Track Your Organizations' Impulses

 

If you like where you are; if your organization is all about itself and maintaining stability & control at the centre, don’t read any further.  I won’t convince you to change.  You are the person who tunes the radio to their favorite station and then pulls the dial off the radio so it can never be changed. 

Enjoy your music.

But if there is even a hint of impulse toward serving someone or some purpose outside the space your building and people occupy, keep reading. 

Businesses often state they are about innovation for the ‘marketplace’.  Churches say they are about the ‘mission’.  Retailers focus on the ‘customer’.  Non-profits express their existence is for the ‘client’ or a broader social purpose.  Most state their organizational impulse is for a purpose or people beyond themselves.  Wonderful. 

However, if your impulse is truly beyond yourself, do your current organizational structures and processes reinforce & support  that?

Within our North American culture we pride ourselves on our ability to change with the times.  We believe we are innovative and flexible enough to adjust to the needs of our customer or target audience. Yet in the business world the field is littered with once-great, well known companies who have talked the talk but could not take the walk.  Blockbuster, Eastman Kodak, Sears and Yahoo are but a few of the big-name examples of companies with commitments to change but who did not adapt well.  I can identify a few non-profits who started with the most altruistic and noble of impulses, but as they grew in size they grew in complexity and along with it found they became bloated or myopic, and inevitably off course.

Much of the reason for this is that with time and success, people in groups, whether as businesses or non-profits, think less and less about the further development of ways to serve their original ‘outward’ impulses, and more about how to preserve what they have.  (By the way, that’s a natural tendency of all human beings).  They will walk and talk right up to the edges of change, but taking the step over into real change is rare.  Leadership talks about innovation in order to keep serving the needs of the person or customer, but leaderships' walk usually reinforces it’s about keeping the business or the organizations' status quo.  When you see a company driven by stock price over principle, or a non-profit influenced more by its donor-base than the needs of the people it serves, you have an indication of what I mean.  No one likes hearing this because we all live in the illusion that we are change-agents.  Our culture regularly streams out the message of change, but our collective rhetoric proves we no longer get the point.  Talk about change has become a cheap and easy way to maintain leadership currency.

But true leadership is about identifying and declaring current reality in light of where you want to go and then being bold enough to address the gap.

Conduct a brief audit of your own organization:

·         How do we expend our primary personnel resources?

·         What does our budget indicate to an outsider as our priority areas?

·         Where do most of our activities take place and what does that say about who and how we serve?

·         What gets celebrated in our organization and what does that indicate about what we value?

·         What are the top 3-4 areas where leadership expends their energy?  How does that define the core ‘impulses’ of our organization?

(Would you be bold enough to use these questions as a 360 of your organization?)

If the assessment reveals a significant gap, let me propose a solution:

An ongoing perpetual strategy for maintaining focus on your core impulses is to identify and release the people within your organization who already have the capacity for reflection, ingenuity and innovation.  I can tell you right now that there are people within your organization who are connected to your original impulses and who think about it...a lot.  How are they heard?  Is there a place for them?  They often exist a little ‘in orbit’ around the hairball of your organizational inertia.  Sometimes you might feel they work for you and against you all at the same time.  They ask too many questions.  They might even be complainers.  Their ideas are just a little too off the wall.  “Can’t they ever just put their nose to the grindstone and do the job”??

Yet they are a key to ensuring that you make whatever changes are needed to stay true to your original organizational impulse.  Rarely do the answers to needed change & innovation come from corporate strategy sessions.  Rather, they come from within individuals who are not only set free by the organization to think innovatively, but who carry within themselves the capacities for ingenuity. What you need to do as a leader is find a way to let them be themselves to examine, criticise, dream and innovate.  Come into their space once in a while and hear what they have to say.  Spin them off in orbit on a retreat, or in specialized task groups.  Ground them in the organizations’ core impulse, and then release them to discover how to stay true to that.  Feed them with the freedom of thought and innovation towards a grounded purpose.

 

The Jesuits, of all organizations, have the most to say to all of us about releasing ingenuity.  They were/are one of the most decentralized yet focused organizations on earth.  (You can read in detail about their founding principles and extremely dispersed organizational philosophy in a book by Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit himself who worked in the banking and non-profit industries.  His book is “Heroic Leadership”, 2003, by Loyola Press).  For them, ingenuity is the readiness to ‘cross the world’ at a moments’ notice in pursuit of a good opportunity.  It is the willingness to work without a script and the creative embrace of new ideas.  It is not achieved merely by developing the skills leadership pundits always champion for innovation:  imagination, adaptability, creativity, flexibility etc.  Rather, it is about adopting the demeanour, attitudes and worldview that make creativity and adaptation possible.  What is that stance? It is an “optimistic view of the world thoroughly shot through with (divine) love. Ingenuity blossoms when the personal freedom to pursue opportunities is linked to a profound trust and optimism that the world presents plenty of them.  Imagination, creativity, adaptability and rapid response become the keys for finding and unlocking these opportunities” (pg 128 – Heroic Leadership).

