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Leadership & Life Journal

Having a Fit

He was a superstar. A tall, dark-eyed, voice of thunder, leader of leaders…or so he appeared. He could be the new pastor of our church, but we better act quickly before a larger congregation scooped him up. The vote was expeditious and unanimous.  Every deacon, elder, leading woman and child, of hand-raising age, were in one accord. The small church of my childhood got the perfect leader. About two years later the congregation split and so did the superstar.

There is nothing that will deeply damage an organization’s effectiveness faster than hiring a key leader who is not a fit. It is easy to see how some country church folks could be taken in, but it is amazing how often a similar scenario plays out with some of the smartest business teams in the world. Research by PWC and Saratoga Institute affirms that the average tenure of 60% of newly hired executives across a wide range of industries is two to three years.

Act Sooner

Whether in a non-profit or publicly traded organization, within the first six months most people intuitively know when a key leader is not a fit. Instead of admitting the error and quickly correcting that error, most of us placate the misfit manager hoping he or she will see the light. This seldom happens. An HR officer I know has a mantra about such a challenge as this, he says, “It is easier to change people than change people.”  In a small organization change most often means outplacement.  In a larger company a well-designed transfer to a new role can sometimes be a win for everyone.  The point is, do something sooner than later. The longer we put off the inevitable, the more time it will take to recover and rebuild what is left of our team.

Act Slower

As important as it is to act quickly to correct a bad decision, it is better to avoid the mistake altogether. By slowing down the selection process, the emotional pull to close the deal is lessened and a wiser decision can be made.  There is no magic formula, but I believe there are three areas every hiring team needs to carefully confirm when selecting the right person for key leader role:

1.Skills – Intellectual and technical capabilities that match the position profile

2.Motivation – Passion for the organization’s mission and a keen interest in the management skills inherit in the role

3.Fit – Balance of humility and confidence that facilitates effective personal conversations about difficult issues and energizes a team toward a shared vision or noble cause

The majority of bad hires excel in #1 and #2…so much so that #3 is rarely discussed until the deal in done. “She is so smart, it will be easy for her to get the people leading part ” is the hopeful chorus that an astray hiring team will sing aloud to support their erred decision. This refrain soon becomes a hum.

Journal Entry: A perfect leadership fit seldom happens in a business, a civic group or even a family. The ideal is picking the right person and having a team that is sincerely committed to helping her or him make their best contribution. This has been and will always be the formula for having a fit in leadership and life.

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge or to be hasty and miss the way. – Proverbs 19:2

Leadership & Life Journal

Small Fish

“So what’s going on in your life that made you decide to get sick?” is what I hear whenever I catch the flu or get a bad cold and finally visit my doctor. This is his way of asking, “Mike, why is your life so out of balance?”

Almost every person these days says they are just too busy, and we seem quite proud of it. In America, the phrase “It sounds like you’ve been really busy!” is interpreted as, “It sounds like you are really important!” Unfortunately, a very busy person is usually just someone caught in constant activity desperately trying to catch something – but all the while not really sure what that something is.

Counting Each Year
For the past 10 years I have held to a tradition on my birthday. No matter which day of the week it falls on, I get away alone to reflect and try to remember what’s important, count the cost of the past year, and set new plans. This year my birthday fell on a Sunday. What an ideal day for personal reflection, right? Well…instead of being in a quiet place designing my life, I was sitting on a plane working on a presentation for a client. We all know that there are times in business that require shifts in priorities, but this trip was not a requirement, it was my choice. It was busyness.

Daily Matters
My life slippage had started well before that fateful trip, however. For the previous four months, instead of beginning my day with a time of prayerful mediation and reading as I have for years, I started going directly to my office desk, checking my email and looking over my calendar. Even though I started “working” as soon as I got out of bed, I consistently fell behind each day. So, to compensate, I got up earlier but still I found I was accomplishing only half of what I typically did when I started my day in the quiet. Things needed to change.

