There is no shortage of books, articles, and research papers on the concept of leadership. It is a massive area of study for academics and practitioners alike. Despite the size of the field, there is no common definition for leadership. Consider a few that I have collected, some of which are quite terrible. I will let you be the judge.
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Ever since reading Good to Great by Jim Collins I have been fascinated by the concept of the flywheel. Working hard on the right things consistently over time and then having your efforts compound for massive impact over time. I have touched on the idea here and here.
Leadership is a difficult topic to create a flywheel around because there is not a shared definition of leadership in the community. The definition I choose to use is:
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Personal and organizational growth is difficult. Hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been written on the topic and we have yet to crack the code. I do not pretend to have cracked the code, but I found a pattern that is worth exploring.
Physical, emotional, and mental growth all follow the same pattern.
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Recently I finished Tribes by Seth Godin. His books are always interesting and insightful. In Tribes he had a point that hit home for me. The point went something like this.
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Driving any work forward and making progress is difficult. When there are individual people and feelings involved (as there always are) it makes it even more difficult. In the past few months, I have used what I will call observation and interpretation mapping to help me and others focus on the work and less on the people involved in it.
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I recently attended a talk given by Noelle Pikus-Pace who won the silver medal in the sport of skeleton at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Before she got into skeleton, she was dedicated to becoming a collegiate athlete in track in field. Noelle competed in the decathlon which is an event that covers ten track and field events including the high jump and pole vault.
The jumping events have a horizontal bar held up by two poles called standards. The standards mark the height of the bar and when the event begins the standards move up as jumpers clear the bar. The standards and bar never go down throughout the competition, once they are set, they only go up.
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Nearly a year ago my wife, my son, and I went through what I would describe as a traumatic experience. My son who was just a little over one sustained burns on his body, primarily on his feet and hands. This experience kicked off a series of problems or challenges that we have faced and continue to face as a family.
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Sometimes you meet those people who distill information down in such a way that it feels obvious. One day I hope to be one of those people.
Recently in a conversation with leaders we were talking about resistance to change and one of the leaders had a formula that resonated with me.
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In my backyard I have two trees that are young and still seeking to take strong hold in the desert.
At the bottom of the tree were little saplings that looked very healthy. They were present early in the springtime as little buds and by the time I did anything about them it was nearly a whole tree by itself at the root of the trunk.
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I have written a few times about what I am learning from an accident my son experienced and this week I learned something new from the physical therapist.
My son’s toe requires stretching to have it lay flat like the rest of the toes. The physical therapist showed us the few stretches we need to be doing and then said:
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I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo