The Problem With Success
As I prepare my thoughts and notes for my speech to 400 + students of our nearby high school next week, I ask myself what are most important points to share in the 15 minutes that I have? What can I say that will be relevant to them and hopefully, make a difference in their lives.
While there are many themes I could focus on, one kept coming up. What does it mean to be a successful human being? Seems simple enough. Problem is, much of what I knew when I was in high school is vastly outdated for the 21st Century.
Yet, there are some principles that still hold water, that are - shall we say - absolute. What I mean to say is that there are some that don't change with time and are as true today as they ever were.
Of course, this newsletter is about leadership. And I love playing at the intersection of leadership, clarity, purpose and personal growth. It's what drives me, excites me and keeps me in the game. I'm getting chills - in a good way - as I write today.
Let me connect the dots here...
So what about success as a leader? How do you define leadership? What makes a great leader versus an average or mediocre leader or even worse, a terrible leader?
We live in a highly complex and paradoxical world, all the more exacerbated by going through a global pandemic, and now trying to figure out how to make sense out of everything in a post-pandemic world.
More than ever, understanding the human condition and human depth makes for good business sense. Consistently we hear of the effects of stress on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being and health of our employees.
In a recent Fast Company article, Peter Koestenbaum, author of Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness said, "As a leader, everything is your responsibility, because you always could have chosen otherwise".
Paradoxically, we see tremendous wealth creation, soaring company values and stock prices, more innovation, while the demands on your people and YOU continue to expand. There is significant pressure to achieve and keep the upward momentum going. This is the present reality in business today.
So how do you as leader lead successfully by today's standards while remaining sensitive to basic human values?
It really comes down to this. What sort of leader do you want to be? How will you lead? What will be your legacy?
So I encourage you to take a hard look at how you lead currently. I am a true believer in making time to reflect, ponder, and day-dream about what your ideal of leadership looks like.
As Keostenbaum said, "Reflection doesn't take anything away from decisiveness, from being a person of action". I'm all in when it comes to action.
Reflection acts to ground you in your authenticity and enables you to make better decisions. It's where you leverage your special skills - your zone of genius - with your attitude and character. It's where creative solutions reside.
Just as in golf, trying harder and exerting more control usually will not yield the results you want and doesn't solve the problem at hand. What does is something you may not want to hear: you need to change. Consider changing your thinking, your habits, how you connect with others, how you learn and how you manage your emotions.
Don't get me wrong, you still need to be authentic. You can be true to your values while adopting a more flexible approach to the problems of the day. Real leadership demands that you make tough choices about how you manage the paradoxes of achieving results, leading others and being human.
Some lessons I've learned that you may find helpful are:
Attitude is everything. Look for the possibilities.
Embrace vulnerability - you don't have to have all the answers.
Have courage, the courage to challenge your own internal views and beliefs.
Be visionary. They want to know where you are taking them so they can be a part of it.
Face the current realities head on.
Stick to your values.
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