Ingenuity is NOT however the blind pursuit of anything new and creative.  It is in pursuit of a broader purpose or a core impulse that ingenuity takes on meaning.  The Jesuits had a purpose to ‘help souls’ and left it up to the ingenuity of their people to make that happen.  What resulted was a global kaleidoscope of endeavours, but all in pursuit of this purpose.

Your organization may grow to get involved in many things, but do they serve the core impulse of why you exist?  Reject the impulse of inertia.   As the leader, restate your organizations’ core impulse and release the ingenuity of your people to help you regain that ground and innovate your way back (or forward) towards the accomplishment of your primary purpose for existence.

Harv Matchullis

Diversify...Your Dreams

This is a re-post of a blog from the Harvard Business Review on Tuesday Feb 28, 2012, written by Daniel Gulati, who is a tech entrepreneur based in New York. He is a coauthor of the new book Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. Follow him on Twitter at @danielgulati.

While Daniel focuses his attention on the under-35 crowd in this blog, my experience is that for many "Nomadic Leaders" this is not exclusive to that age group.  Nomadic Leaders love to 'wander' their world looking for ideas, opportunities and new fields of engagement.   An intriguing question is:  "At what point will you be content to settle in for a while?

Harv Matchullis

Here's Daniels blog post in full...

If you ever want to lie awake at night, go ahead and think about your "one thing" — the one thing you were born to do, the one career you were built to succeed at, and the one person you were destined to spend the rest of your life with. Attempting to solve these impossible optimization riddles is a sure path to emotional turmoil, an unsatisfying professional life, and, well, a pretty bleary-eyed morning.

In writing Passion and Purpose, I learned that smart, well-intentioned individuals have a destructive tendency to oversimplify their passions and dreams, distilling them down to a series of these "one things." I saw a young accountant's elaborate plan to land his dream job of becoming CEO of a professional services firm, else be considered a failure. I witnessed one of my peers who, just days after her wedding, became absolutely angst-ridden about whether she had married her one universal soul mate. Still others float from job to job, from life tragedy to triumph, in the never-ending quest to discover their one purpose.

If you're smart, well-intentioned, and under 35, you're particularly at risk. After analyzing our survey of over 500 business school students, this much is clear: You're a generation of idealists. Free from the traditional shackles of perceived prestige and financial compensation, you rate intellectual challenge as the most important reason for choosing a job. Not content with mere intellectual idealism, you also demand geographical optimization. You travel from country to country (an average of 4.6 times within 10 years of graduation), with 92% of your peers agreeing that more gender, professional, functional, sexual orientation, racial (and you-name-it) diversity is better. You're cross-pollinating industries, with 84% agreeing that it's essential for business leaders to understand the public and nonprofit sectors. And you're aggressive connectors — members of an average of 2.4 social networks. In short, you're feeling the unrelenting pressure to optimize amongst the vast array of choices available to you, and you won't stop debating, traveling, pollinating, and connecting until you hit on your "one thing." You've been told all your life not to compromise, and you're doing what you're told.

But there's a dark side to this behavior that applies to everyone. In the process of trying to hit life's elusive home runs, at least two negative things are happening to you. Firstly, you're focused obsessively on the things you desperately want and probably haven't got. Clinical psychologists have long warned against the dangers of excessive introspection, arguing that when people are already down, ruminating on their problems makes things worse. But more importantly, you're putting all your eggs in one basket. The irony is that by convincing yourself that there's one dream job out there for you and questing for one dream job only, you're jeopardizing your chance of realizing your dream and setting yourself up for deep regret and unhappiness if you eventually fall short.

There is an alternative, and that's to diversify your dreams. You wouldn't invest all of your savings into one stock, because, for a variety of reasons both in and out of your control, that one stock might never generate a return. Why treat your dreams and passions — arguably your most valuable assets — any differently? Let's embrace the entire portfolio of our passions and diversify our dreams, and avoid designing our lives around ever-elusive silver bullets.

The time to diversify is now. With permanently new dynamism in the job market and the elimination of the career ladder, the days of signing up for a 20-year, pre-configured journey to the top are over. Instead, success will be marked by flexibility and agility — how quickly you can adapt to the world around you and how quickly you can seize exciting new opportunities. Having multiple paths and career dreams up your sleeve is a more effective way to navigate this exciting, but riskier, world.

But there's more good news: The information technology revolution just lowered the cost of experimentation. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a headhunter in Hong Kong, there are more than a million published resources online that can inform your decision. Your social networks are a valuable asset, and your connections are waiting to be tapped. Best of all, this buffet of content and connections can be accessed at any time, at record speed. Technology makes diversifying your dreams more achievable than ever.

So how do you start moving from one dream to many? A practical tip I've seen work well is to develop a "folder of gratitude," a constantly-updated list of all the things in life you're grateful for. Chances are, many of the things on your list correspond neatly with your underlying passions. Then, take your list and amplify these passions with intelligent experiments. Test and invest in your areas of interest, and cultivate the joy of learning from failure. Finally, just like any investor worth their salt, double down on winners. If something strikes a chord, reallocate more time and energy to it. View your dreams as organic and ever-changing, and you're much more likely to be pleased with the outcome.

