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Distance and Leadership

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Distance and Leadership - 2

There is an old joke that is not all that kind to girls.  And it goes like this: “She was so homely looking that the only thing that improved her looks was distance.”

Do you see? I told you it wasn’t very nice. So, I apologize to all of the women in our audience. That old joke is the set-up for my article.

Maybe I am a little preoccupied with the concept of distance since I am writing this from a hotel room about 7600 miles from home. And I desperately would like to be in much closer proximity to the ones that I love.

Does “distance” affect the way that you are perceived as a leader? In other words, does your leadership look the same up close as it does from a comfortable distance? Or are you afraid that if folks get really close to you they will see the real you? And maybe the real you isn’t the kind of leader that you think you are.

I am not indicating that we should act in any way so that we will gain favor in the eyes of those that we love. That would put us in the camp of the “people pleasers.” People pleasers don’t usually make good leaders. Instead I am asking us to consider whether or not we are genuine and that we look the same up close as well as from a distance where our flaws are not as readily noticeable.

So now we are back to the set-up joke. Am I so flawed and blemished as a leader that I only appear acceptable from a distance?

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Loneliness in All Aspects of Leadership

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Loneliness in All Aspects of Leadership

“There is a loneliness in all aspects of leadership.”

This is a line from a speech given by a man named Gordon B. Hinckley to a group of students and faculty at Brigham Young University in November of 1969.   I will not debate the theology of that institution. Nor will I debate the incidents that gave rise to Mr. Hinckley making the statements that I find so fascinating. But rather I would ask you to consider the impact of that statement on those of us who would be leaders.

At the point that he delivered this address, BYU was embroiled in a great controversy. For those unaware, the BYU football team had recently been to Laramie, WY to play the University of Wyoming at War Memorial Stadium. Fourteen black football players had planned to wear black armbands as part of their uniform to protest the policy of the LDS church that many considered to be racist. These same fourteen players were dismissed from the team on the evening before the big game.

Now consider some more words from Gordon Hinckley about the loneliness of leadership.

“It was ever thus. The price of leadership is loneliness. The price of adherence to conscience is loneliness. The price of adherence to principle is loneliness. I think it is inescapable. The Savior of the world was a Man who walked in loneliness. I do not know of any statement more underlined with the pathos of loneliness than His statement: ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20).

There is a loneliness in all aspects of leadership. I think we feel it somewhat in this university. BYU is being discussed across the nation today because of some of our practices and some of our policies and some of our procedures, but I would like to offer the thought that no institution and no man ever lived at peace with itself or with himself in a spirit of compromise. We have to stand for the policy that we have adopted. We may wonder in our hearts, but we have to stand on that position set for us by him who leads us, our prophet.”

For the record, the policy that prohibited black males from the priesthood was rescinded in 1978. And one of the top leaders of the church at that time was none other than Gordon Hinckley.

What happened between 1969 and 1978? Many things. Not the least of which was the rapid expansion of the LDS church in South America and a new temple being constructed in Brazil. How would the policy of the day work in such a multi-cultural and multi-racial nation as Brazil? Apparently, the leadership of the church came to the conclusion that the policy was no longer feasible.

What is the point for us as leaders?

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Go Quietly

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Quiet Please

I had a very interesting and brief email exchange with a friend via LinkedIn.  He had read an article that I posted on LinkedIn and he “Liked” it.  (By the way, that is very gratifying to a writer. . .  just sayin’)  I responded to him briefly and thanked him for taking the time to read the article and then taking that extra few seconds to give it the internet “thumbs up!”

This will be very brief today.  But he said something in his reply to me that struck a chord.  I had asked him why he thinks our comments are relatively low when our readership is at an all-time high.   And his response was that culture and the politically correct climate is causing this.  In other words, culture is squeezing us into a mold of quiet conformity (my words not his.)

Quiet leadership as opposed to screaming and yelling is a virtue to be sure.  In fact, I have written on this topic several times already.  Consider this one on Mahatma Gandhi and this one on the nature of leadership for some of my thoughts on the topic of quiet leadership.  But what are the implications of the quest for silence on other aspects of our lives and behaviors?

I am traveling this week and much of next week and may not have time to delve into this a little deeper until I return.  But, I really think that he is on to something with his response to me.

What are your thoughts?  Do you have any fodder for consideration as I put my thoughts into words?

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Three Things About Failure

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How many times have you heard that failure is just a stepping-stone to success?

Although it is true, it is not very helpful just knowing that little tidbit. The fact of the matter is, just knowing this is simply not enough. It’s not going to actually bring you success and it’s not going to help you become a better leader.

The fact remains that most people are afraid to fail. We’ve been conditioned since childhood that it’s a bad thing. Failing a test in school didn’t exactly get us one step closer to an “A” now did it? Want to start up a new business? Don’t fail. Because if you do you will lose all your capital that you invested in the venture.

Failing at something doesn’t mean that you have no skills or abilities, or you don’t know how to do anything.

Consider this. Failure, after you strip out the emotions, is just feedback. And it’s from this feedback that we should extract the lessons, learn from them, and apply them to our leadership development. Here now are three things that I think we need to consider where failure is concerned.

