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Forging a Leader

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Forging a Leader - 1There has been a lot of talk on this forum and other forums about being a leader. We have discussed how to become a leader and what a good leader looks like. But I am not sure we have talked enough about the pain and suffering becoming a leader can be. I’m not talking about the “pain in the rear” you get from sitting in a seminar about leadership. I’m talking about the trial by fire and the true forging that develops real leaders. I’m talking about Lincoln and the Civil War, I’m talking about Kennedy and PT 109, and I’m talking about Reagan and the Berlin Wall.

Just to make sure we all understand what I mean, let’s discuss this word that I am using — forging.

Forging is one of the oldest known metal working processes. Traditionally it is performed with a hammer and an anvil and the application of different levels of heat. A forge is a type of hearth used for the application of heat to metals. So I am speaking metaphorically about using a hammer, an anvil and heat to create a leader. Sound difficult?

Ok, so we aren’t really going to use a hammer anvil and forge to create a leader. But I bet if you asked some true leaders, they have felt the heat of the fire, and the pressure of the hammer. I once wrote an article here about why anyone would want to be a leader. I have to admit, it was a little tongue in cheek, but I was hoping it would drive some conversation. This is not that kind of article. This, reader, is about whether or not you are truly prepared for what it takes to be a leader?

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Blending In vs. Standing Out

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Blending in vs Standing out - 1When I graduated from college in 1983, and started to look for jobs, I had to do two things during interviews. First I had to convince employers that I understood the basics of their business — the lingo, the process, the requirements of being an employee of their company.

But I also had to give them the sense I was different than other applicants. I needed them to know that I stood out from the pack. I wanted them to believe that I’d work harder and deliver a better work product than anyone else.

It’s a conundrum that faces everyone trying to get ahead in the world of business, from recent graduates, to those moving up the ladder, to entrepreneurs of every stripe: how to stand out, while also making it clear you fit in.

The implications of these two facets of a valuable employee are obvious. But consider for a moment these in the light of being a leader and not just an employee.

Blending in vs Standing out - 2What are the leadership implications of blending in versus standing out?

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Legacy Leadership – Part 5 – Living a Worthy Legacy Now

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LL - 5 - 1If I told you today that you would die on November 7, 2024 at midnight, how would you spend the next 10 years of your life?

If I told you today that you would die on November 7, 2014 at midnight, what would you do?

Would there be any difference in your approach?

I have be been very fortunate to hear some of the greatest Gospel voices preach in our church, at camp meetings or various retreats.  One of the greatest in my mind is Dr. William McCumber. For those of you who may not know, he was a pastor, teacher and publisher of a magazine.

LL - 5 - 2He preached a message one time that I think is relevant to our Legacy Leadership theme as I bring this series to a close.  In his message he was trying to help us come to grips with how we are to live our lives in light of the coming end of this age.  Dr. McCumber was asked one time what he would do given that we may be living in the last days before Jesus returns.  He said, with no intent to create humor, that he would go home and fix the leak in his roof.

That is an odd response, wouldn’t you say?

His point was this.  We should be living our lives in such a way that if we knew that Jesus was returning, we would be so ready to go that we would just go on about our daily activities.

That challenges me.  If I knew for sure that my time was near, would I be running around making amends?  Would I be trying to make up for lost time? Or would I just go about my daily routine?

I realize that this is a gross oversimplification. But it makes the point that I think I want to make today.

What is the legacy leadership point here?

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Leading With Humility

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Leading with Humility - 1We have just experienced a bit of a momentous election here in the U.S.  And we are seeing changes in the upcoming Congress such as have not been seen since Herbert Hoover was president.  Regardless of your political affiliation and whether or not your side gained or lost, how will our newly elected or re-elected representatives lead?

I have written in the past on the recently elected pope and I would suggest again that Pope Francis may have some more words of wisdom for our elected leaders.

Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina chose the name “Francis” when he became the first Jesuit pope of the Catholic Church in March 2013. Inspired by the modesty of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis anchors his philosophy and approach to life in humility.  After the selection of Argentinian Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope in March 2013, his humility, caring and willingness to be vulnerable captured the fancy of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world. Pope Francis, who labels himself a “sinner,” famously asked, “Who am I to judge?”

Leading with Humility - 2In his nearly 40 years as a priest in South America, Bergoglio was as an unpretentious man who took public transportation to visit Catholics and non-Catholics in Argentinian neighborhoods. Fifteen months after he turned 75 – and submitted his mandatory resignation to Pope Benedict XVI – Bergoglio was elected to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, stepping in to head a church plagued by controversy. His tenure as pope thus far exemplifies some important leadership lessons.  Humility is one of them.

Pope Francis believes that humility is the single most important leadership characteristic and that everyone should learn to be more humble. For his first public appearance as pope, Francis chose not to stand on a platform that would raise him higher than other cardinals.  Before addressing the crowd, he requested a prayer for himself, a decidedly untraditional gesture. Few corporate leaders demonstrate that kind of humility.

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Today Is Your Chance

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Election Day 1It seems that a lot of leaders are hiding behind a mask, which says leadership, but does not necessarily represent it.

Today is Election Day, Tuesday, November 4. There is a lot of talk about leadership and what it means, if we are going in the right direction or not. I’ve been involved in a few conversations on the subject, friends, coworkers etc. I get mixed responses to my question, what is leadership to you? Are you a leader? Do you think like a leader? Do you want to be a leader? Is leadership even needed? So on this day of change, what does leadership mean to you?

I typically leave the political commentary to more experienced authors on this blog, but there has been so much talk lately about the elections, I felt the need to start a discussion. What I want to know is, can we actually effect change with the election? Or will it take something more drastic?

Election Day 2Now I am not proposing a revolution, but I do wonder how long the current state of affairs in this country can continue. Based on today’s political climate, what is leadership going to look like for our children, our grandchildren? How do we prepare them to see through the veil of false leadership in the future?

I have to believe we can change the world around us. I have to believe our founding fathers thought enough of our voice to have elections. I also believe that contributing to process is everyone’s right and responsibility. If we didn’t believe these things, what kind of life would we have?

So to anyone that reads this today, whatever your political affiliation, go vote. Sometimes it can be a tedious process, but so is the line at Starbucks. Skip one cup of coffee today and get to the polls.

Photo credit: Ben Fredericson (xjrlokix) / Foter / CC BY-NC
Photo credit: Greg McMullin / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Photo credit: hjl / Foter / CC BY

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Leadership Lessons from Texas History

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Texas History 1I wasn’t born in Texas.  But I got here as quickly as I could.  We moved to Texas during the summer of 1998.  And we have found Texas to be a great place to settle and raise our family.

My wife and I are nerds.  So, when we get a chance to get away for the week-end, where do we go?  We spend a day at Washington on the Brazos learning about history and how Texas declared its independence from Mexico.  See?  I told you we were nerds.  But in the midst of our nerdiness, I discovered an incredible leadership lesson.

If you don’t know the history of Texas, you would do well to familiarize yourself with the key points and timeline of Texas independence.  Following Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, the huge northern area that would one day be the 28th state of the United States of America.  But prior to statehood, Texas would experience a period of nationhood after it declared independence from Mexico.

Independence was declared in the town of Washington, Texas in an unfinished storefront that was made available to the 59 delegates to the convention.  The convention was meeting while General Antonio López de Santa Anna was beginning the siege of the mission in San Antonio.  The situation was desperate and Col. William Travis sent word of the situation to the delegates at the convention.  Many delegates considered their pleas and wanted to take up arms, close the convention, and come to the aid of those besieged at the Alamo.

So what is the leadership lesson in the midst of this history lesson?

Texas History 2It is this.  Sometimes leaders need to overcome the desire to deal with an immediate need or concern and stay focused on the greater goal.

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Legacy Leadership – Part 4 – Leaving a Legacy

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LL - 4 - 1You and I can have an impact upon others that outlasts your lifespan on this earth. In fact, it is unavoidable. The big question is whether or not that it will have been a positive impact.

Following certain Biblical principles, you can leave a legacy, a spiritual inheritance that will affect the lives of others for all eternity.

I have discussed this in my previous articles. And many others have discussed the idea of leaving a legacy as well. Presidents often speak of leaving a “legacy” when their term is done. You hear expressions like: “President Clinton’s legacy is…” or “What will President Bush’s legacy be?” These expressions are referring to the impact that their presidency will have upon future generations. It means, how will history remember them?

I want to talk to you today about leaving a Spiritual legacy, a spiritual inheritance, for those who come after us. Passing on to the next generations a legacy with eternal value is far more important than a temporal inheritance of money and property.

Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.”

But what does that really mean? I have already said that things of eternal value are of the utmost importance. So, on a practical level, what can I do?

