All in Leadership
As I wrote in my post on Monday, it's all about the team. No matter who or how many stars you have, their success - our success - depends predominantly on the ability of team to deliver as a cohesive unit.
But there is a critical lesson for all us in the mentality, the mindset of the star performer.
Guys like Michael Jordan are the "Go-To" guys on their teams.
If there's a need for a result, a change of pace or a game change, then you would pass the ball to Mike and let him do his magic.
We don’t work alone. We weren’t meant to. We’re not wired that way, we really don’t think that way and we certainly don’t get things done purely by ourselves in any practical sense.
"We don't lower our standards. We raise the bar and bring our people with us."
We have a couple of choices when it comes to dealing with performance problems within our team, in those times when we lack capability alignment, a consensus of will, or moral cohesion.
Once, during 10th grade math class, I was called on to answer a question, one that was based on the prior night's homework. Homework that I hadn't done.
My answer was instinctual. “I don’t know. I haven’t done it.”
The teacher looked at me quizzically and asked, “Well, which one is it?"
I'm a reasonably open book. I like to think that I'm pretty transparent about what I think, how I feel and what I believe.
If I like something, I'm not hesitant about sharing my love for that thing. If I don't like something, for example, how an individual is behaving, I'll say that as well. (I'll try and find the right time and approach, of course, but I generally prefer not to leave things unsaid. Particularly if they are someone I need to have some sort of relationship with.)
You're either in the game or you're not. You're either playing or you're not. There's no point otherwise.
You don't get to pretend there's a middle ground. You don't get to coast and just reap the rewards. You don't get to stare at the race through your tinted windows and then expect to show up for the medals.
It seems to me that if you want to develop a support base or a following for the long term - a group of people who buy into your vision of the future, a tribe, if you will - then there's no better time to lay the groundwork than now.
Because building tribes is not an easy process.
Values are important. Values are sacrosanct. Values define who we are.
We all stand for - become known for - a specific set of values, whether we've expressly considered this or not.
There's a great quote that goes something like:
The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time.
This was echoed in a recent cartoon put out by the consulting firm, McKinsey & Company:
I’m not a runner. That’s what I’ve told myself time and time again.
I’ve always said that I dislike the idea of running. Oh, and the practice of it.
I don’t like it because I can’t run fast. Because I don’t want to run 5 miles.
I don't know how to act my age. I've never been this age before.
What is this bullshit about "age-appropriate"? Who defined the standard for a given age? Who gave them that right?
We're bombarded by media and messages online, offline, at work, at play, about what age appropriate is.
Last week, I (along with so many of us) was shocked and saddened by the deaths of both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain within days of each other.
Two individuals who had it all. Commercial success, professional recognition, total economic independence and all the luxuries that come with it.
In the novel, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, Siddartha, a man beset by an inner restlessness and search for enlightenment, meets Gotama Buddha. He has heard Gotama's teachings, and despite being impressed by their clarity and perfection of thought, he informs him that he, Siddartha, cannot become one of his followers, but needs to choose his own path to enlightenment.
Change is the one thing, in addition to death and taxes, that you can count on.
Whether in our personal or professional lives, after a while, you can count on the fact that the way things are cannot be the way things stay. Especially if the goal is to evolve in any sort of positive, developmental fashion.
"It's not for you."
If what I'm offering - a product, a service, a connection, an idea, a friendship - doesn't resonate with who I'm offering it to, the tendency is to try harder. To promote it more vigorously. To look for additional angles to 'make the sale'.
It's happened to all of us. We start on a change program, get excited about the possibilities and the agenda we've laid out. We foresee the change we need to create and what it's going to take for us to get there. And it's awesome.
But driving this change - as we expect - requires a lot of work. Many special projects and tasks that have to get done. (All while we're juggling our regular day job.)
There's a great quote that says that selling (anything) is essentially a transfer of enthusiasm.
There's a lot of truth in that and it matters whether you're in sales or not. You could be selling an idea, a project or an initiative to your boss. You could be promoting a new marketing plan for your non-profit or trying to raise money for a cause.
Process helps. For so many aspects of our lives that we grapple with, someone, somewhere has defined a process, and it's one that works. Especially when it comes to routine, straightforward activities.
But for many other decision areas, from making the sale to conducting an analysis to hiring an employee, processes exist, and they help, but only to a certain extent.
Happy people don't act like assholes. Generally speaking, my own unscientific survey over the last several decades suggests this to be true.
Think of the happy people you know. How do they act? What's their attitude to others around them? Folks who are happy tend to be comfortable with themselves, with what they have and who they are.