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The Top 20 Posts Viewed in 2014

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Top 20 with Logo

This has been a very big year for Leadership Voices. And the response to the things that have appeared this year has been very gratifying. We feel that we have seen many folks visiting the site that have truly embraced the many facets of leadership.

The list below is the Top 20 articles that were viewed this year on the web site. They have very different titles and have unique points of view. Several of them were published in 2013, and one was from our first year in 2012, yet they are still being viewed because folks are finding them via various internet search terms and phrases.

Here they are in order by most views in 2014.

Mohatma Gandhi – A Quiet Leader
God and Dr. Pepper
Can You Have Success In Leadership Without Structure?
What Happens When You Put a Bunch of Leaders in One Room?
Battlestar Voices, the Skirmish with the Fifth “S”
Three Ways to Spot a Leader Wannabe
Leadership Lessons from Finding Nemo
Can You Have Success In Leadership Without Struggle?
Is Leadership Static or Dynamic?
You Can Only Steer A Moving Ship
“Help Ever – Hurt Never” and the Lost Skill of Discernment
The Modern Sheepdog
Baidu and the Persistent Pursuit of Leadership
5 Qualities of an Effective Team Mate
Leadership is . . . Saying you’re sorry
Leadership on a Hope and a Prayer
My Greatest Organization and Productivity Booster for 2015
Advantages and Disadvantages of Being on a Team
Five Skills You Need to Be a Better Up-Front Leader
The Big Let Down

I hope you have had a chance to see each of these from this “Top 20”. And more than that, I hope you will join us in 2015 and see what our team will have for you this year.

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There may be a few bumps in the road as we integrate this new tool.  So, please be patient and please try it out and leave a comment to make sure it is working for you.  And please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about the new Disqus integration.

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My Greatest Organization and Productivity Booster for 2015

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For many of us, getting organized and increasing productivity are two of our biggest goals entering each new year. They are probably only topped by “losing weight” or some other fitness goal. And I can’t really help you with those per se. The good news is that I can help you with organization and productivity in the coming year.

One of my goals for Leadership Voices in 2015 is to become even more practical in our approach to leadership development. And this article is the first in a series of articles that you will see in the coming days, weeks and months on one of the greatest productivity tools that I have come across since I purchased my first Day-Timer back in 1979.  I began using it in 2014 and it has had a profound effect on me and my personal productivity.  It only gets better the more I discover ways to integrate it into my daily life.

I am talking about Evernote. Evernote has become integral to everything that I do here at Leadership Voices. It would be integral to my day job, but for some strange reason, some folks there have not seen the value of Evernote yet.

To be completely transparent, you can do most of what Evernote does with other note-taking services such asMicrosoft’s OneNote, but (in my opinion) Evernote wins out with its huge platform compatibility – particularly with the mobile apps; and with the many integrated third party apps available across platforms also. And it’s FREE.

For the sake of organization and productivity, we want to be more efficient with the time and resources that we have, to enable us to spend more time doing what we want – in my case, spending time with family, leadership coaching, and writing. Evernote allows me to do a lot of “side-line” work while out and about and still keep everything together in one place that is accessible anywhere.

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The Big Let Down

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Big Let Down - Aftermath

It has been 2 days since Christmas. And you can go ahead and admit it. You are feeling a little let down after all of the excitement, aren’t you? The presents are all unwrapped. There may still be a big mess. But the fun part is over.

Well, maybe that is part of the problem. The fun part (the party or the kids ripping presents open) is over and there is nothing left but the cleaning up of the mess from Christmas morning. We all feel that “big let down” right about now.

That feeling is normal. We all feel it sooner or later throughout the Holiday season. It comes sooner and more pronounced for some than for others. But there is always a little bit of disappointment around about now.

Everyone likes decorating the tree. We can’t wait to get the tree and get it decorated and begin enjoying the Christmas season. But no one wants to put the tree away and pack away all of the ornaments and lights for next year. That is such a let down.

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The Myth of the Perfect Christmas

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Merry Christmas

It is not a perfect Christmas for us this year. Some of my family are not here.  But it is still a “Merry” one. It is still one that is full of joy and wonder and amazement that God chose to come to earth in the form of man and dwell among us.

It would be nice to say “Merry Christmas” and be completely oblivious to the world around us. But that would mean that you and I are truly oblivious creatures. The fact is, more of us are hurting and broken at Christmas than are healthy and whole.

I am here to tell you that it is okay. It is okay with me and it is okay with Jesus. In fact, your brokenness is exactly why Jesus came. Your brokenness is the dirty, filthy stable. Your brokenness is a manger made for feeding animals, not for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But Jesus came anyway. He came and He stayed with us and He cried IN our brokenness, WITH us. Because Jesus is “Emmanuel, God with us.”

And He will come to you anew and afresh if you will let him.

But to do that we have to put away this notion of a perfectly decorated tree, perfectly lighted houses, perfectly wrapped presents, perfectly planned meals and perfectly pretty family and friends to share it with.  Jesus didn’t come for any of that. And actually, it’s quite the opposite.

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