There's no reason to put all your eggs in one basket and cross your fingers. Your dreams are precious enough to diversify.

This post is part of a series of blog posts by and about the new generation of purpose-driven leaders.

When Leaders Are Lost

LOST - there's never really a 'final season'.

I recently lost my way.

Feeling confident of my direction, I left a great non-profit role to start a business.  Things started well, but who knew the economic fall of 2008 was just around the corner?  However another opportunity emerged that seemed perfect to bridge the financial gap and simultaneously launch the business further towards my long term goals.  But another redirection happened and there I was – not even back full circle to where I started, but further behind.  It was a loss.  I felt lost.  Defeat and failure (real & perceived), enshrouded my psyche & soul.

While this is a common experience to entrepreneurs, it’s also common among most leaders.  The truth is that as we navigate our way through the leadership journey, some roads don’t work out.  What then?

In the story of an ancient Biblical character named Job, at one point he complains to God:  

“You have unstrung my bow”

That’s a captivating description.  It’s one thing not to have any arrows to shoot.  But it’s completely another issue when there is no string on the bow.  Without the string, there is nothing to propel the arrows of your dreams, skills, talents or resources forward.  What I had experienced was not a loss of my skills, but the string: my dreams, confidence and character.  Loss, whether real or perceived, ‘unstrings our bow’.  When the source of power to launch your arrows has been dealt a blow, you had better pay attention.  No increase in your arrow count will enable you to lead unless you deal with getting that string back on the bow.

FOUR FACTORS THAT CAN GET US ‘UNSTRUNG’

(Of course there’s more...you fill in yours)

1.       Unexpected circumstances.  Let’s face it, all the strategic foresight, scenario and contingency planning in the world cannot predict everything that may come down the pike.  The future is not determined by the past, nor are the ends fully determined by the means. Unpredictability is predictable.  Yet when it comes it is often still a shock to our system.  And, if you have bet the farm on a particular result, the string on the bow of your leadership get’s especially slack.  Not only does it shake your confidence and your future-modelling scenarios, the “I have never been here before” sensation is an unpleasant reminder that you are still imperfect!

2.       Uncooperative people.  Leaders are nothing without people, and if those people refuse to be led, it’s a tragedy.  You have a quiver full of arrows but no ability to use them.  Sometimes the solution may be to fire them, but more often than not this is also an issue of a leader who has lost his/her ability to motivate and propel people into service.  The bow has been unstrung.  

3.       Hubris.  From the fable of Humpty Dumpty to the Bibles’ “pride goes before a fall” declaration, when leadership overconfidence & pride run up against the walls of reality, they crash.  It’s not pretty.  Think the Costa Concordia’s captain, or Enron, or other leaders’ names you can pluck from the news.  The great tragedy here is that it not only reveals a leader’s immaturity to themselves, but to the rest of the watching world.  The captain of the Costa Concordia still has his mariner’s skills.  The arrows are still in the quiver.  What he doesn’t have is the confidence of the world (or Carnival Cruise Lines) to likely ever use them again. His bowstring holds no power today.

4.       Inattention to the personal side of leadership.  Defining leadership only by the set of skills required is a devastating deception. Thankfully leadership development authors & programs lately are putting a greater emphasis on value formation and the inner life.    A leader is a package of both personal and professional components.  When a leader experiences losing their way (and all leaders will at various points in the journey), their core self is revealed.  Crisis does not so much MAKE character as much as it REVEALS what is already there.  Before the crisis hits, every leader should ask themselves:  “What will keep the bowstring tight enough so I can continue to utilize the arrows at my disposal”? 

FOUR SOLUTIONS WHEN THE BOW IS UNSTRUNG

1.       Power up and power through.  This is usually fueled by one of the factors that get us unstrung in the first place – pride/hubris.  On the surface it seems like a true leader’s reaction. Suck it up; pull it up; get things up and running; create a sense of ‘up’ for yourself and your followers.  When a leader encounters a stressful event, brain science teaches us that a cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones is released into his/her system resulting in a short-term increase in strength, concentration and reaction time. These changes may be helpful in the initial response to a stressful event, but if the stress remains high enough for a long enough period of time, disastrous effects will follow. Unfortunately this natural and ‘instinctive’ approach ignores the deficits currently existing within you.  You are already diminished and yet you are trying to expend greater energy.  How long will that last?  In the end you will be throwing arrows by hand.  Trying to do the right things but with no power behind them.

2.       Protectionism.  This is a common personal and even political reaction to becoming unstrung.  The US economy is a current example on the political front.  Their national economic foundations are unravelling, so they have put up barriers to keep things within national walls.  We also practice protectionism on a personal front by:

a. Deflecting criticism so as not to be seen as ‘wrong’.

b. Going ‘dark’: restricting or shutting off communication as a way of avoiding accountability.

c. Staying the course and dealing with the situation using status-quo thinking, tools and strategies.

