually are a mix of the logical and intuitive ‘gut’ or ‘heart’.

For a fascinating read on how our brains work in decision making, I highly recommend John Lehrer's book "The Decisive Moment".

Act

Execute. Jesus once said: "Let your yes be yes and your no be no" - in other words, be integral once you have committed yourself and carry through on it.

I have made a decision. It’s time to execute. I still will have some of the storm to get through as a result of that decision. But the one thing a decision does is set your course for the next phase of your leadership. You now know where you are going.

Press on!

Harv Matchullis – June, 2010

The Things You Carry

The exotic camel caravan.

A fortunate few have seen it in real life. Most of us depend on National Geographic specials. Nomadic desert peoples learned what the essentials were for living and ensured those were packed on camels or other animals and replenished when necessary.

As your leadership navigates the landscape of an ever-changing world, you are much like those nomadic peoples. You have to think carefully about what you take with you on the trip. So, what are the things you carry on your leadership sojourn?


1. We Carry Our Past

Tim O’Brien’s’ book: “The Things They Carried”, set in wartime Vietnam chronicles a number of characters and the physical, emotional and psychological things they carried into battle. A fascinating read, based in real life war experience but crafted as fiction. This story reminded me that we all carry things INTO our leadership & vocations that originate in our past and affect our lives today. Our culture typically uses the word “baggage” to describe this concept. We tend to apply the term negatively, however not all baggage is negative. But baggage has influence.

When is the last time you opened the “backpack” of things you carry? Have you ever taken the time to think about your past and how it influences your leadership? Our history has an influence on our future and we should pay attention to it. In some cases you are carrying things that make your leadership great or unique. In other cases, you may have heavy rocks in that backpack that need to be removed because they are hampering your effectiveness.

How has your leadership effectiveness and character been shaped by things such as:

• Family of origin
• Socio-cultural context
• Significant people, places and events in your formative years
• Things people have spoken into your life that have inspired or deflated you

Do not discount these influences on your life. Celebrate the things that have made you unique and strong. Address the issues that have left you with a limp. You can do this in a number of ways:

• Take a personal retreat to reflect on your life
• Go through a “life mapping” exercise. This is NOT goal setting. These are retreats or documents that guide you to systematically walk through your life from infancy to the present, identifying the key people, places, events and circumstances you have experienced and the lessons/impact they bring. You build your life story. Those who go through these exercises are often awakened to the patterns and lessons from their histories that have shaped their lives. A significant by-product is greater clarity on your life direction. If you want further information, email me at: info@visiontracks.ca
• Employ the services of a life coach. Coaches work with your agenda, so if you ask a coach to help you understand your past and how it connects to your future, they will work with that. Feel free to visit my website for information on coaching: www.visiontracks.ca


2. We Carry Too Many Things Alone

It’s far too easy to keep carrying character qualities or skills that don’t work. If you are largely a loner in leadership, you won’t see these things. You may look at yourself in the proverbial mirror and think “I’m OK”, but isolated self reflection does not provide a fully accurate picture of who you are.

The rise of the 360 review is an excellent way to gain more balanced feedback. However typically these instruments relate primarily to work-related skills and qualities. I challenge you to go deeper and create a circle of peers who can give you feedback at a deeper level. Let’s face it; it is a rare work context that will care about these kinds of issues:

• Personal character development
• The quality of your relationships with family, friends
• The things you think about that impact your leadership effectiveness

Think about inviting 3 or 4 others whom you trust to be your circle of confidants. Invite them into a relationship where you will challenge each other to not only be great leaders in your chosen fields, but also great men/women of character. Character is the foundation for success.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
-John Wooden-

I was a loner for many years. A nomadic leader, I was largely self-sufficient as I worked my way through Canada, Indonesia, Cambodia and then back to Canada. Over the years I had many great acquaintances and colleagues. Lots of shop-talk and camaraderie. But the deeper issues of character development were left unexposed. I carried them alone. At one point I was challenged to stop the independence streak and include others at a deeper level. Once I chose to open this area of my life up to further scrutiny, my quality of life improved both on the professional and relational fronts.

Who’s got your back? Who will fight for you? Who cares for you as a person, not just as a leader?


3. We Carry Old TechnologyAt a time when I was feeling somewhat over-satisfied with myself, I was challenged by John Maxwell with his statement: “Are you in danger of becoming a ‘mundane man’”? I was. Looking in the mirror I thought I had all that was needed for the rest of my life. If I kept on that track, I’d forever be feeding the future from my past – and at some point I’d find myself in a deficit position, unable to rise to new opportunities and challenges. I would end up, well, MUNDANE. His challenge was to become a lifelong learner.

The nomadic leader is continually packing and repacking – taking what is essential for the trip, looking ahead at the coming conditions and preparing appropriately. Lifelong learning not only adds to your repertoire of things to carry, but also helps you to know what things to jettison. Not every skill or knowledge-ware you possess has applicability in all situations.

If you learn nothing today, you'll have nothing to give tomorrow. Stay sharp.

Regularly check your leadership supplies. The things you carry today will influence the measure to which you are prepared for tomorrow.

Harvey Matchullis