LeaderLine

Practice Makes Permanent

Dave Pelz, golf coach to Phil Mickelson, reminds us of an important truth: “Having the right device but using it incorrectly is worse than no practice. Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent. And if you practice as poorly as most golfers do, then you will be a permanent bad golfer.”

David Pelz must have been watching my golf swing! I don’t need more time at the driving range. I need to do some unlearning! I need to start fresh with a coach who could guide me to correct movements worth practicing.

In a never-ending time-crunch, it’s far too easy to learn enough to get things done instead of learning what could be done if you invested time to learn it right from the beginning. As a result, we underuse our software programs. Instead of expanding our repertoire of options, we find a way to do what we’ve always done using the new system. We aren’t learning; we’re setting the stage to be permanently ineffective.

Where do you need to start from the beginning by breaking established habits and taking your performance to a new, higher level? What kind of coach do you need? Habits are great strengths and inviting traps; work this week to changing your habits where they can make the biggest difference to you and your organization.

(Source: Dave Pelz, coach to Phil Mickelson, quoted in Timothy J. Carroll, “Gadget Golfer”, WSJ, April 7, 2008, p. R1.)

Invest Worry in Action

Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has talked about his struggle with terminal cancer: “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.  We can’t change the cards we are dealt, just the way we play them.”

Randy Pausch delivered his well known “Lecture of a Lifetime.” Dealing with terminal cancer has helped Randy learn what it’s like to play a poor hand well. There is much we can learn from such attitudes.

As the media spreads fears of a recession, leaders and consumers are responding to a rapidly changing economic reality. Many are observers who are cutting expenses and preparing to weather out the worst. During the tough times, the best earn their success by staying focused and engaged in securing strategic opportunities. With the dollar taking a beating, companies with products and services to export are soaring— America is now the world’s bargain basement! Find ways to serve those who prosper in down markets, and you will do well. If they call a recession, don’t passively participate. You’ll miss 100% of the business you never ask for, so invest your worry time in action!

With any additional down time, invest in strategic learning and in developing your next generation of products and services. When the economy rebounds, you want to be ready to ride it.

True maturity comes from experience—getting through the tough times gives you the assurance that you can do it again. Economies go through cycles. What goes up, comes down. What comes down, goes back up. Welcome to the challenge of minimize the impact of any downturn and maximize the return during the rebound that is sure to come.

What do you do to make yourself more resilient and focused on opportunity?

(Source: Randy Pausch, a computer science professor, Carnegie Mellon University, “Lecture of a Lifetime,” WSJ.com)

The Joy of Learning

Albert Einstein said, "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

There are a lot of things we read and programs we attend because we have to. When was the last time you found joy in your search for knowledge and the creative expression it generated? Such a process of discovery isn't work; it's an adventure! It's times like these that make a career and define a team’s legacy.

There is a reason some work is a chore--we tend to be defending and perfecting the past. The joy is often found in inventing the future. What books do you have trouble putting down? What calls at you from your to-do-list? Not every part of your job will bring you joy; but some of it should, or you’re cheating yourself and your organization. As you start your year, look for the adventure, the doors you want to open, and the difference you want to make.

What could you let go of that would free you and your team to invest where it matters most? Even in tough economic times, don't think about maintaining the status quo; think about the joy you get in leaving a legacy. Make this a special year. Start this week.   

Surviving Shortages

Roger Herman had a gift at sharing critical trends: "We are at the beginning stages of the most severe shortage of skilled labor in history."

It may soon become even harder to lead, because it will be getting more difficult to attract and keep your best employees. The U.S. Labor Department forecasts a shortage of 10 million skilled workers by 2010. With more Baby Boomers retiring and fewer workers available, what is your plan?

How are you isolating young workers and selling them on joining your team? Have you positioned to use promising interns and given them reasons to join your organization? Are you mentoring young workers to help them take advantage of career opportunities without having to leave your organization?

What have you done to explore ways to keep valued retirees involved in your future? Few will want to work full time, but when you use their experience wisely and keep their skills updated, many who could retire will continue to serve. Give them a project assignment for three months, and then let them travel for three months. Use them as contingent resources. Old dogs can learn new tricks and know a lot of old ones that still work!

The true challenge will be finding, leading, motivating and keeping teams focused on making a difference where it counts. What are you doing now to position for the challenges ahead?

(Source: Roger Herman in Brendan Coffey, "Leadership Quotient," Executive Travel, May/June, 2007, pp. 42-48.) 