What’s ironic is we build these walls with our arrows, using up our skills and energies to preserve what we have. It’s not even so much that our power (the string) to launch arrows is diminished. Our skills are being preoccupied to keep things ‘as is’.

3.       Complacency.  This is different than protectionism – at least protectionism is a strategy.  Complacency isn’t.  The only ‘solution’ complacency provides is to numb the pain.  It’s like taking drugs – a temporary relief from reality, but at some point reality will return, and it won’t be pretty.  The other challenge that the complacency-solution presents is its compounding deterioration of personal leadership identity.  Leaders are born and made for moving forward.  Complacency causes you to build a permanent structure around your circumstance.  Rather than being a nomadic explorer-leader by nature, you have settled into a lifestyle in conflict with your leadership character.  The bowstring goes slack.  

4.       Live IN it.  The only solution is to STOP and pay attention to the unstrung bow.  Dwell there for a while.  It seems counter-intuitive to not act, but in reality taking time for assessment and any necessary adjustments is a leadership action.  The downside of visionary leadership is we so easily get our sights set on something that is so far out in the future that we miss what’s going on in our life as it exists right now.  Character is diminished in a thousand small acts of negligence but is built by stopping long enough to pay attention to the burning issues in our lives.

WHAT CAN YOU PRACTICE TO KEEP THAT BOWSTRING TIGHT?

·         Build solitude and meditation into your life.  This is true for all leadership-types, but especially those who are naturally extroverted.  The shadow-side of extroversion is neglect of the inner life.  Begin and end your day with some moments to reflect on WHO you intend to be during that day and HOW you will demonstrate your intentions.  End the day with an assessment of your performance to your own intentions.

      Don't get out too fast!  Instinct drives us to get out of a crisis as soon as possible.  Resist that urge and choose to stay in the moment and the context long enough to truly discern the lessons for you and for your organization.  If you don't opt for learning, you are opting to repeat your errors.

·         Create and sustain a peer network.  It’s simply foolish to lead alone.  Yes, you may feel lonely at times but it’s not inevitable or part of the package that you be alone.  Proactively recruit 2-3 other people (they don’t need to be in your organization) who are peers in leadership.  Invite them to sit with you to talk and keep each other accountable to maintaining the values, character and personal strength needed to keep the bowstring tight.  Invite those people to these specific criteria.  You will be surprised at how many are longing for a group like you are proposing.

·         Give yourself away.  Where are you involved that demonstrates your life isn’t about YOU?  Leadership can too easily be about ego, compensation and other selfish ambitions.  Getting involved in a volunteer capacity with something/someone completely outside (and disassociated with) your work will enrich & expand your perspective on what true life entails.

·         Check-in with yourself once in a while.  This is a matter of intention.  When and how will you take inventory of your life?  If it’s true that the unexamined life is not worth living, what form will those examinations take?  Some ideas include:

o   Journaling

o   Personal retreats (guided or according to your own agenda)

o   Prayer & meditation

o   Counselling

o   Coaching*

o   Peer or friendship accountability

As for that Job character, he lived with the feeling of being ‘unstrung’ for a while longer until he gained some truly ‘divine perspective’ on his life.  As for me, it’s been the most challenging road ever, but I do know my character & perspectives have matured.  How far they have matured will be known the next time I'm on a road that isn't working out.

Harv Matchullis

* I work with motivated people and organizations to help them ‘check in’ and then lay the tracks to where they need to go next.  Contact me for a discussion about personal, leadership or team coaching.  info@visiontracks.ca  or www.visiontracks.ca

Why Planning Fails

Planning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. 

That doesn’t mean don’t plan. 

But let’s be clear - a strategic plan itself will not guarantee success. When I think of the 'nomadic leader' living in a context that regularly presents new landscapes of challenge and opportunity, it's not his/her "travel plan" that will equip them for the next step.  It's their ability to know what is needed to establish and adjust their plans.

It’s far too easy to go through the motions of strategic planning and neglect critical INPUTS needed to actually achieve IMPACT.  Think of it this way: just because you eat, good health is not guaranteed.  Choose your foods wisely.  

‘Garbage in-garbage out’ as they say!  

What are you “feeding” your plan?

Of the 6 INPUTS described here, only one relates to the written plan itself.  The rest determine it’s quality and potential success.   I am indebted to Nell Edgington of Social Velocity for this blog.  I am basically revising her blog post on this topic (http://www.socialvelocity.net/2011/04/the-problem-with-strategic-planning/) .  I have added my own thoughts plus a key ‘coaching question’ you can ask yourself about your planning processes.

What I am writing here relates to my context of the non-profit organization.  However it’s not really a leap to see how this also applies to the business context. 

Here is the ‘menu’ of inputs that make for a healthy, impactful and dynamic, strategic plan...

# 1          Discern the environment

Discern, or Discernment are not common words in our daily vocabulary, but are very descriptive.  The global (read: Wikipedia) understanding of the term is: “a term used to describe the activity of determining the value and quality of a certain subject or event. Typically, it is used to describe the activity of going past the mere perception of something, to making detailed judgments about that thing. As a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgement; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others.”