Just Right
Last month, on a warm Saturday afternoon, my 85-year-old uncle invited me to go fishing. I meet him at the lake. I was ready to start casting hard for big fish but instead of my fancy fishing rod he handed me a cane pole with a bobber and an earthworm dangling on a hook. Then, he opened the door of his mud caked truck and out jumped two English Setter puppies. For the rest of the day we sat in worn-out lawn chairs on a weathered dock with a pair of speckled bird-dog puppies, soon paw-to-paw, sound asleep beside a dented tackle box. On the ridge above the lake a Bobwhite quail whistled his mating call while we caught small fish. A red sunset closed the day too soon. It was just right.

That time with my uncle was a microcosm of all I’d been missing amidst my busyness – a balance of quiet reflection, joyful effort and rest. I felt like a kid again. Since that day, when someone asks me, “Have you been busy lately?” I say, “Nah, I’ve been just right.” If nothing else, it’s a reminder for me towards keeping my life in balance and remembering my lesson from a few small fish.

Journal Entry:
Been real busy lately? What needs to happen for you to catch a vision for a healthier leadership and life?

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. – T. S. Eliot

I am convinced that there are times in everybody’s experience when there is so much to be done that the only way to do it is to sit down and do nothing. – Fanny Fern

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else- we are the busiest people in the world. – Eric Hoffer

Sometimes you wonder how you got on this mountain . But sometimes you wonder,” How will I get off. – Joan Manley, comedian
Leadership & Life Journal

All the Way In

Everyone on the beach knew it was the first time my granddaughter had been in the ocean. Screams of terror filled the first 10 minutes. For the next hour, screams of delight drenched everyone within earshot as she fought the waves to hold on to her ‘My Little Pony’ boogie board. The whole world knew when she finally made it “all the way in “. Joyfully exhausted, we marched weak kneed back to our bright blue beach chair under our big umbrella to the applause of my lovely wife.

“Perfect” would be the word I had used to describe that Florida afternoon. Then I felt something in my right pocket and it was not moving…my iPhone. It was very dead.

Amazing Effort
My wife made a quick call on her phone to Apple. At 8:30 the next morning my new iPhone was delivered to our condo. That was amazing, but what happened next was even more amazing. As you might have guessed, the new phone would not work, but the problem was not the phone itself, it was my office system. Jason, my online Apple helper, tried for several hours to work around this IT system problem. He did his best, but had no success. I thanked Jason for his tenacity and said goodbye. Later that day this email appeared on my laptop:

“I would like to take full responsibility for your issue we were working on together today. To do this, I would like you to have a direct way to get a hold of me if any further follow up needs to occur with this case. You will find my contact information below. Please contact me right away if you need anything regarding this case and include the following case ID within any correspondence.”
Sincerely, J L Apple

You might be thinking “Wow! I wish could get some Jason’s on my team”, followed by “and get rid of the unmotivated people around here “. Have you ever thought that you may hire several Jason’s in the past but, after working with you, his or her natural desire to go “all the way in” faded away?

Three Types of Leaders
Leaders come from one of three dispositions:

  1. The first type believes that within every person there is the spirit of a healthy seven-year-old child with a burning desire to give his or her best and never give up. They actively nurture that view of people and all stakeholders win. Plus, they usually have more than their fair share of Jason’s. There are a lot more of these leaders than today’s critics want to admit, but a few more would only help.
  2. The second type of leader believes that people are basically lazy and only work for money or whatever they can get. They treat people as tools to be used. In this type of environment, everyone loses, usually sooner than later. The Jason spirits die quickly in this place of management by manipulation. This leader is rare and he/she will seldom change.
  3. The third type of leader is ambivalent. Sadly, they are all too common. The other two types, for good or for bad, are “all the way in” but this leader is only half the way in. This means their lips say that they support the purpose of the organization, but their heart has its own private agenda. Frustration, false starts and time wasting filibusters are thehallmarks of these leaders. Their organizations limp along, up and down, until the culture simply implodes or the leader lets go of their ego and exits. If they have the courage to then move on to a place where their heart leads them and follow their passion, they will more often than not become a shining example of our first type of leader.