LL - 4 - 2My wife and I recently met with our financial advisor. We looked at where we are currently and whether or not we are “on track”. He told us we are on track. That was good news. I asked him to share with us his projections and the parameters that he was using. He ran our life span out to age 90. And at the ripe old age of 90, he said we still had a little money left over to “leave to the children”. I felt pretty good about that. You know, leaving money to our young children and all. But then my wife asked him to run the projection out to age 100! Strangely enough we don’t have a whole lot of money left at that point. I was downhearted at the prospect of that. But, my intelligent and highly mathematically inclined wife quickly reminded me that when we are 100, our “children” will be in their early and mid 70s! They will probably have been retired for 15 or more years themselves! And their children will be in their 50s and probably thinking about retirement for themselves! I had it all wrong.

Well, consider the following as some practical guidance from a Biblical perspective.

Our children and grandchildren should be target #1 for our legacy. – Your primary task in life is

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Leadership is… Releasing

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Releasing - 1Today marks the last in my series on defining characteristics of leadership.  I hope that you have enjoyed them and that you have found them beneficial.

The last facet of leadership that I will be discussing is perhaps the hardest and yet the most important.

As leaders we must release the work, the results, the process, the progress and even the direction of the organization into the hands of our team. If we don’t release it to them, they will never have the necessary intrinsic motivators necessary to be fully engaged and successful.

Our releasing actually must begin at the very first discussion about goals and organizational direction. As the leader we may have certain key components that we feel are non-negotiable but we need to keep them few and simple. Leaders must release the work to the team (and they in turn must release the work to those they lead) if we ever want to learn about team-work, collaboration, unity and synergy.

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Genuine Leadership

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I just returned from a week long business trip to Shanghai, China.  It was a mind-blowing experience to say the least.  I found the (arguably) largest city on the planet to be a bit overwhelming.  The picture that sits atop this opening paragraph is the scene that greeted me when I awoke after arriving in the evening last Friday night and looked out my hotel window from the 55th floor of the JW Marriott in downtown Shanghai early the next morning.  It was my first view of the city.

I have been to some very large cities in my personal and business travels.  But nothing prepared me for the size and scope of Shanghai.  I have been to the top of the Empire State Building and I have looked out over Manhattan and all of metropolitan New York.  This was like looking at that view times four!

Fake RolexBut that is not the point of today’s article.  My point is this.  Sometimes you have to look really close to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit.  The concept of copyright and intellectual property is not viewed the same in China as it is in many other parts of the world.  As a result, you can by a Rolex gold Presidential watch for about $2,000 in US dollars.  Well, not really.  But you can get a counterfeit one for that price.  Now, I am not talking about the Thailand junk that is basically a cheap movement in not much more than a plastic case.  I am talking about a watch with a second hand that moves smoothly around the face.  It doesn’t click on the second which is a tell-tale giveaway for fake Rolex’s.  These are very high quality watches.  They are fairly expensive.  They are also fakes.

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Legacy Leadership – Part 3 – Restoring a Legacy

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LL Part 3 - 1Restoring.

Restoration.

Something is either broken or old. In either case, the word connotes that something needs to be repaired. I am not sure exactly how that aligns with my understanding of restoration. But I think it is not too far from the reality of it.

There are several recent examples of restoration that are at various stages of the process. One example is from the industry in which I am employed. And the second is from the world of college football. Consider with me for a moment – the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico and the scandal that erupted involving a former football coach at Penn State University.

The Deepwater Horizon created an oil spill and plume covered almost 360 square miles with the most severe reduction of biological abundance and biodiversity impacting an area about 9 square miles around the wellhead, and moderate effects seen 57 square miles around the wellhead. Yet, once the flow was finally stopped and the initial massive cleanup efforts were concluded, the area today is largely unnoticeable from an ecological standpoint. I will not argue the relative merits or impacts to onshore locations or the local economies. Those seem to operate sometimes outside the bounds of reasonable expectations because of the human emotional impact. But my point here is, although potentially unpopular and controversial, that nature began to heal itself. Nature restored itself.

LL Part 3 - 2Now consider the scandal that erupted at Penn State over the deplorable and unconscionable acts of a former coach, Jerry Sandusky. Following a very tumultuous time in which the collateral damage was significant, the guilty party was sentenced to jail where it is my hope he will spend the rest of his natural life. I am not concerned about his legacy. I am concerned about the legacy of a good and decent man who died during the tumult that surrounded the scandal.  Joe Paterno died in the days following the scandal eruption and his son and assistant coach, Jay Paterno, is striving to restore his father’s legacy. Unlike nature, his father’s legacy will not restore itself. Even when the final chapter is written on the scandal and the record will show that Joe Paterno followed the protocol of the university, he will be forever tarnished by the scandal in which he played no part.

So, how does a guy like Jay Paterno go about restoring the legacy of his father?

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