• Pray, think, look around.  Get out and SEE who you want to impact, where they live etc.

• A good plan starts from an in-depth understanding of the outside community in which the non-profit operates. Whereas a bad plan is created in a vacuum among only board and/or staff who sit in a retreat and determine the future.  By the way, just because someone is articulate about an issue is no guarantee they really understand it or are convicted to act!  WHO HAS HAD THEIR BOOTS ON THE GROUND LATELY?

 The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:     

“How do we know this is the right idea”?  

#2           Value Proposition 

• A good plan forces the organization to articulate its value proposition, i.e. how the organization will uniquely use its resources and those it generates to create significant social value.  You must clearly lay out how you plan to address the social issue your mission defines.
• Articulate values as behaviour statements.  Behaviour shows what you value, so rather than mushy, feel-good, mother and apple-pie “we value...” statements, describe values by how they will be demonstrated, i.e. “We will...”
• A poor plan fails to articulate value propositions and assumes that everyone outside the organization loves what you want to do and understands its value just as much as everyone inside the organization.

The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:     

“How will this entity be of service”?

#3           Truth First 

• A good plan puts everything on the table and allows no sacred cows or pet interests. It’s all about the mission, not your place in it.
• A poor planning process only deals with the easy or non-controversial issues and leaves the difficult questions aside.

The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:  

   

“What have we not yet said?"

 #4          Disciplined Alignment

• A good plan makes sure that the strategy for programs is aligned with the organization’s operational and financial model so that the resulting strategic plan includes programs, financing and operations in an integrated way.
• A poor plan focuses only on programs and assumes that the money will somehow follow.

The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:     

“How have we connected all the dots?"

 #5          A Written Plan

• A proper strategy includes a tactical plan so that the broad goals are broken down into individual steps to get there. This allows the organization to monitor and revise the plan on an on-going basis.  It drives the day-to-day activity of the organization.
• A poor strategic plan has no tactical plan or monitoring system attached to it.  The most foolish and wasteful thing you can do is make a plan and not ‘check-in’ on your progress and adjust to any changing circumstances/opportunities on a regular basis.

The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:  

    

“What and where are our goals and action steps”? 

#6           Inspirational

•  A good plan is inspiring and compelling to staff and potential funders.  It sets forth a bold vision for the future and a specific road map for getting there.  It’s the vision-story AND the plan in tandem which inspires confidence and investment.
• A poor plan is boring, maintains the status quo, and will elicit only nominal external support.

The coaching question to ask yourself/your team:

  

“When people hear this plan, how will it lift their spirit and feed  their commitment?”

It’s not enough to go through the “strategy” motions. A real strategic plan is bold, compelling, tactical, well-financed, integrated and inspiring. It gets everyone (staff, board, funders, volunteers, clients) moving forward in a common direction from which real change happens.

Press on;

Harv

...and if you need some help 'getting there', contact me at Visiontracks:

info@visiontracks.ca  and also see my work on my website at:  www.visiontracks.ca

Building the Bridge from Ideas to Impact

“from ideas to impact”...     

This is the tag-line for my coaching & facilitation venture: Visiontracks Facilitation and Coaching: www.visiontracks.ca.  I chose it carefully to challenge not only those I work with, but myself!  My passion is to help bring life to individuals’ and organizations’ dreams by helping them articulate it and then lay the tracks that lead to desired impact. 

A plan isn’t satisfactory.  Its impact that matters. 

The truth is many ideas never cross the bridge to impact.

I have observed some barriers over the 20 years I have coached individuals and organizations. Each of these I have faced in the execution of my own dreams.  It seems to be part of the human condition.  However rather than just identify barriers, I will describe THE BRIDGES that lead to impact.

I see 3 primary barriers that affect the ability to reach the stage of impact:

Execution Anxiety

Execution is the ‘other side’ of planning.  Problem is, it’s the planning that we love more.  We love it because it is all about possibilities, opportunities, dreaming.  It is an artful stage: intellectual fun with no responsibilities.  Even more, when you are done with the plan you can declare a ‘victory’.  Most of you reading this have experienced participating in strategy development only to watch it die on the shelf of neglect.  It’s similar to our new years’ penchant for goal setting.  There is enthusiasm for the plan, less energy for the execution side. We’d rather plan than execute.

 

To build THE BRIDGE from planning to execution:

·         Keep your plans simple with enough room for ongoing adaptability.  I have become less enamored with the rigid, detailed and highly structured strategic plan.  That’s not because I have become lazy, but as a result of observing that not only do people respond poorly to overly complex and rigid plans, but the complex and fast-moving environments in which we lead require plans with built-in adaptability. Simplicity makes sense and allows room for adaptation.

·         Centralize the questions; decentralize the answers.  In the execution of the plan, move key operational decisions out to the edge.  Central planning has not served world economies very well and it’s not likely to work for you.  The generational forces currently at play have influenced & empowered a grassroots leadership environment (note the Occupy Movement).  Trust your people to execute.  If you can’t, either you have the wrong people or you should not be the leader.