When you follow your innate interest or calling, you and the people you touch become more alive, more autonomous, more productive and more likely to act and feel like … work is a beach.

Journal Entry:
What is the attitude of the individuals in your organization, on your team or at your home? What decision do you need to make to be “all the way in” with your leadership and life?

The last 1 percent most people keep in reserve is the extra percent champions have the courage to burn. – Chis Carmichael

Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. – James Allen

It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality. – Og Mandino

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. – Bill Bradley

…Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18:3 ( NIV)

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it. – Groucho Marx

Leadership & Life Journal

Leadership Drive

Once upon a time…
… A very proud man in his very fast car was competing in a grueling cross-country race. He had a few races under his belt, but this was by far his most challenging. Anxious for a quick advantage, he gunned his car off the starting line and took a big lead. Soon he was cruising at blistering speed. With no cars in sight he relaxed. Bracing the steering wheel with his knee, he fumbled with an old road map with his right hand; with his left he waved to the cheering crowds.

On a hilltop high above the rows of spectators all the drivers pit crews were stationed. This gave them a panoramic view of the course, except for the finish line area.

Midpoint of the course, this fast driver was still far ahead of the pack, when a radio call interrupted his zealous mood. The message was urgent, “Danger ahead”. It came from his crew, whom he had ignored all day. Annoyed by this distraction from his people, the driver switched off the two-way radio and answered a call on his cell phone. It was a longtime buddy who hailed him on shouting, “Way to go! Keep the throttle down! Remember first is all that matters! “…. But neither of them had noticed that just around the bend the bridge was out.

… In this same race was another driver who had faced several tough courses in his career. He was a confident yet humble man who kept his eyes straight ahead and hands tight on the wheel. When the race started, he quickly found his pace and positioned his car to benefit from the draft of the front-runners. Over the course, this seasoned driver talked non-stop with his loyal crew, who were stationed on the same limited vista. They had coached him to take several detours, along the way, to avoid potential mishaps. As he rounded the final turn in the race, he heard his happy team on his radio shout, “Look’s like you’ve got it. Be careful”. With a grin he replied, ” 10-4 “. Then he put the pedal to the metal, inspired by what a big win would mean for everyone, especially his crew … fully aware that just beyond the finish line the bridge was out.

I have observed that many smart people, who say they aspire to be a top tier leader, are often motivated by an expectation of recognition, rewards and happiness. When at its core, true leadership has always been characterized by sacrifice, suffering and passion. Every effective leader whether an executive, officer, entrepreneur or a marriage partner, who finishes the race well, will face a time when he or she must willing let go of their ego and self image and fully embrace a cause that is beyond their control to receive a reward unsought.

Journal Entry: There is good probability that a bridge along one of the many roads you are traveling will one day be out. How do you plan to drive to each of your finish lines in your leadership and life?

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. – C.S. Lewis

There is always someone who will love your idea if you have enough time to find him.

The most pitiable among men is he who strives to turns his dreams to silver and gold. -Khalil Gibran

What is to give light must endure burning. – Viktor Frankl

Leadership & Life Journal

Unforgivable Power?

The Center for Creative Leadership studied 21 derailed executives, who were expected to go higher in the organization, but had reached a plateau in their careers and were fired or forced to retire early. They were compared with 20 managers who made it all the way to the top. The researchers found the two groups astonishingly alike.

Every one of the 41 executives possessed remarkable strengths, and everyone was flawed by one or more significant weaknesses. So a person can make a lot of mistakes and have certain weaknesses and still rise to success. But a close study of the derailed executives showed there was one fatal flaw, when committed, always led to their downfall. The CCL researchers called it “the unforgivable sin “.

Immoral or unethical behavior is not what the researchers meant. We have all observed upstanding employees grieve over the loss of their leader who was a proven crook. The CCL fatal sin is sweepingly subtle. You may have seen this flaw when a management team agrees on a direction and the next thing everyone knows the team leader has headed off on a totally different track. Or a manager assigns someone a project and then secretly starts doing portions of the project himself. Or there is a certain employee who seems to have a special power to switch the leader’s thinking and often does so. At first these antics are the office joke. Now no one is laughing.

