Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of August 10th
Heroic Paradigm—Part II
Our paradigm, the lens through which we view life and leadership, is the most crucial determinant of great leadership. I often describe three basic paradigms that leaders can adopt. The first is accidental leadership, where one devotes almost no thought, preparation, or practice to the art of leadership. The second paradigm is cafeteria leadership, where one simply picks and chooses the leadership actions that fit one’s mood, whim, or disposition. Neither accidental nor cafeteria style paradigms are noble, elevating, or capable of producing greatness. The third and correct paradigm of leading is Heroic Leadership. A Heroic Leadership paradigm is based on a conviction that leadership is a master craft, requiring great exertion, life-long preparation, and daily devotion to self mastery. A Heroic Leader never separates one’s life from one’s leadership. To remain heroic we must constantly clean the lens, transform our eye, and re-tune our ear.
Leadership as a Journey
We refer to leadership as a journey to reinforce this core truth: Leadership is a master craft requiring lifelong development. That leadership is a journey also reminds us that true mastery will always defy instant gratification. To pursue heroic leadership, we must go through life’s test and trials, not around them. There are no menus, checklists, gimmicks, shortcuts, or killer apps we can download to achieve instant leadership mastery. And, though demanding, the journey to heroic leadership is, in the end, its own reward; it calls forth our best selves, and for the groups we lead, it provides a beacon of noble purpose to guide towards the future. The journey’s path can thus be shown, and the terrain described, but each leader must answer the call to heroic leadership and begin walking. Seen correctly, the journey is not just necessary as a means to excellence, but more importantly, the journey is the handmaiden of our character and our significance.
Transformation
There’s been much written about transformational leadership from the vantage point of how leaders transform others. A far more important viewpoint is self-transformation: How Heroic Leaders transform themselves. Self-transformation, borne of the leader’s journey, produces an authentic, centered, and wise leader. Like a diamond imbedded in coal, our heroic self is initially buried under surface level limitations, namely—our egos. And like a diamond, our heroic self will only emerge through crucible-like conditions that burn away the external layers and reveal the hidden gem. Consider this axiom: to reach the high ground of leadership, we must first endure the desert. We must leave our comfort zone, cross thresholds, endure tests, and be re-renewed in the cauldron of experience. The shaping events in our lives, properly understood, create inner conversions—a continual turning around and a letting go. Paradoxically, we must first to go inward, and then and only then–upward and outward.
Heroic Leaders are Resonant
Leadership at its core is influence, and at the core of influence is resonance. Do we resonate with those we lead or not? Consider an orchestra conductor. A great conductor—a maestro–takes a group of disparate musicians and through his artful influence, creates resonance. Resonance is perfect pitch, tone, tenor, and tempo. Beautiful music. This orchestra appears to operate as a single, seamless entity. They have moved from E Pluribus, to Unum (from many, one). Conversely, a bad conductor takes that same group of musicians and due to his lack of leadership influence, creates dissonance. Dissonance is horrible pitch, tone, tenor, and tempo. Like fingernails across a chalk board! Great leaders are maestros; they take once disparate groups—raw elements—and turn them into gold. The gold they create is reflected as unity, cohesion, and shared intent. Leaders become resonant with those they lead by consistently modeling excellence, trustworthiness, and foremost—authenticity. So…do you resonate with your group? To know, look to the quality of the conductor. Be a maestro!
Success
Leaders want to be successful both for our personal goals and the broader goals we set for our teams. However, we often fail to fully understand the term success. Our modern world often equates success with outer trappings like rank, title, salary, or the size of our house. Our modern world also likes to believe in the myth of instant success, an illusion born of a mania for instant gratification. The truth is real success doesn’t follow a rags-to-riches trajectory. Heroic leaders don’t rise from nothing, nor do they make it alone. True success is neither cheap nor easy, but rather, the by-product of a life-long pattern of successful behavior that results in personal readiness. Success thus comes at the nexus of challenge and readiness. If we are ready when challenge or opportunity emerge, we’ll be successful, and not just for ourselves, but for a greater good. We can’t control the nature or timing of the challenge, but we can control our readiness through practice, preparation, and rehearsal. Understood such, success is a self-disciplined pattern of action—a habit pattern--that great leaders cultivate into their lives.
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