·         Act as though your plan is never done.  Planning does not end when you produce and publish it.  It’s an ongoing process.  By that I mean adaptation along the way is what completes the plan.  Think about this - it’s only with hindsight that you ‘see’ the actual plan.

·         Praise execution, not planning.  Execution is real results.  Plans are fond hopes that must survive the brush with reality.  Therefore as the leader, the most critical part of your role is to accomplish the mission by caring for the people who face reality and execute the plan.  Praise and support them in the acts of bridging ideas to impact.

Fear

Fears matter.   They are natural to leaders and teams when entering the unknown territory that visions typically demand. 

 How do we walk across THE BRIDGE from fear to courage?

·         Resist simply powering through them as your solution to the fears expressed in the team (or in yourself). While it may appear as courage or ‘leadership’ to be stoic and committed to the vision “come hell or high water”, it’s actually foolish because you are setting yourself up as unwilling to adapt to changing conditions and information. 

·         Address fears by naming them.  Fear feeds retreat, so if you really want to move ahead, you must deal with fear.  Label them.  Lay them on the team table. This takes courage, trust and openness.  Doing this as a team is a profound team-building experience, because better than a rock climbing exercise, the honesty & vulnerability required transforms co-workers into true colleagues.  True vulnerability starts with the leader.  Once you lead in this way, over time the team will be willing to express more than just superficial fears and concerns. 

However they are finally labelled, I find fears typically emerge from: resistance to change, a desire to maintain status quo, caution because of past failure, lack of information or sufficiently robust research and lack of confidence in team members with whom they must execute a plan.  Astute leaders need to stay tuned for the ‘elephant in the room’ and coax that invisible yet monstrous obstacle out from the shadows of team silence. Give it a name.

·         Now decide if the expressed fear is one of execution (accountability), or one that legitimately reveals an operational weakness and requires adaptation. 

Some fears are legitimate, so don’t push those fears aside because you want to appear ‘strong’.  If you let fear fester, it will eventually breed doubt, lack of courage and even cynicism toward the plan.  By that stage it’s hard to peel back all the layers that covered your original fears.  You have gone from naming the fear to blaming someone or something and have given up your power to create change and impact.

Wavering Focus

Although we enter a planning process in order to gain the kind of focus that will marshal our resources and efforts in a concentrated way, once a plan is decided upon, the ‘what-if?’ syndrome can kick in: 

“What if this isn’t our best plan?” 

“What if our planning scenarios change?” 

“What if we had tried option ‘C’ instead?”

“What if...”

No matter how robust your planning process, this kind of ‘what if’ thinking always lingers among leaders and team members.  Resist the temptation to abandon your plan and take a completely different road.  Adapt – yes.  Abandon – no.  The execution road is never as easy as the planning road.   

I have observed that pining for a different road happens when:

• We resist the accountability of execution
• We don’t accept limitations.  This is especially a problem for visionaries & conceptualizers.  They LOVE ideas and options.  It’s their world, their fuel, their food.  To finally commit to one road/plan although it may make intellectual sense, feels like it is now limiting them.   There are limitations in ANY plan.  (By the way, that ‘other road’ you desire to take has its own limitations!)
• We don’t create the support mechanisms which keep us progressing toward our goals.  Regular check-ins with the team to track & acknowledge progress, make necessary adaptations and celebrate achievements, are ways to maintain focus.

 

THE BRIDGE to FOCUS is paved with 4 stones which I find are foundational when I am coaching individuals or teams:

·         Time:  Change leading to impact requires commitment to a reasonable time period for execution.

·         Attention:  A regular ‘check-in’ which brings the goals to the front of your mind ensures you don’t create a ‘distance’ that easily leads to neglect.

·         Repetition:  Reviewing where you have come from, as well as reminding yourself of the vision and the steps to get there keeps you grounded.

·         Affirmation:  Being generous with affirmative comments to your team creates positive psychological momentum; a motivation to keep striving for fulfillment of the vision.

It’s one of the ‘large’ questions of life, whether for an individual or an organization:

 What impact will I have on this world?

The larger question is:

Have you built the bridge that gets you there?

If you need help as a leader or a team to walk across the bridge from ideas to impact, consider connecting with Harvey as your coach.  

      

info@visiontracks.ca  .       1-403-970-4148   .      www.visiontracks.ca

The Soul of Leadership

 The quality and impact of your leadership is determined by the SOUL of your leadership.

What's your first thought when you read that?  If it's too spiritual a term, substitute "character".  Despite the abundant availability of quality training, resources and coaching, the leadership world is littered with leaders who failed to create true impact NOT because of a lack of ability, but a poverty of soul & character.

The actual 'soul-depth' of your leadership is gauged when you face experiences such as:

• the 'desert' - when you are feeling dry and lost on the inside
• a challenge to the vision you are pursuing
• a personal crisis
• the role & status you were pursuing has been taken away
• the dreams you had now seem to be unattainable

Losing your soul is sort of like losing a credit card.  You think it's in your wallet so you don't give it much thought until one day you reach for it and can't find it. (Ruth Haley Barton, "Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership", pg 13).  Then you start scrambling to remember where you might have lost it.  You know if you don't find it, major damage could be done.