A child might describe this “unforgiveable sin” as being sneaky. In consultant speak; it would be called betraying a trust due to being consistently unpredictable. Specifically, this fatal flaw is a blatant disregard for the unwritten promised we depend on from teammates, but especially of our leaders, which are, ” I will do exactly what I say I will do when I say I will do that. If I change my mind I will tell you well in advance so you will not be harmed by my actions.”

Of course there are occasional exceptions. All of us will slip up and miss a promise, and there are desperate situations when a unilateral decision must be made. But if this unprofessional behavior begins to be known as the leader’s “management style”, their team members will get the message that the team’s input is redundant and will act accordingly.

Journal Entry: People who report to a manager with this flaw generally take one of three actions: 1) Quit – seldom a wise idea since this manager will, given time, either self-destruct or change 2) Stay stuck in the drama – complain, whine and pull the people around them down and off mission or 3) Stop trying to fix this person – decide to forgive the unforgivable behavior, focus on an inspiring goal and make a plan. Note: The folks who add a prayer for wisdom to action #3 often experience an added benefit of more peace and power in their leadership and life.

It is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. -H.L. Mencken

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt. -Eric Sevareid

If a man’s associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. – Booker T. Washington

When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it is ready to climb. – Patanjali, Ancient Yoga Master

A  leader without any followers is a real bummer.”  M. A.Tate

Leadership & Life Journal

Advocating Inquiry

Gavin is my youngest grandson. Like many healthy children at age three, he is captivated by the sound of his voice and zealously curious…his mouth runs like an outboard motor. Last week, my wife and I ate dinner with Gavin and family. During the meal, everyone was engaged in a debate about a local community issue, except Gavin. He sat intensely silent, politely waiting for a chance to jump into the conversation.

Finally, someone took a breath. And he got his motor running…rattling off a litany of brilliantly ordered, utterly random (and pretty compelling) questions in record time:

“Why is your head so much smaller than your body?”
“Why are dogs not like cats?”
“Why do people die?”

And the list went on and on. More impressed with his speed than frustrated with his interruption, his father asked, “Gavin, why do you ask so many questions?” Gavin responded simply, “Because I don’t know everything.”

Dr. Chris Argyris, a Harvard professor, introduced the concept that there are two primary ways that team members communicate: Advocacy and Inquiry. Dr. Argyris says that Advocacy, i.e. stating your case or making your point, is the kind of communication that most people are accustom to. The intention of Advocacy is to persuade, found in statements like:

“I think we should…”
“We ought to take this route..”
“Based on research, I recommend…”

Inquiry is rare and more valuable than Advocacy. The intention of Inquiry is to seek insight or clarity, found in questions such as:

“Why do you think…?”
” How can we make that idea even better…?”
“What evidence do you have that might help us understand …?”
“Which aspects are you referring to…?”

When a leader has lost their way and their team is bordering on disengagement, they will often begin to advocate solutions; attempting to personally generate a renewed vision or a better plan for the team instead of with them. In the midst of this type scenario, people begin to think or say things like “he just doesn’t listen” or “this guy must not care what we think “. In reality, the temporarily off- track leader is leaning too heavily on this innate bent to advocate. Sincerely pushing for the best solution, but oblivious of his or her imposing approach.

Recognizing the value of Inquiry is priceless, especially in trying times. When we find ourselves in tense predicaments, we need the to seek the humility to assume a child like mindset and sincerely inquire for answers from the perspective of those around us. We’ll then see a renewed zeal for discovery and creativity that will captivate our teams and ourselves. Why?

Because we had to courage to act like we don’t know everything.

Working Journal Entry: Do you ever feel the energy beings sucked out of the room during your decisions making meetings at work, discussions with your civic group or debates at your dinner table? May I advocate a bit more inquiry as you deal with important matters and people in your leadership and life?

