“What was I thinking not having my pack fitted properly?” Leadership Lessons from the Appalachian Trail – Part 4
I knew better. I knew the two most important pieces of gear I would use on the AT were my shoes and my pack. With everything else I could make some compromises, but not on shoes and packs. They had to be right. If they weren’t right my 7 day experience would be painful and exhausting. And unlike tents or stoves, shoes and packs have to fit correctly. In other words, you have to assure they’re customize to your body and walking style to function well. For instance I bought and broke in a pair Montrail shoes months before the trip. They were high rated trail running and hiking shoes which also fit me well.
On the other hand, I borrowed my pack from a good friend. It’s a quality pack but I never bothered to have it fitted correctly. I only began trying adjusting the straps while standing anxiously at the trail head getting ready to embark on our adventure. Not a very smart move considering my friend is taller and broader shouldered than I am.
So I spent the first four days desperately trying to adjust my pack so it sat properly on my hips and shoulders, all the while each of my shoulders, in turn, became sorer by the hour. Finally, I rigged up the straps with some string I brought (the Boy Scout in me) to hold them in relatively the right position. In the end the pack never quite fit right even after all my MacGyver moves which lead to a very sore body.
What’s the leadership lesson in all this? Well there are two, and you already know what they are. First, make sure you and your team have the right gear to do their job. It needs to be quality gear designed specifically for the work to be done. And second, the gear must meet the needs (style, environment, etc.) of the individual using them. The gear needs to be as personalized as possible. If you follow these two lessons – quality gear, personalized for the person using it – then work will be less painful and you and your team will be less likely to leave the trail early.
“Oh, My Swollen Toes”, Leadership Lessons from my week on the Appalachian Trail – Part 2
Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in an era, to think that what was standard “back then” must still be standard today. We think this because we believe really smart people had it all figured out back then (translation – it’s not possible someone today could actually be smarter than we were yesterday, thus it’s impossible anyone today could figure out a better or different way).My toes, in particular my left big toe, paid the price for such shoddy (and arrogant) thinking.
This is how it happened. A couple of months before our trip my son, MD, and I were reviewing our equipment list. He mentioned having found a good deal on trekking poles, implying I might want to buy some as well. I told him, with serious conviction, “I’ve never hiked with trekking poles before. I’ve always used just a simple walking stick and it has worked pretty well”.
Now honestly, I was also thinking to myself “the only people I’ve ever remember using trekking poles were old people and wimps. And since I’m not old nor a wimp I sure as heck wasn’t going to be using them.” (I was also having doubts about my son’s manhood).
I should have realized the first day I was in deep trouble when I was both one of the oldest hikers and the only one without trekking poles.
You see the developers of the AT must have liked to hike up and down mountains because we walked up and down mountains multiple times a day. We rarely walked on flat ground; it was always up or down. As a result I quickly began to experience toe jam (toe jam is where your toes are constantly being jammed into the front of your shoes when going downhill) resulting in swollen toes and later, as I experienced, losing your toe nails.
By the painful third day it finally dawned on me why everyone was using trekking poles. Trekking poles break your downward steps. They take the pressure off your feet (and knees) helping to avoid toe jam among other injuries. Suddenly I saw all these young hikers, including my son, not as wimps but as smart and pragmatic, and I, in turn, was the aching, old fool.
So what’s the AT leadership lesson in all of this? Never assume that what worked yesterday is still the best option today. Be humble enough to believe that people are as smart today (or smarter) than we were yesterday. As a result it’s highly likely that methods have improved or new technology has been developed today that solves the problems we experienced yesterday (like toe jam). If we can embrace this reality about yesterday and today, our toes will be happier, and we’ll be better leaders.
When I’m No Longer Here
The day will come when I will no longer be the President of SpringHill. It’s one of the few things in life I’m 100% sure of. I may not know the circumstances surrounding that last day – when it’ll be or by whose choice will it come – mine, the board’s or God’s. But not knowing these things doesn’t impact what I do know for sure – one day I will no longer be in this job. So there’s no excuse for not doing my part to make sure SpringHill is ready for that inevitable day.Up to this point I always believed my responsibility was to inform our board of a handful of viable replacements, either on staff or within the SpringHill community, that were available just in case I got hit by a truck.
But my understanding of this responsibility has changed. Recently I talked with a leader I deeply respect about his perspective on preparing for that certain day. What he told me turned my understanding of my responsibility upside down.
He said his job isn’t to replace himself but to multiply himself.
As I’ve reflected on his words I realized he’s right – leaders never invest for a one to one return, they invest for a compounding yield, to see their efforts multiply.
Multiplication:
- impacts the effectiveness of an organization today; replacement only matters in the future
- aligns with growth, replacement with maintenance
- is a sign of health; replacement is a sign of sickness and death
So my assignment is now clear – work every day to multiply myself as a leader, by developing and raising up new and future leaders who can help lead SpringHill today. If I do this then SpringHill, as a natural consequence, will also be prepared for that inevitable day – when I’m no longer here.