Do you have that depth of urgency over the soul of your leadership?

Many leaders reading this may not like the language of 'soul' or 'character' because it seems so soft.  It's not measurable.  It lacks the activism of what leadership requires. It's not strategic. I'll wager that if you would just step back for a time and truly examine the leaders you admired and who left a deep, lasting impact on your life and/or organization, you would recall character/soul qualities.

They were grounded.
They were profoundly human and real rather than role-players.
They had a spirit about them that exuded humility, strength and wisdom.
They were defined by something greater than themselves or their organization.
They loved.

I am a leader who is a Christian and am the first to acknowledge that spiritual-association, Christian or other, does not guarantee good, soul-sourced leadership.  Since all 'believers' are at their root human, the human temptations to status-seeking, power and greed are always crouching at the door of the heart and mind and seeking to take over.  My question for all leaders reading this is - what power enables you to defeat those destructive forces and rise to the level of true soul/character-based leadership?

One of the most profound books I have ever read on this topic is "Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership" by Ruth Haley Barton.  Christian leaders will find this a valuable tool to exercise the first and primary task of leadership - self knowledge.

The SOUL of your organization is influenced by the SOUL of your personal leadership.  Don't neglect this most vital aspect of your being.

If you are feeling like you have lost your soul, you are in a good place!  You are acknowledging this is an issue.  Now act.  Read this book I am recommending.  If you are not ready or wanting to read from a Christian perspective, authors like Stephen Covey or Deepak Chopra focus on the deeper, soul issues of contemporary leadership.  I also recommend that you consider the services of a personal coach to help you explore your life in a deeper way.  (You can read more about my coaching background and services on my website - www.visiontracks.ca)

What lies ahead depends on what lies within. What's in there?

Harvey Matchullis

Visiontracks Facilitation & Coaching Services

www.visiontracks.ca

info@visiontracks.ca

Welcoming the Foreigner

This is only a bit of a departure for my blog.  It is still about leadership.  It is still in the theme of issues a nomadic leader faces.  It is applicable to all leaders in any capacity but is most specifically focused on the church leader.  You may be reading this and not share the theological base from which I am writing, but I suspect you will find it hard to argue against the 'rationale' and the fact that the principles apply across the board to how we accept and integrate immigrants into neighbourhoods, workplaces and churches.  I attribute that 'agreement' to the fact that God's foundational values and purposes are not only good for all humanity, but actually shared by humanity due to our common creation 'in the image of God'.  These are the echoes of God's voice all across the human race.

Most churches and individual Christians would I hope, aspire to be welcoming to all people, and especially the immigrant.  However to move from aspiration to inclusion requires some honesty around our thinking and actions.  Before we get to true ‘welcome’, some foundational issues need our attention.

      God’s View of the Immigrant:   Begin with clarity on God’s viewpoint of the immigrant who has landed in your city & neighbourhood.  The starting point is creation itself.  Since God created ALL humans in His image, an inherent value lies within every person no matter their race, religion, world view or moral standing.  This is where it all starts!   His image is reflected IN every human; one way His grace & mercy is poured out on all people.  God therefore makes no distinctions of value.

Now think specifically about the foreigner, the immigrant.  Even Israel, the ‘set apart’ people of God, was supposed to take in the foreigner and treat them with equality (Numbers 15:15; Deuteronomy 10:19).  Add to this a deep historical concern of God for the fringe, forgotten and foreigner – the very groups that, when not treated with dignity and fairness and love, made God the most angry throughout scripture. 

Who do you see when faced with an immigrant? This is someone who is created with the same value as you and therefore deserves equal respect irrespective of whether they have reconciled with God through Jesus Christ or not.

  

            Face Prejudice & Fear:  The history and current reality of the world, plus our own personal experience proves there are persistent barriers we have to admit and overcome as followers of  the Way of Jesus  if we are to be inclusive:

a.       Prejudice and the tendency to want to be with our own crowd (James 2:1 etc) is just the way we are ‘naturally’.  YET we have a supernatural power to overcome this.  Paul told believers that for those in Christ there is ‘no distinction’ between not only race, but even gender!  In other words, we are not to use the worlds’ classifications of dividing people anymore (2 Cor 5:16)

Besides these obvious theological reasons for inclusion and acceptance, there is a social component that builds a better society.  Canada’s Federal, Provincial and Civic governments are concerned over ‘stratification’ – the layering of society by economic status & ethnic identity.  Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi himself at a meeting I hosted for church leaders in Oct 2011 said this was his primary concern for the city.  I believe we have a duty as believers to do all we can to ensure immigrants are well integrated into society.   The irony is that many fled their countries to come here over this very issue – ethnic rivalries or intense poverty/economic barriers.

b.      Fear.  We fear what we do not know, so a piece of the answer is: “how do we get to know a new immigrant?”