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions. – Peter Drucker

Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. – Proverbs 29:20

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” – Pablo Picasso

When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. – Francis Bacon

In school, we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question. – Richard Saul Wurman

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. – Proverbs 19:2

Leadership & Life Journal

Retention – Who Will Go First?

Family Matters
A mid -size family business, run by a father and his two sons, was having trouble retaining their part-time employees. We met for a compression planning session to get a solution to this problem. As we began the session, a few questions came to mind. “What’s an example of a company that’s world-class at retaining part -time employees?” I asked.

They thought together for a bit and agreed that “Chik-fil-A” was a good example of a company great at employee retention. “Why do you think “Chik-fil-A” is so effective?” The two sons started rattling off reasons, “good pay, great benefits, flexible schedules–” Their father added, “They really care for their employees…in fact I think you could say that they love them.” Everyone nodded in agreement. The practical positives of pay, benefits, and scheduling were helpful, even essential in some cases…but not central.

I pinned a index card on my storyboard, labeled “Ways to show our employees that we care for them” , and asked for their ideas. They generated 10 ideas in just a few minutes. Then they selected their top three actionable ideas, balancing cost and importance, and created a plan around each of them. The family team was fired up and ready to roll out these simple strategies. “There is one step you need to take before you’ll get the results you want from your staff, ” I said. They listened eagerly. “For the next 90 days, you need to practice applying these three principles to each other.” They stared at me, then back at one another.

Too Many Keys
What is the key to retaining employees? Hundreds of surveys and books have attempted to answer this costly problem. In the end everyone winds up with the same top five or six keys: challenging work, appreciation from the boss, more money, life-work balance, healthy peer relationships and purposeful career paths. That seems like a fragile list of interdependent items as it is, but to complicate matters even more, is one more important than another? And for which generation? Gen X, Gen Y, Baby Boomers, etc? Sounds like a prime opportunity for a consultant to develop a retention matrix and solve this thing.

Relax, I don’t have a matrix, but I do have one more story. Between these two stories, it’s possible that we’ll find a central key to employee retention that spans all generations and methodology fads.

Turning Things Around
A few years ago I recognized a key retention principle. I was working with a newly hired commercial real estate executive. We’ll call the executive “Joe”. Joe was recruited from a competitor and was assigned to turn around a failing division. This division was entrenched in a classic “culture of fear” as described in Tom Demarco’s book, Slack – Getting Past Burnout, Busywork And the Myth of Total Efficiency:

Characteristics of a Culture of Fear

  • It is not safe to voice doubts
  • Goals are so aggressive that there is virtually no chance of achieving them
  • Power trumps common sense
  • The consequence for not “knuckling under” aggressive schedules is ridicule and abuse
  • Those who are fired are generally more competent than the people who aren’t
  • Everyone is terrified of confronting his or her manager

Motivation by fear never works in the long run, and it had been a very long run in a culture of fear for this struggling team that Joe had inherited. However, in just 9 months Joe orchestrated a 180-degree turn-around. The department improved to the point of having the lowest turnover and highest internal customer satisfaction rating in the company! This change endured. Two years later this division was listed as a key strength on the company’s strategic plan (instead of a glaring weakness) and still maintains one of the highest employee retention rates in the industry.

Vision and Appreciation
How did this happen? Little did Joe’s team members know that when he took over the department, his professional career and personal spirit was in the proverbial ditch, right alongside theirs. He had just resigned from a “Culture of Fear” organization himself. So, before he threw himself into creating innovative plans to fix his new team, he chose first to yield himself to healing and change. He renewed his life and career plan, which effectively restored his personal and professional vision. In the process, he grasped a guiding principle that served to support his leadership success in retaining and growing people forever: “it’s much easier to lead people up a new road if you have walked that road as well.”

To evaluate his progress, Joe requested some formal feedback from his all employees. He received a lengthy report from HR. As he began to go through the many pages of his report, he noted high marks on the objective scoring portion. He was pleased. Then he turned to the “Additional Comments” section. There it was. His unrealized strategy for retention in nine simple words: “Joe, thank you for giving us our lives back.”

