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Archive for June, 2014
Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 30th
June 30, 2014 | No Comments »
Gratitude
I was recently asked, “what gives you energy during each day?” This question wasn’t focusing on occasional inspiration, but day-to-day vitality. The answer I kept coming back to was this: Gratitude. Sounds strange because we usually think we have to be the receiver of something to feel energized, and with gratitude, we are actually giving something away. When I contemplate my leadership experiences—sports, the Marine Corps, volunteering, Corporate—what I see as the great energizer of my daily leadership was actually giving more than getting. And when good things were accomplished by others in support of common goals, showing genuine gratitude to those whose efforts carried the day was actually energizing to me. Being grateful is not soft leadership, it is iron leadership; it requires each of us to be aware of other’s contributions and service and then—having the self-awareness and self-control to personally acknowledge it. It may seem counterintuitive, but to keep one’s leadership battery charged daily, look to give, not get. Show gratitude and bring vitality to the receiver and to yourself.
Building Bridges
Today, more than any other point in our history, there are more generational groups coupled in the workforce. For example, one might see members from the Korean War Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y inhabiting the halls of a single company. This fact brings increasing criticality for the production of wise elders—or bridge builders—in our groups. Like successive waves of climbers ascending a mountain, our society needs our wisest and most experienced members to serve as Sherpas–trusted guides who can describe the journey, navigate the terrain, help during slips and falls, and keep the group pointed toward the summit. Too often, though, older leaders are encouraged to focus only on their own career paths and their own retirement plans. As such, they reach the summit for themselves but do not return to base camp to help others make the climb. This is not a model for enduring excellence. Instead, we must rekindle our value of, and expectation for, the production and retention of wise elders, and then set them loose to serve as bridge builders between generations.
The Spinning Wheel
If we are honest about our development as leaders, we see a circular or spiral pattern to our growth and development. Our path is neither easy, direct, nor predictable, nor is it a consistently upward trajectory. I equate a leader’s true growth to a spinning wheel; at times we are on the right path, at others, we forget and fall off the path. At times we are on a purposeful quest, at others, we are adrift. At times we are elevated by higher meaning, at others, we are mired in the drudgery of daily details. This spinning wheel is a reminder that great leadership and heroic ambition are difficult and require constant fidelity and self discipline. It seems to me leaders often cycle back-and-forth between remembering our purpose and then forgetting. This is the cycle of the wheel: Remembering and forgetting, loss and renewal. But what is most illuminating, when we realize this circular reality, is this: The spinning wheel is really our teacher. The spiral nature of our leadership path is actually guiding us to go to the places we usually avoid but most need to go, and towards the experiences and lessons we most need to learn.
Seven Generations
I have long admired the traditions of Native American culture. Their warrior ethos had much in common with my chosen profession and my vocation as a US Marine. In particular, I admire a legend concerning Iroquois elders. It is said they would assemble as a council to decide on matters of great importance, and when they did, they would make decisions not just for today but “for the good of the next seven generations.” What’s the lesson for us? First, in the first half of life we are drawn to climbing our own ladders and gaining personal credentials. However, to become great leaders we must cross over in the second phase of life to giving back, and giving away, what we have reaped. Second, we should cultivate wise elders within our groups and then place these elders in a position to guide, shepherd, and mentor emerging generations. Finally, when we work for the next generations, we create a culture and atmosphere that shuns instant gratification and small private worlds and instead opens us to larger and more elevating ambitions. This is true heroic energy.
Warrior Spirit
I recently read a book about Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits. What struck me about Loyola and his remarkable companions was their heroic ambition and their healthy warrior spirit. A true understanding of warrior spirit is akin to positive energy, ambition, and aspiration directed toward larger purposes and elevated meaning. Warrior spirit is like a mythic Knight’s quest–a person devoting oneself to greater good, willing to transform to gain self mastery. This is the true meaning of warrior spirit; to be on fire for a vocation, a calling, and a commitment to something larger than self. I was drawn to and remained soulfully bound to the US Marine Corps for nearly 30 years due mainly to its ethos built around this classic understanding of a warrior ethic and warrior energy. So what is the lesson for us all? It is this: People will always value being taught about healthy boundaries, traditions, discipline, respect, dignity, and sacrifice if linked to a healthy warrior spirit because it elevates us towards, and binds us in, common purposes and a larger view of life and leading.
Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook,Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!
Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 23rd
June 23, 2014 | No Comments »
New Eyes
Ever feel stuck in a kind of inertia where things aren’t clicking and your group can’t quite break through the quagmire, gain unity of purpose, and generate positive momentum? We’ve all been in this malaise at some point. When I reflect on my personal experiences, I find the answer to breaking out and through usually lies in finding new eyes. Here’s what I mean. When we are stuck, what we are actually experiencing is the classic conundrum of being between a rock and a hard place; the rock being things we simply can’t change and the hard place being things with which we can’t do much good. But it is precisely when we are fully between the rock and hard place where that stuck situation actually does something to us. We don’t change it, it changes us. We are given a chance to see anew…a chance to gain a new set of eyes. When we are uncomfortable, this is the shattering that often does change us, if we let the lessons teach us. The environment doesn’t change; we do. And when we gain a new set of eyes, we re-engage the situation with new leadership energy and the vitality of a heroic leader.
Retreating Forward
Paradoxically, I often have to step backward—actually retreat–to find the clarity needed to move forward into positive engagement. Many communities and groups embrace retreats as healthy forms of renewal and rejuvenation. On a personal level, I try to discipline myself to create space and time each week to completely detach from my normal routine and customary pace, and when I do this, I find this purposeful solitude, this break from my over-stimulated life, creates a still learning space in which deeper thoughts emerge. Leadership is, among other things, deep sensing, deep knowing, and true discerning. I don’t think we ever come to any kind of knowing, or any real wisdom, in the midst of frenzy, chaos, or hyper-stimulation. This is why it is so important for leaders to find time to retreat from the rat race, to “make time for break time.” We must find places and spaces that present quiet time, allowing us to see and hear new questions, and equally, new answers. Sometimes as leaders, we must retreat to move forward.
Giving Away Your Gold
When I reflect on truly significant leaders, one of their hallmarks is their willingness to share their knowledge, gifts, and wisdom. They freely give away their gold. This is what distinguishes significant leaders from merely successful ones. A leader can achieve great capability and capacity, to become successful in the external trappings of the public eye, but if that leader does not share his boon, then he will never become truly significant. A willingness to share one’s gold, to give away one’s knowledge and wisdom, is one of the hardest thresholds for leaders to cross. Why? Because society worships success and the external earmarks of accomplishment, such as rank, position, salary, perks, etc. And when leaders fall pray to the siren’s call of personal success they will ultimately crash against the corrosive shores of self interest and self aggrandizement. Conversely, when leaders give away their gold they elevate themselves into the realm of significance, and doing so, they ensure the enduring excellence of their organizations long after they have departed. Give away your gold!
Images
When I think about how I honestly learn the deeper truths about leadership, I realize most of what I ultimately come to understand, and then fully internalize, is done through images and experiences rather than ideas and concepts. Why is that so? I believe images more fully teach us, and convert us, because images touch a deeper part of our soul—our unconscious—which is the place real transformation and conversion occur. For example, though I have been presented numerous leadership theories and concepts throughout my life, nothing has more fully transformed me as a leader as images of leadership in action, such as Lincoln at Gettysburg, King on the Washington Mall, Churchill’s resolve in the darkest hours of WWII, or Malala Yousafzai’s incredible courage in the face of near death in Pakistan. I have stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial many times, in total silence, and absorbed more about heroic leadership than I ever have from reading an essay on leadership concepts. It seems to me that images, pictures, and stories deeply touch our unconscious and call forth our better, more heroic selves.
Larger-Than-Life Leaders
When I contemplate history’s most significant and enduring leaders—those whose personal example transcends time and place—a good description of them is larger-than-life leaders. They weren’t merely successful, they were significant. But here’s the most instructive lesson for us to learn from these historical examples: Each person actually started out, or hit a key threshold moment at some point in their life, where they were actually smaller-than-life leaders. They were less than they could be. At some key point they hit a road block and fell into an psychological abyss. They had reached a crucial breakdown, a point of no return, with no apparent way forward. But instead of lying down, they broke through, and then rose up. Instead of avoiding the crucible, they moved through it. Instead of asking another person to shoulder the burden, they chose to shoulder it themselves. And when they came out on the other side of this life-defining crucible, they were different, and the difference was forged from the inside, out. Enduring the crucible is what made them larger than life. There’s a lesson there for us.
Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook,Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!
Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 16th
June 16, 2014 | No Comments »
Rituals and Rites
As I reflect on our society today it seems we’ve somewhat lost our understanding of, and respect for, healthy rituals and rites of passage. It appears these primal human foundations, once central to living and leading, have been shoved from the center to the circumference of our lives and our groups. As a man whose life was deeply influenced by healthy rituals (US Marines), I think a re-awakening of rituals in our groups would do us much good. Why? Because as we move through life and progress as leaders, we need to be reminded of necessary threshold crossings that distinguish our former (lesser) selves from our renewed (better) selves. For example, as Marines, our growth was guided by, and signified through, clear and honest rites and rituals. These symbolic events reminded us that our old skin was being shed and a new one emerging. When we move across thresholds we need the wise guidance of mentors and elders, and the teachable space created in healthy rituals, to ensure the messages we need most to hear are in fact seen, remembered, and allowed to convert us.
Turning Around
When I contemplate how leaders grow, I think there is a common misperception that leadership growth is linear and direct. What I believe actually happens is not this straight line movement, but rather, a constant turning around throughout one’s life. On the one hand, one turns away from a lesser self, and on the other, turns toward a better self. As such I believe true leadership development is more like an upward spiral than a straight line. The Greek word for such conversion is metanoia—which literally means “turning beyond the mind.” When I reflect on heroic leaders from the past—Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, and King for example–I clearly see this pattern of turning around; moving constantly from a former limiting mind(set) to a more noble and heroic one. And though we tend to domesticate our heroes and tell their stories as if they were linear paths, an honest biography of each illustrates how they had to turn around, convert themselves, and constantly move to more elevated forms of living and leading. We should remember this truth as we pursue our own leadership journeys.
Gifts and Blind Spots
As I reflect on my life I see some fundamental development truths that appear common to everyone’s journey. For example, our capacity to possess natural strengths and gifts, while at the same time, possess troubling blind spots and shadows. I am not sure we ever fully correct the blind spots and shadows. Instead, if we are wise and discerning, we learn to befriend the blind spots and incorporate the lessons our flaws can teach us. This is how we become self aware and the source of real wisdom. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I cannot think of a single great leader, someone of profound and enduring significance, who was not a mysterious blend of rare gifts and deep human frailty. What separates these great figures from others was their ability to know their shadows and weaknesses and move into wisdom in the second half of their lives. Consider this: As we move from the first half to the second half of life, the very things we called strengths in our early years can turn out to be faults later if we don’t transform ourselves as people and leaders.
Off Balance
Why is it that our greatest breakthroughs as people and leaders come, paradoxically, not when we are in balance, but often–when we are off balance? Here’s my thoughts. When we are in our comfort zones, a kind of automatic-pilot existence, we become tone-deaf to larger movements in the climate of our lives and work. Then, when we get knocked off balance through some kind of failure or unexpected adversity, our comfort zone is suddenly shattered and our prior support structures vanish. At first, we think this discomfort is debilitating and defeating, but if understood correctly, this feeling of being off balance is usually the time when we awaken to deeper thoughts and necessary changes. This has been so true in my life. I like to think of these off-balance moments as the great teachable spaces in our journey as leaders. It is in the times when our comfort zones are shaken we often find ourselves fully open to change. We may not wish to be off-balance, but interestingly, it is in off-balance moments, in this threshold space, where our greatest teachers reside. So, we must learn to live (and learn) off balance.
The Perpetual Recycler
Here’s an observation: Doesn’t it seem like the most crucial lessons of life and leadership, if not initially learned and mastered, simply keep reappearing in our path over and over? When I look at myself, I see how often leadership experiences constantly recycle back to me those things I need most to learn. Leadership, like life itself, is a perpetual recycler; we will constantly see the same barriers in our path until we learn to finally see, and then internalize, their lessons and their wisdom. When we find ourselves in such a repetitive pattern, this recycling action is a clear sign we have real leadership (and character) blind spots. Just like a person driving a car down a busy highway, blind spots prevent us from seeing truths and facts that are, actually, right there in plain sight. Yet somehow, our lack of awareness prevents us from detecting them. This is why self awareness, reflection, and self control are so vital to heroic leadership. Self awareness is the only means with which to see our blind spots, learn our tendencies, and then let the great recycler finally and fully educate us.
Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook,Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!
Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 9th
June 9, 2014 | No Comments »
Born or Made?
Today I am contemplating this question: “Are great leaders born or made?” Though I believe people are born with different inherent attributes, that is just a starting point. In the final analysis, I believe great leaders, like true heroes, are made. Why? Because great leaders are, foremost, great human beings, and they became great people through an arduous and life-long process of self-mastery. Whatever greatness ultimately comes forth from them, it does so from the inside, out. Like a diamond born of coal, the latent greatness must be slowly revealed through the pressure of time, experience, failure, and the constant crossing of growth thresholds. Great leaders are made in the cauldron of life and via the crucible of experience. Those who transform and convert via this crucible become significant; those who whither in this crucible are forgotten. Great leaders must pass through various initiations and rites of passage throughout their lives. Without some defeats and wounds, and necessary conversion, we become prisoner to our ego. Great leaders master themselves. So yes, great leaders are made, not born!
Know Your Lens
When I reflect on great leaders, truly significant people with enduring impact, I see clearly how each one came to possess self mastery in their life. Mastering oneself involves refining and improving one’s paradigm—or lens—which dictates how we see and hear. This is why I try to remind myself—“know your lens.” If we are not self aware, we can become victim to a negative paradigm and thus trapped in a corrosive view of living and leading. Whatever our lens is at the present moment is exactly how we will see and hear everything in which we engage. Our lens determines our biases, our pre-conditions, our agendas, and our preferences. For most of us, if we are not aware of our filters, our lens can be mostly focused on ourselves. This is why some leaders get older in chronological years but never lose their ego-centered lens. This is why it never stops being about themselves. Great leaders, however, learn to become aware of their filters, transform themselves, and consistently clean their lens. People who do not know their filters struggle to become wise leaders.
The Labyrinth
I incorporated the image of a labyrinth into my leadership logo because the mythic maze reminded me of the true nature of leadership. First, leadership is hard and effortful; we all must start in the center of the labyrinth and, through tests and trials, endeavor to make our way through towards excellence. Second, there are no shortcuts or gimmicks in leadership. Much like the hero Theseus trapped in the Cretan labyrinth, the best we can gain are subtle clues. It is up to us to listen for those clues, gain mastery by solving the mysteries of leadership ourselves, and courageously walk the twisting pathways. Third, the labyrinth reminds me that true progress as a leader is never a straight or smooth path. We will not progress as leaders in the shortest route possible. Leadership is a formidable journey of one step forward and two steps back, where paradoxically, the two steps back are often the most important and usually the most instructive. The labyrinth keeps us focused and centered on the leadership path. Fidelity to this labyrinthine path is, in the end, the most crucial ingredient to significance.
Gung Ho
Gung Ho is an Anglicized version of a Chinese phrase picked up by US Marines during duty in China in the early 1900s. Gung Ho conveyed a certain spirit of enthusiasm, and as such, was used to suggest an enthusiasm of working together in physical, mental, spiritual, and psychological harmony. Over time, Gung Ho became a common hallmark phrase in every generation of Marines. I’ve always loved the idea of Gung Ho, as I think it correctly captures the positive impact of individuals willingly choosing to be wholehearted in their efforts. Gung Ho is a necessary reminder to be mindful, fully engaged, and fully enthusiastic in things that matter. The spirit of Gung Ho also reveals one of life’s truest maxims: Anything we do wholeheartedly, in which we give our full measure, brings us the greatest joy and deepest satisfaction. I truly believe people do not get burned out from too much hard work as much as they mentally fatigue, and often quit, when they are involved in half-hearted or mindless pursuits. Purpose and meaning, pursued vigorously, do not tire us, they enliven us. Gung Ho!
