1721 Journey

A year ago, my time and energy moved to a new blog called 1721 Journey.  Its purpose is to encourage staff, volunteers, and others who have a passion and interest in seeing the historical mission of the YMCA visible in their lives. You will find thoughts on leadership as well as other competencies needed for success.  Feel free to click on over and see what has been happening over the last year,  You can find it at www.1721Journey.com 

Video Game Success

Do you remember getting that new video game?  It might have been as a kid.  It might have been as an adult.  It might even be that new game on your smart phone.  You play it once and get an embarrassingly low score.  You reset it and try again and an hour later you are feeling pretty good about yourself....You are making progress and telling others about it.

You just experienced failing to success.  Each time our character dies in the game or time expires we have learned one more thing for that next round.  The little bit of success we taste drives us to try again and we keep getting better.  Sometimes it's is the score that motivates us.  Sometimes it's simply improving.  Sometimes it's a little encouragement from a friend.  

Coaching our teams can be a lot like this.  We need to make the environment safe enough to try new things and take risks and challenging enough to help our teams learn through experience and want to do it again.  It's a fine line at times.

Keep encouraging and supporting.  Celebrate the successes, and coach through the failures.  Watch the growth when your team fails to success.  When the high score becomes routine,  a new game or a new level may be just the right thing.

Protecting the Windows

The Desert Monks withdrew from the comforts of life to truly connect with a life of humility.   Thomas Merton tells the story of a monk who was highly thought of by his peers and praised for his humility.   As Abbot Anthony tested him he found he broke when insulted.   Anthony  told him "You are like a house with a big strong gate that is freely entered by robbers through the windows".

All aspects of our person need to be aligned.  When we fail to align just one area, we create windows of opportunity for our behaviors to derail our leadership. When it comes to humility and serving, it is easy to put up the good front and defer to the team when the accolades arrive.  But when the challenges and barbs start to fly,  what is your response? Do you defend, shrink, sulk,  or do you move on extending grace.  We want to be the one that is right,  prove our position, or put someone in their place - but leaders at all levels have too much too lose by going into defense mode. 

A few years ago, a staff member was in a position where he had to turn away some peers that had attended high school with him.  He had gone on to college and was successful - they had not.  Their response was a public verbal assault involving name calling, racial slurs, and insults.  It was hard, but he ignored them and denied the urge to defend himself.  He had everything lose by engaging them, and they had nothing to lose.  

Philippians 2:5 says "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset [attitude] as Christ Jesus." Reading further we see what that looks like and what it means - in a nutshell,  it is humility and servanthood (Philippians 2:5-11). 

Jesus's example is the model for leadership - he finished his mission to save the world with humility and as a servant. Windows were not a liability.   

What are you doing to ensure windows are not a liability to your leadership?

Seeing the Spiders

I am staring out my windshield watching the blacktop and occasional cars and trucks pass by.  Out of the corner of my eye I see something move inside the car.  Glancing again, I see that a yellow spider about the size of a dime crawled out of a crack between the glass and plastic and was crawling down the strip.  

I try to get my wife's attention and she looks once. "Look at that," I say.  She looks away without any expression.  

"Did you see that?" I ask.

"See what?"

"The window."

"What are you looking at?" she asks.

Pointing my finger, I say, "Here - do you have something for it?"

"Oh - I was looking outside and didn't see anything important!"

If my daughter was driving, the spider would have been a major event and disrupted the smooth drive.  For me, it wasn't a big deal - but needed to be dealt with.  The spider was soon outside the vehicle with a flick of the finger toward an open window.

Depth of field is important as we progress to our goals.  You might find things to celebrate along the way. You might find a bigger issue that can derail your goal.  Or you might find an annoyance to take care before it becomes a bigger issue. 

Take time this week to assess the environment needed for success to reach your goals.  Deal with the "spiders" now before they have a chance to cause excitement and distractions.  The trip will be a lot more fun.

In the Woods

She was probably 10 years old wearing a sundress, flip flops, a camelback water system backpack, and riding a child sized mountain bike in the woods – and without a helmet.  She pulled off to the side of the trail to let me go by.  I asked if she was ok.  She said, “I am ok and I know what I am doing”.  Her story was that her dad was coming right behind her.  She was expecting to go to the beach but didn’t know their plans had changed until she was a picked up.   She had been to the park before and knew her way.  I offered to ride with her until her dad caught up to her, but she didn’t want any help.  I told her it might be a good idea to stop a little up the trail at a rest spot and wait until her dad caught up.

I got back on my bike and continued – but still was bothered that she was alone even though it was a popular trail that would loop back to the parking lot.  I talked to a couple of other faster riders were passing me and they had seen her as well.  They were going to make a second loop and check on her and look to see if there was a parent looking for their child. 

It had a happy ending, but not until a couple of riders went back out after finding her puzzled dad at the beginning of the trail.  Talking with the dad I found out the young girl had overestimated her skill and knowledge and assumed support was close.  The father assumed she would stay close and she was prepared (even though he underestimated the importance of a helmet, shoes, and tighter clothing).

Chances are that you have probably seen something similar to this in the workplace.  A new staff member starts, the supervisor makes some assumptions based on their past experiences, and the new person doesn’t want to ask questions or take advice.  Suddenly (or not so suddenly) a preventable situation occurs.  The new person feels embarrassed, the supervisor has a woulda-coulda-shoulda moment, and the ripple effect continues for a while.

How does a leader prevent something like this from happening?