When Not Having all the Answers is the Right Answer! Leading the SpringHill Way – Part 13
Can you effectively lead without having all the answers? Will others follow when you’re not the source of all knowledge? Or might it be possible that having all the right answers might actually get in the way of leading others effectively?Now before you answer these questions ask yourself this – what is the role of a leader? Is it to be the source of all knowledge? Or is it to be a guide to others in their journey of discovery, to empower others by helping them find their own answers?
Consider this reality – knowledge is power, so having all the knowledge of knowledge means having all the power. Now admittedly leaders need power and good leaders use power for good reasons. But power and knowledge are not scarce resources to be held tightly and handed out like war rations. Instead they are much more like Black-eyed Susan’s, when planted in well watered and fertilized soil, spread and fill a garden with beauty.
In other words, leadership is about multiplying power not keeping and hording it. And the most effective way to multiply power is to help others learn how to discover their own answers to their questions, to gain their own understanding and knowledge.
How do we help others do this? We shy away from the temptation to simply answering their questions; instead we answer their questions with our own thoughtful, probing questions. We use the right questions to guide and direct others in their journey of discovering the right answers. Because when a person discovers their own answers they’re empowered with their new knowledge to anticipate, act and respond to the world around them.
So in leadership it’s better to ask the right questions than have all the right answers.
When it’s Good to be a Drip! Leading the SpringHill Way – Part 12
No one ever wants to be considered a drip. But sometimes being a drip is the best way to lead. My friend and mentor Jerry Martin use to tell me that when I wanted to move others to a new place I had to drip on them. You see just as a slow drip of water, overtime, can wear away rock, simple and gentle persuasion can move people farther along a desired path than being hammered by our position, power or authority. This is because when we drip, we allow people the opportunity to see, understand and then embrace change instead of having changed beaten into them. And whenever people embrace change, they own it. And owning it people move from simple compliance to serious commitment. And serious commitment is the key ingredient in any organization that intends to do remarkable and impactful work. Now admittedly there are times when we need to hammer, especially when safety, significant loss or when there’s clear moral and ethical failure. Most often in these situations there is very little time to drip, decisive leadership’s needed. But, in a leader’s work, these moments are the exception not the norm. And if a leader uses the dripping of gentile persuasion as their primary way to lead, when the moment calls for decisive action they’ve created the credibility and trust needed to move people with commitment and speed. Learning to lead through dripping is also critical to leading those who do not report to you or in whom you have no positional or organizational authority. Effective leaders must learn to persuade and move others who are not required to move. So at SpringHill, we want to be drips, which mean we want to lead through persuasion and influence, so that people move from compliance to commitment, and move our organizations from average to remarkable.Being a Difference Maker in Something Significant! Leading the SpringHill Way Part 11
If you could, unhindered and with clarity, delve deeply into your own heart and soul how would you answer this question – “what are my deepest desires for my job and career?”My guess is that your answer would be something like this – “I want to be a part of something bigger than myself and I want to do something meaningful in that something bigger.”
I know your answer because, from the first moment of creation, God put these desires into each of us. They’re a significant part of who we are as image bearers of God.
This first desire, to be a part of something bigger and more significant ourselves, comes from a reality we also sense in the deepest recesses of our soul – that we and the world are not an outcome of time + chance + matter. Instead we’re a result of a thoughtful, intentional, orderly and purposeful plan. And because of this we desire to be a part of a community or organization that is working on and aligned with this order of the world. In other words, what we want to be part of a cause that is making a positive difference in the world and in the lives of others.
The second deeply held desire for our work is directly related to the first. Not only do we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves but we want to make a meaningful contribution in something significant. We want to be a difference maker in an important work. You see it’s not enough to be in the stadium of an important game, we need to be in the game making plays.
These two deeply held desires for our work – being a part of something bigger than ourselves and doing something meaningful in that big thing – need to guide our leadership. As leaders we need to assure that our organizations are doing important work and that the people we lead see and experience that on a regular basis. Secondly, we need to assure that those we lead are appropriately challenged and doing meaningful work. Then we need to make sure they see the difference their work is making.
At SpringHill we lead with this conviction – that all people want to be difference makers in something significant. We believe if we do this, help our staff see the difference their work is making in SpringHill and in the lives of young people, we’ll never have to motivate them to do their work; they’ll do it naturally with zeal, joy and impact.
Winning the Right to Be Heard! Leading the SpringHill Way – Part 10
“Winning the right to be heard” is another maxim I learned in my years as a volunteer Young Life leader. It simply meant, as leaders, we worked to have students granted us the opportunity to share the Gospel with them. We’d do this first by going to where they were at (physically, emotionally, socially) and building authentic, caring relationships with them. As a Young Life leader I found this maxim to be true, students were significantly more interested in what I had to say only after I demonstrated that I cared for them first.Stephen Covey, in his classic book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, identifies this “win the right to be heard” concept as 5th of his seven habits. He called it “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Covey articulates this fundamental truth about human nature – people care about what others have to say only after believing others care for first. And what better way to demonstrate care for another person than to understand their perspective before trying to convince them to move to a different position.