Success Needs Failure

Malcolm S. Forbes, former publisher of Forbes Magazine, has a way of speaking plainly about the value of failure: "A vital ingredient of success is occasional failure. Decision making is a prime responsibility of those in top positions, and their batting average between right ones and wrong ones must be high. Being right most of the time is heady medicine. Apparently it is not a long leap from being right most of the time to the assumption that one is right all the time. At this point, there is nothing as essential as an unmistakable mistake of some magnitude to restore the perspectives that is needed to ensure continued success. A big shot who has never laid an egg-in his opinion-is in the position of a hen under a similar handicap, about to be a meal of." 

Life is all about batting averages. In professional baseball, they pay a consistent .300 hitter more than they pay a .200 hitter. Even then, failure is something they have to deal with regularly; seven out of ten times they do not produce the desired result. The best professionals in any area are students of the game they play.

The same is true of leaders and professionals. In the great game of business, much can be learned from failures. Fear of failure tends to be a young phenomena; maturity comes from developing a track record of learning and bouncing back from failures on the way to success. Perfect leaders and professionals don't exist; they only exist in educational movies. You have failed in the past and will in the future, but by using failures as stepping stones instead of roadblocks, more can be accomplished. 

As coaches will often say, "It isn't how often you fall, it's how quick you get up and get back in the game." As a coach or leader, your transparency about your own failures and mistakes, can go a long way toward creating a culture that capitalizes on failure instead of hiding them. No leader can know it all, that's why you have people on your team who know more than you do, and you have the wisdom to listen to them. Admitting failures makes you approachable to your biggest asset--your people! Have you had any recent failures your people can learn from? Try sharing your lessons learned this week.

(Source: Malcolm S. Forbes, Publisher of Forbes Magazine in Renegade Millionaire Magazine, 2006, pp. 2-3.)

Leaders Admit What They Don't Understand!

There's an important lesson Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson shares in his "Unwritten Rules of Management:" "Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be used often. ... Confident people know their strengths and weaknesses, and they don't try to b.s. you. You are not expected to know the answer to everything. Smart people simply say 'I don't know'--and go get an answer."

Have you ever been in a meeting where you didn't understand a word of what was being explained? You watch as others take notes--"They seem to understand!" Not wanting to admit that you are in the dark, you nod along with the rest of those in attendance. In the restroom, where most significant meetings occur, you ask a note taker to explain. He replies, "I don't know what he was talking about! I just used the time to write down a shopping list of what to buy on the way home."

In our complex and changing world, there are a number of critical things that we know nothing about. That's why we need collaborative input. Good listeners know that true communication requires understanding. After all, a clarifying question is a compliment; it is telling the sender that you care enough about what is being said that you are willing to work until you have received it.

Work at active inquiry--"I'm not yet clear on what you are saying. Could you explain that another way?" With any luck, when you go to the restroom, others will confess, "I'm sure glad you asked that good question. After all, I'd rather you look stupid than me." Few realize that the best change leaders have the confidence to admit what they don't know and realize the importance of tapping the insights and strengths of everyone they work with.

(Source: Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson, Unwritten Rules of Management, "The CEO's Secret Handbook, Business 2.0, July 2005, pp.69-75.)

Control What You Can-Yourself!

Mark Sanborn, in his You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader, made a point worth highlighting: "Many people feel paralyzed by their lack of control over life. What can you do about it? For one thing, focus on all the things you do control. In doing so, you take control over your life and begin to lead your life, rather than letting life lead you."

One cannot help but be touched by the challenges so many face in life. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, natural disasters devastating communities, or corporate downsizing hitting your job, life can certainly be difficult. The question remains--When life gives you a bad hand, how do you still play it well?

The only person you truly control is yourself, and even that is in question on Mondays! But focusing your strategy on what to control is also a challenge. No matter what the situation, focus on Three P's: Position, Perform and Persist.

Leaders, teams and organizations can and must increase the probability of winning results by their ongoing efforts to strategically position themselves for opportunity. For leaders and professionals, that means looking for ways to add value to the people and customers who count. If you are good at something that is needed, you will do well in times of change and challenge. Since that is hard to predict, invest in learning multiple competencies. Never rest in past experience; keep investing in lifelong learning.

Excellence is earned every day by the quality of your performance. Keep raising the bar on yourself before others do it for you. Just because you know how to drive, doesn't mean you do that well every time you drive. Keep working your gifts and competencies. As John Wooden's dad used to say, "Make each day a masterpiece."