Joe was humbled, overwhelmed and realized all the more clearly that his sincere care and visionary leadership (fueled by personal insight) had enabled this departmental change, and inspired those heartfelt words. The family business team of the first story had a similar opportunity to embrace these relational principles, as do you and I. It may be worth a try.

Working Journal Entry: Love or Fear – which will you choose to help you hold on to the people you value in your leadership and your life? Who will go first?

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Characteristics of Love:

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience. -#1 favorite quote on the Internet June 2012

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives. – C. S. Lewis

What is it about me that is getting in the way of my achieving what I desire for my business, career and life?

Leadership & Life Journal

Leadership, Hardship & Fine Wine

“What does it take to produce the finest wines?” I asked. Keenly aware of my limited knowledge, the wine connoisseur answered in this elementary way,

“Grapes that grow on lush rolling hills are plump and larger, but don’t make the best wines, because they are mainly water. Smaller grapes will have less water and more of the ‘good stuff’. For example, on the steep ,inclement Italian hillsides grape vines struggle to survive. In this harsh terrain, rainwater has little time to slow down and get to the roots of vines, is where the best Italian grapes are found. They are very small, but nutrient-dense and full of beautiful arrays of flavors and they produce some of the finest wines in the world.”

Great wines and great leaders seem to share similar living conditions. A cursory study of the lives of world-renowned leaders will reveal that the majority did not have a smooth, easy path to success. Rather their lives were fraught with a series of disappointments, professional failures and personal struggles.

A path of perils and problems appears to be common with leaders of all kinds – in all times.

  • 20 years ago, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) conducted a study of key events that successful executives said were instrumental to their development as leaders. At that time, the executives most often cited challenging assignments, such as starting a project from scratch or managing a turnaround. Only 20 percent of respondents said they learned significant lessons from hardships, such as job loss, career setbacks, mistakes and failures, and personal trauma.
  • When CCL repeated the original research in the last few years, it showed that 34 percent of executives said hardships were their key learning experience.

It appears that today’s leaders are getting more honest, more challenged or both. As we have all observed ; hardship is a core part of the human experience. The question is: why do some people sink in their suffering and never surface, while others sink but come up swimming stronger?

The Center for Creative Leadership research found that executives who are able to recover, learn, and grow from hardships share four other characteristics:

  1. A Sense of Purpose and Meaning – moreimportant than what happens to you is how you think about what happens to you and how you derive meaning from it.
  2. Social Support – When people have gone through difficult times, relationships mattered. Some people rely on an understanding spouse or close friend, while others maintain large networks of relationships.
  3. Use of Positive Cognitive Strategies – Rather than blame others and lash out with anger and frustration, resilient people take personal responsibility for their own response to a setback.
  4. Flexibility – Think of this as the ability to improvise-that is, to make the best choices or take the best actions with whatever resources are at hand. One metaphor for flexibility is a twig that has a fresh, green, living core. When you bend it, it springs back.

Journal Entry: Are these four characteristics evolving in the up-and-coming people in your organization ….in your children … in yourself? Let me be clear, no one should set anyone up to suffer or manipulate hardship in order to see growth and development.

However, I challenge all of us to consider ceasing from our well-intended impulse to over-protect, rescue or avoid worthy conflict. Instead purpose to allow those natural, stressful challenges and inevitable ego-shattering events, the chance to develop the “good stuff” in each of us, so we can lift a glass to the success of the important people in our leadership and life.

Leadership & Life Journal

Looking Both Ways

Small cutthroat trout scurried about the shallows of the gin clear mountain stream fighting for their next meal. At the edge of an eddy sat a very large trout. She rose, at her rhythm, sipping a grasshopper here or a beetle there. I lifted my fly rod to cast my terrestrial fly upstream of the big fish. Suddenly my line was tight, but it was not attached to my quested fish. It was tangled in the mass of reeds behind me. Had I looked back before I cast, I would have realized I needed to move only one step more into the stream and my cast would have missed the reeds and could have landed nearer my target and, with some luck, a trophy trout on my line. Instead I watched this opportunity slip away as the big fish faded into the deep pool.

Leaders cast visions. There are many things a leader can and should delegate, but vision casting is not one of those things. Depending on your level of responsibility you are expected to cast bigger or smaller visions, but cast you must. Effective vision casters are constantly looking backward, attending to the products and processes of the past and present, while also looking forward to hook and land the opportunities that will define the future.

Vision casting is not about you. Vision casters are not be confused with idea pitchers. Those loud pontificators who dominate conversations with an unending supply of tangled up thoughts that divert the attention to their personal agenda rather than the benefit of the team. They also tend to take themselves way too seriously.

Vision casting is challenging. It is not surprising that smart people with well thought out ideas often stand on the edge of effective leadership , their toes barely in the stream of success as they imagine the terrible tangles that might happen if they made a bold move. All they need to remember is to not get hooked into the needy reeds of the idea pitchers, present a smooth cast and wish for luck. The big one might not be landed on the first cast, but no fish was ever caught without a line in the water. The best anglers and leaders practice their casting a plenty, make looking both ways a habit and set the hook when the time is right.

Journal Entry: If you have been hesitant to cast your big goal or vision for your business, career or family ? This month’s name is symbolic of the time to make this kind of wise move.

January was named by the early Romans, after Janus, the god of doors and gates. This Roman god had two sets of eyes-one pair focusing on what lay behind, the other on what lay ahead.

What vision do you need to cast now to make the future better for the people in your leadership and life?

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone. a backbone and a funny bone. – Reba Mcentire

The job of leadership today is not just to make money. it is to make meaning. – John Seely Brown

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, or to be hasty and miss the way. – Proverbs 19:2

Leadership & Life Journal

Extreme New Year

Around this time many people stop, consider their life mission and set resolutions. Ongoing studies show that around 78% of these resolutions are never kept or achieved, which means around 22% are kept or achieved. If you are in the larger group that too often misses annual goals, which can lead to disappointment or if you are in the smaller group that reach your resolutions, but finds faint satisfaction in getting what you thought you wanted, I offer two very different goal setting approaches to consider for 2012.

First is a free online tool for people who can’t think of what resolutions they want to make for the new year. It is called The Resolution Generator. Just click the GIMME MORE button at the bottom of the web page and one resolution after another appears for your consideration, choosing and semiconscious commitment.

The second option is an excerpt from the book What Color is your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles. It offers a 180 degree different perspective on this topic and an action plan. It is called “Your Three Mission in Life” or ” How to Find Your Mission in Life.” Here is a shortened version:

” (1) Your first Mission here on Earth is one which you share with the rest of the human race, but it is no less your individual Mission for the fact that it is shared: and it is, to seek out and find, in daily — even hourly — communication, the One from whom your Mission is derived. The Missioner before the Mission is the rule.
(2) Secondly, once you have begun doing that in an earnest way, your second Mission here on Earth is also one which you share with the rest of the human race, and that is, to do what you can, moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place, following the leading and guidance of God’s Spirit within you and around you.
(3) Thirdly, once you have begun doing that a serious way, your third Mission here on Earth is one which is uniquely yours, and that is: a) to exercise that Talent which you particularly came to Earth to use — your greatest gift, which you most delight to use, b) in the place(s) or setting(s) which God has caused to appeal to you the most, c) and for those purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.”
When this 3 part approach is fleshed out, I think you will find that career and life resolution setting will be easier and, most likely, more successful, but not nearly as expeditious as the first option.

Journal Entry: I thought about offering another more middle of the road approach, a kind of lukewarm activity that lies comfortably between the extremes of the Resolution Generator and Three Missions, but I have learned that it is better to be either hot or cold when going after what you want in your leadership and life.

One of the toughest decisions is realizing that you have to make one. – Doug Dyer

It’s a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. – W. Somerset Maugham

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