Falling and Rising … Loss and Renewal
When we honestly reflect on the life of past great leaders, and comprehend the full arc of their lives, a pattern of falling and rising emerges, not just once, but repeatedly. Can you name one truly great leader, someone of profound significance and enduring excellence, who does not follow this cycle of defeat and re-birth? I can’t. It seems the falling and rising are both necessary to transformation and conversion of great leaders; the falling taught the lessons of the descent; the rising taught the lessons of the ascent. This cycle is the necessary crucible to hammer forth stronger and sturdier character. More importantly, the fall was as important, if not more, than the rise, for as we observe so often, the falling is most often the handmaiden of the birth of our better self and our more heroic leadership. This truth is particularly important because as leaders we don’t like to think of falling or failing. Winning is sexier. But understood correctly, any initial loss, dealt with courageously and with candor, is the very thing leading us to renewal and a higher plane of leadership and wisdom.
Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook,Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!
Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of June 2nd
June 2, 2014 | No Comments »
Internal Compass
The result of cultivating true inner authority is the steady refinement of an internal compass; a “true north” wisdom keeping a leader on a heroic path. And as I reflect on the primacy of developing an inner compass, I believe there are four cardinal points of such a true-north touchstone. First, self mastery. Great leaders are self-aware and thus able to self-regulate, focus attention, and constantly spiral upwards towards excellence and wisdom. Second, a commitment to mentoring. Great leaders attain mastery in all forms, and then—they freely give it away. They focus on enduring significance of the group, not their personal success. Third, they build and maintain deep engagement with the group. They build deep bonds of affection, companionship, camaraderie, and esprit. Finally, great leaders celebrate ethos. By regularly extolling healthy traditions, customs, and rites and rituals, great leaders galvanize an elevated cornerstone of excellence binding generation to generation, and past to present.
Servant Leadership
There’s been much written over the years about the concept of Servant Leadership, about which I am regularly asked my opinion. Like many, I have a natural hesitation to take something as mysterious and truly artful as leadership and reduce it to a finite taxonomy, definition, or praxis. The danger in subscribing to a literal definition of leadership is not that it may be bad, per se, but rather, our unfortunate human tendency to turn a simple theory into overly literal rules and proscriptions. I believe leadership is a master craft that, at best, can be understood akin to a philosophy of life and living. Who we are, ultimately, determines how we lead. However, I do like the mental image that the term Servant Leadership evokes. For me, it suggests a leader who has rightly aligned purpose, actions, and intentions first inward, towards self mastery, and then outward towards the benefit of others. Servant Leadership reminds me of this personal observation: I can’t think of a single great leader in the past, or a truly satisfied person I know now, who wasn’t involved in serving some greater good. Can you?
Stuck
Leaders must learn to intentionally seek activities that break them free of the rat race. When we feel we are mindless in our jobs, we feel stuck. And when stuck, our leadership suffers, as do our followers. One way to break out is to align one’s leadership with a true calling or vocation. If we align our leadership to deep personal callings, meaning, or purpose, then the work begins to feel less like hardship and more like reward. This is the realm of peak experiences and deep satisfaction. Another way to break out is through recreation. Physical fitness and travel have always been deeply refreshing and rejuvenating elements in my life and my leadership, and in retrospect, I can see how deeply these hobbies have truly re-created me. When I work out or travel I always feel genuinely restored, rekindled, and re-awakened. And not just physically, but also mentally, spiritually, and psychologically. Most of my deep thinking, reflection, and self awareness comes when I am recreating. Recreation is therefore essential to sustaining self-mastery and to creating an upward spiral of growth.
Hints and Clues
Great leadership is mysterious and can’t simply be reduced to a set of menus and checklists. I prefer to avoid literal lists because I think that kind of simplistic approach misrepresents leadership as a tactic, instead of representing leadership in its true nature, which is more akin to a master craft. Leadership is hard, requires life-long commitment, and can only be mastered by solving leadership’s mysteries, one at a time, and by oneself. When we talk about truly great leadership, I think the best we can say is, “it is like.” I therefore believe a far more honest and effective way to master leadership is by studying what I call hints and clues…those gems revealed in reflecting on history, myth, legend, lore, metaphor, and parable. When we reflect on leadership mysteries revealed in these non-literal forms, we start to see subtle hints and clues of timeless leadership truths. We detect patterns. Moreover, we are forced to personally wrestle with these hints and clues and harvest the pearls of wisdom found therein. This is the only means to truly internalize the lessons, and thus, the only path for the leader to become the lesson.
Check back next Monday for a round up of this week’s social media shares. Or check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest to see our posts every day!