Finally, persistence works. Almost anything worth doing involves obstacles, disappointments and setbacks. Progress may require adjustment, course-corrections, and even significant changes in strategy or process, but consider them stepping stones on the road to success. When you continue to position, perform and persist, opportunities will surface, successes will come and satisfaction will be your reward. 

(Source: Mark Sanborn, You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader, Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO, 2006, p. 35)

Connecting the Dots to Find Your Future

Steve Jobs can look at the transforming power or Apple Computers and the IPOD, but how did he find his way to the future. He confided to Stanford graduates: "None of my college classes had even a hope of practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever."

The maps we follow into our uncharted future are seldom made up of straight lines. Doors close; doors open. Unexpected and unconnected experiences provide fresh windows to new vistas of opportunity. When you look back on your personal and professional life, what dots have you found a way to connect?

I learned much of my speaking style while serving as a church youth director while attending UCLA. If you aren't funny and authentic, teens will kill you. That mix of humor with authentic stories and practical insights still works for me 40 years later. After all, most audiences are filled with men and women who can't figure out how they got to be so old...so fast. In so many ways, they are still teenagers at heart.

Don't keep your dots in a straight line. Sometimes you have to go off the page to find a dot worth connecting with. Humor and innovation often come from the same place--trainwrecks of the brain where two disconnected images crash together and we laugh or experience an inner lightbulb! When I went to the all women musical, "The Quilters," I was struck with the centering power of story and stitches in bringing order and peace to tragedy. Rather than just talk about it, I made a quilt and used the quilting blocks to open a visual mosaic of topical journeys for my audience.

What classes have you craved taking but can't explain why? Take the class. What hobby have you wanted to explore? Do it. What projects intrigue you at work? Volunteer. What could your kids teach you? Let them try. Start expanding your dots, and you may like what it connects you to!

(Quote Source: Steve Jobs, Co-founder and two-time CEO of Apple Computer, at Stanford University graduation, Ventura County Star, Dec. 4, 2005, p. D-1,10)

The Power of Gratitude and Anticipation

Dag Hammarskjold, former Swedish diplomat and UN General Secretary, once said: "For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes."

Gratitude is one of the keys to happiness. In the midst of the struggles and challenges life provides, taking time to count one's blessings keeps one's frustrations and setbacks in perspective. Instead of complaining about what you've lost, focus on what you have left to use! Instead of dwelling on what might have been; look for the unexpected openings that have presented you with new opportunities you don't want to miss. 

Gratitude is also critical in building anticipation for the exciting adventure that the future can bring. It's hard to look forward to the future unless you can appreciate your past. A recent news item, talked of two teens who are building a new business selling T-shirts with the positive message--"Life is good!" They can't keep the T-shirts in stock. The media may make a living bringing you the worst, but the change agents of the world don't have time to watch. They're too busy inventing a future they want to live in!

At your next family dinner or staff meeting, take time to share your greatest blessings of 2006. What are your thankful for? Then think about what adventure you look forward to in 2007. What are you ready to say "Yes" to? 

(Source: Dag Hammarskjold, www.quotationspage.com)

Getting Out of the Rearview Mirror and Into the Journey

David Nelms, CEO of Discover Financial, reinforces the importance of learning from the past: "It's called 'attention to detail!' Some of the best lessons are when you get something wrong and learn from it."

Don't get stuck in the rearview mirror when opportunities are passing out the front window. There is no slow lane on today's never-ending road race. There is no off switch. There's no reverse, and we all have to fix all flat tires while moving. In the fast lane of change, there aren't even any easy off-ramps. In that kind of world, In fact, if you spend too much time in the rearview mirror, you just might hit a tree out the front window. As a change agent and leader, you need to learn what you can from the past and get busy inventing your future one choice at a time.

Tiger Woods has a way of keeping focused on what matters most, "People want to compare my performance to the past, and I'm trying to get better in the future, not the past."

Unfortunately, far too many get stuck in the rearview mirror. They either dwell on faded memories of past successes or wallow in their past failures. Can you imagine driving with a HUGE rearview mirror with a little slit available to determine your course? That would be some drive!

Use your rearview mirror to learn from past best practices, as well as errors. Use it to make sure someone isn't gaining on you! But put the focus out the front window of opportunities you can seize to make change work over and over again! Like Tiger, may your future be your focus for this and every week!

(Source: David Nelms, CEO of Discover Financial,  in Kathy Chu, "Discover CEO Nelms Seeks Opportunities for Growth," USA Today, 8-29-06, 3B; Tiger Woods in Chuck Culpepper, "Six wins that can't eclipse a loss," LA Times, October 2, 2006, D7)