As an example, I’d like to break down our global view/fear of Islam and pare that down to the individual hopes and dreams of a Muslim person.  As a Westerner, what is your default thinking when you hear “Islam”, or are face to face with a veiled Muslim woman?  My hunch is your immediate thoughts might include:

       “radical; paternalistic; terror; intolerance; violence; women’s rights” ...etc

What if rather than starting with a global perception/assumption, you began at the individual, personal level?  What if you approached them based on your common humanity?  Do you not share similar concerns for health, justice, love, relationships, well-being, prosperity, meaning, children, the future...?

When we view others as persons, not through our perceptions, biases and prejudices about their ethnicity or religion, we have common ground from which to start a relationship.  This is part of recognizing that all are created in God’s image.  Therefore ALL are of inherent worth and value to Him and therefore us.  Everyone is due respect AND attention no matter their ethnic, religious or moral state.

       Accurate information about Immigrants.  Are they all here to steal jobs?  Do they freeload off our generosity and become a drain on our resources?  Are they intent on remaining isolated in their cultural bubble?  Do they come with a lack of skills to work?  I have heard these and many more concerns expressed in political rhetoric and coffee-shop discussions.  Here are some overall stats to help frame our approach more positively regarding New Canadians coming to the Calgary region.  I think you will find similar attributes in any other city or country where people have chosen to immigrate.

•          70% know English

•          Educated!  70% with High School, 36% Univ. Graduates & most of the professionals have huge barriers getting re-certified to practice in Canada

•          Determined! Most come on their own, only 10% are refugees

•          Young! 50% age 25-44 – 34% under 24 yrs.

•          Dedicated to being Canadian – compared to other countries, immigrants here become Canadian citizens at a much higher rate and as soon as they possibly can.

•          Contributing – they are required to pay the same taxes on income as all Canadian citizens.  Even refugees get only 1 year of extra assistance before sharing in the same tax burdens as the rest of Canadians

•          ALL face significant adjustment issues that affect family relationships for at least a generation.  Children of immigrants adjust much faster to their new culture than parents, often creating a culture and generational divide within the same home.  This is the price of choosing to seek a new future in Canada.  Applaud & respect the sacrifice of those parents. 

This presents the Church in Canada with numerous opportunities to help with parenting/generational conflict issues, assisting the first generation be able to worship in their own language while working to integrate into Canadian life, and providing worship/social/fellowship contexts for the second generation to integrate with more established Canadian youth.

  

      DON’T start a “ministry” to immigrants – just be a good neighbour.  Starting yet another ministry can at times put us relationally at arm’s length from people.  You can too easily "deliver a service" to people without being engaged on a relational level.   This does not mean we should not organize around our ideas and desires to create ministries, but I do think it’s helpful to frame all of this not so much as a ‘ministry program’ to immigrants but rather as a part of our calling to be a good neighbour.  Look around your neighbourhood and see that God calls you to be a good neighbour to each of them.  Take away the notion of creating an ‘immigrant ministry’ and start living/acting simply as a good, responsible neighbour who is empowered and motivated by Jesus Christ.  The simple acts of neighbourliness, informed and empowered by the Gospel message will turn us into salt/light/yeast/seed.  Unless we scatter ourselves into the lives of the neighbourhood where these immigrants live, those transforming elements are of no use.

What can I/we do to connect?

1.  Be a good neighbour and walk across the yard, the street, the office floor.
2. Be curious.  Most people are honoured to have you ask about their lives.  Ask about their homeland, families, their experience coming to Canada, what they miss etc.  If you have ever moved, they feel the same things as you, but more acutely because of the distance they have moved geographically, culturally and linguistically.  God said to Israel that one reason they were to treat the foreigner with care and respect was because they themselves knew what it was like to be immigrants in a foreign land! 
3. Volunteer to be a host family for a refugee through a local agency that has the structure for this. 
4. Volunteer with immigrant agencies.  Most have programs where a person or family can volunteer, from helping with English to professional mentoring of skilled immigrants. 
5. Volunteer to be a conversation partner in local/agency/church ESL programs. 
6. Get training as an ESL teacher.  This is one of the most critical needs for New Canadians to integrate into Canadian society. 
7. Plan/Host an event to welcome immigrants in your community.  Go to your community association and suggest it. 
8. As a church, start your own small centre for immigrant services. 
9. Sponsor a refugee family – link with someone with a Sponsorship Agreement with the Government of Canada or find a similar vehicle your country uses. 
10. Research to find out what immigrant groups are living in your community. 
11. Go to your community association and find out what, if anything, they are doing.  Get involved – make suggestions. 
12. If you own a business, consider hiring immigrants. 
13. As a church, partner with a church comprised of majority immigrants and offer practical, developmental (not paternal) assistance. 
14. From the pulpit, demonstrate your awareness of global issues.  Pray for their countries, especially when conflict is occurring.  Let them know you know and care.  Also, get to know their issues and concerns and show it through the issues you choose to address from the pulpit and in other discipleship contexts.

Because in reality, we are all wanderers, looking for a more permanent place...

Harv Matchullis