1. Meet often with new team members.  It gives the opportunity to intentionally connect, build a relationship, establish trust, and facilitate conversation.
2. Be clear on objectives what success will look like when the job is done well.
3. Ask open ended questions.  Explore situations with them and have them assess what they see.  Ask them do describe their plans and what they will be doing next.  Ask them to assess the progress and what might need to be adjusted.  Ask questions that will help them sustain success they find.
4. Debrief tasks and projects and celebrate successes.  They need to know what when the target is hit.

REVIEW - Eat, Move, Sleep

While I don’t know Tom Rath, I think he has a passion for helping people be the best version of themselves that they can be.  His books “How Full is Your Bucket”, “”Strengthsfinder 2.0”, “Strengths Based Leadership”, “Vital Friends”, and “Well-Being” all offer challenges to grow and understand ourselves better and maximize who we are.

Tom has a new book coming out in October this year called “Eat, Move, Sleep” to challenge people to make small choices that can lead to big changes in their health.  He has taken his research and writing skills and applied them to a topic that that is front of mind with many people – being healthy. We all want to be able to do the things we are passionate about for as long as we can.  Unfortunately, the choices we make along the way in our eating habits, activity levels, and sleeping habits contribute to the obstacles we encounter along the way.  

"Eat, Move, Sleep" captures the research from the medical, psychology, and nutrition communities and packages it in 30 quick read chapters (think a chapter a day for a month) that each conclude with 3 action steps around eating, moving, and sleeping for you to consider implementing in your own life.  It is about making little changes in our habits and lifestyle that will have a ripple effect across the quality of life we experience as we become healthier. 

Have you heard some pieces of the information before?  Probably.
Have you ignored some of things you have been told?  Most Likely.

So what makes this different?  “Eat, Move, Sleep” will challenge you to rethink what you are doing in small steps rather than overwhelming you.

1. It shows the cause and effect relationship between the three areas of our lives.  Many people focus on just diet or exercise to change their life.
• Did you know that good sleep increases a digestive hormone that keeps you from eating too much and decreases another that boosts appetite?
2. Tom gives you just enough research in plain and simple terms to support his action steps at the end of each chapter.  
• A simple check-in with another person around activity levels nearly doubles a participant’s activity levels over the span of a year.
• A Harvard study with 100,000 people showed the quality of what you eat will influence your health more than calories.
3. Challenges are realistic.  You are challenged to do one of the three action steps each day for a month and try it to see what the result will be for you.  It’s doable.
• Identify a few healthy food options – buy them automatically so good choices are always available at home.
• When your brain is filled with new information to remember or when you need a burst of creativity, go for a walk.
• Eat the healthiest things on your plate first and end with the least healthy.

If you need a little inspiration, a nudge in the right direction, simple steps toward a goal, or some conversation starters to share with friends who you have health concerns for, this will be a great book to read.  Don't overlook this topic - or this book.  You will think differently about what you eat, how you move, and how you sleep – and if you implement just a handful of the action steps, you will be healthier and better prepared to lead. 

You can pre-order the book now at http://www.tomrath.org/exclusive-offer-for-early-adopters/ and get an electronic copy to read ahead of time!

Lead Where You Are…

The 2013 Global Leadership Summit (GLS) was last week.  Facilitated by Willow Creek Church in Illinois, the GLS is a two day leadership conference conducted live at Willow Creek and broadcast to 235 locations in the US with over 75,000 participants, and another 92 countries around the world (some live and some on DVD later in the fall).  It’s an open call to men and women to live out their Christian faith in the workplace and within their church developing and growing their capacity as leaders.

So what were the nuggets this year?  I started my list that is actually much longer, but here are the top 10 that made me pause and are still making me think this week.

Bill Hybels – Pastor

• Be strong and courageous because I am with you -  God to Joshua (Joshua 1:9, the Bible) 

Colin Powell - General

• Great leaders know how to connect the purpose of the organization to the role of each person.

Patrick Lencioni – Business Consultant and Author

• We can’t be Christ like servant leaders if we don’t help people connect the reason they work with how they work. To be relevant is to have a reason for doing what you do, and the job of a leader is to help employees find that reason.  Management is ministry.

Mark Burnett – TV and Movie Producer

• Choose your companions before you choose your road.  Hire the right people,  empower them,  get out of the way

Joseph Grenny – Business Consultant and Author

• If our faith experience isn’t translating into other habits and experiences, we aren’t leading.

Chris Brown – Pastor

• Never get caught up in the great things of leadership if it takes you away from the God things of leadership.

Bob Goff – Attorney and CEO

• What were you made to do?  God created us to do unique things.   Discover it and do it! Lead where you are!

Brene' Brown – Research Professor and Speaker

• “The 2 irreducible needs of men, women and children are love and belonging…In the absence of these, there is always suffering….Fitting in is different than belonging”

Oscar Muriu – Pastor in Kenya

• Reflect Jesus - never do ministry/lead alone. Keep budding leaders around you.   When you lead alone,  there is a missed opportunity for mentorship.  (When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. - Acts 4:13, the Bible)

Dr.  Henry Cloud – Psychologist and Author

• The people who thrive create a list of things they can absolutely do & forget about the things out of their control.

The challenge with any conference take-away is what do you so with them once you get back home. Here are three simple things:

1. Tell someone what you learned or what stuck out 
2. Revisit your notes within a week 
3. Decide on 1-3 things you are going to do and put them on the calendar and make them happen 

Save August 14-15 next year for two great days to blend leadership with your faith. Their website has a list of locations already as well as an early bird registration.