As a leader in a non-profit organization, I’ve found that winning the right to be heard is absolutely the most effective way to move others to a new place. Why? Because non-profits have many constituent groups (including staff, donors, board, volunteers) to whom I lead and, at some level, I also work for and am accountable to. This means I can’t rely solely on my “positional” authority to move people in a new direction. And, more importantly, if I’m after commitment not compliance, then I’m compelled to seek first to understand before I’m understood, because people become committed when they know they’ve been heard.
And this principle is at the center of leadership at SpringHill – to go where we believe God’s called us to go, to be the kind of organization He’s called us to be – we need to earn people’s commitment to our mission and vision, we need their hearts, minds and resources to be with us. And to gain that level of trust, people need to sense first that we know, hear and care for them first as people.
The Great Evangelical Recession
Sometimes there are books we just need to read. We read them even if they’re not entertaining, up – lifting, or full of new information, but because we need to hear the message straight up, in a clear and concise way. This describes John Dickerson’s recent book “Great Evangelical Recession, The: 6 Factors That Will Crash the American Church…and How to Prepare“.
This is a book that needs to be read by Christian leaders and by anyone who cares about the Church.
Dickerson is an award-winning journalist turned pastor who’s applied his journalistic research skills to identifying major movements within the Evangelical Church today and diagnosing their impact on its future. Then, with a clear and engaging writing style, accompanied by ability to synthesis vast amounts of data and research, Dickerson, outlines 6 significant trends that he believes will lead to an “Evangelical recession”. In addition, he also spells out 6 remedies the Church can take to either change the course of these trends or to navigate effectively through them.
Be warned these 6 trends may shock you. They’re shocking because of the strong case Dickerson builds for each one. They’re also shocking because many of us live inside the Evangelical bubble so do not see ourselves clearly in the context of the rest of the world (I read most of the book on a plane to New York City. As I walked the streets of Manhattan I had no doubt that Christians living in New York would wholeheartedly agree with Dickerson’s conclusions). Yet I also have to admit, at some intuitive level, I’ve known these trends were a reality so part of my shock was that they also confirmed my worst fears.
Amazingly, even with Dickerson’s strong research, I found some reviewers of the book believing Dickerson’s got it wrong, that his assessments are to negative. Ironically many of these folks live and work in places other than cities like New York; instead they live in places such as Colorado Springs, Grand Rapids, or countless communities in the Bible Belt. Personally I’ve concluded that even if Dickerson has over stated his case 50% (which I don’t believe he has), the trends would still demand the prayerful self-assessment by the Church and its leaders. So as a result, our Board and Senior Leaders are reading it, as well as we’re making it available to all our staff and supporters who may want to read it.
So my recommendation is that you make “Great Evangelical Recession, The: 6 Factors That Will Crash the American Church…and How to Prepare
Don’t let the Flag Touch the Ground! Leading the SpringHill Way – Part 6
The American flag represents the highest values and beliefs of the United States as articulated in our Constitution. This is why, when I was a Boy Scout, we learned to never let the flag touch the ground. We were to protect and keep our flag from being soiled or trampled on, treating it with the highest respect.As leaders we have the same responsibilities to the organizations we lead and work for – to protect, uphold and advance the answers (core values, mission, vision, etc.) to the 6 key questions (click here to see the 6 questions) every organization needs to answer. This is why, at SpringHill, a leader’s job is to assure the “SpringHill flag” never touches the ground.
How does a leader assure that such things as the core values, mission and vision of their organization stays fresh, untarnished and respected?
- Authentically live out the values, mission and vision of your organization.
- Over communicate the answers to the 6 key questions.
- Reward, recognize, celebrate, and reinforce, both publicly and privately, any examples of your team practicing your organization’s values, mission, etc.
- Regularly and honestly evaluate how you and your team are doing living out your organization’s mission, vision and core values and then be willing to make any necessary changes.
So take it from a Boy Scott, if you make these four practices a part of your leadership, you’ll help assure that your organization’s flag will never touch the ground.
Forward Leaning! Leading the SpringHill Way – Part 5
When sitting we can take many postures. For example we can slouch back and put our feet up or sit erect and tense, or we can sit on the edge of our seat leaning forward. Each posture communicates a different attitude about the world around us.Sitting postures provide a great illustration for different postures we can take as leaders. For example, there are times when being laid back or tense and alert can be the most appropriate postures a leader can take. But I believe a leader’s most predominate posture should be forward leaning. Forward leaning leaders are leaders who are ready for action, looking for opportunities, and attuned to the people and world around them. It’s an externally focused posture.
This posture is important because we lead in a fast changing and values shifting world where opportunities and dangers disappear as quickly as they appear. Only leaders who are in a forward leaning position can effectively navigate and lead in such a world.
- So what’s your leadership posture? Here are some of the questions that can help identify your “sitting position”:
- What is my mental, emotional and physical posture?
- Am I focused on the world around me or is my focus turned inside?
- If an opportunity arises will I see it?If a problem comes our way will I have myself and my team prepared or will we be caught off guard?
Be a forward leaning leader and you and your team will always be ready for action.
