A Blog about Leadership

Many failures are merely mistakes and everyone makes mistakes. Those who achieve success are those who persevere after mistakes.

A Peter Drucker quote:
“The one person to distrust is the one who never makes a mistake. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial.”

I want to share a paragraph out of John C. Maxwell’s book, Failing Forward:

“Every successful person is someone who failed, yet never regarded himself as a failure. For example, Wolfgang Mozart, one of the geniuses of musical composition, was told by Emperor Ferdinand that his opera The Marriage of Figaro was ‘far too noisy’ and contained ‘far too many notes.’ Artist Vincent van Gogh, whose paintings now set records for the sums they bring at auction, sold only one painting in his lifetime. Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor in history, was considered unteachable as a youngster. And Albert Einstein, the greatest thinker of our time, was told by a Munich schoolmaster that he would “never amount to much.

“I think it’s safe to say that all great achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. In the face of adversity, rejection, and failings, they continue believing in themselves and refuse to consider themselves failures.”

Many failures are merely mistakes and everyone makes mistakes. Those who achieve success are those who persevere after mistakes. As a leader, it is particularly important to understand this. You don’t cover up mistakes, you acknowledge, learn from, and move past mistakes.

The same is true for your team. Your team members may make mistakes. Don’t make them an example, but lead them to acknowledge what the mistake was, what can be learned from the mistake, and how to move past it.

As the quote from Peter Drucker reminds us, the person you should be weary of is not the one who makes mistakes, but the person who does not make mistakes. Are they trying their best, are they growing as a professional, are they expanding their knowledge and skills, or are they merely stagnant with the tried and true.

Especially, in our demanding economic times, change is constant. You cannot stop change, but you can get out in front and make the most of it. In the process of working with change, you and your team may make mistakes – that’s an indication that you are trying. Now you merely have to respond positively to mistakes – persevere – and don’t allow failures to consume and paralyze you and your team.

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When you think about great leaders who have changed the world, there are many names that top the list, but one name is nearly synonymous with “nonviolent protest” – Mahatma Gandhi.

Leadership quote from Mahatma Gandhi:
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Take a moment to read this Wikipedia introduction about Mahatma Gandhi.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which was one of the strongest driving philosophies of the Indian independence movement and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi and as Bapu (bāpu – “Father”). In India, he is officially accorded the honour of Father of the Nation and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the “International Day of Non-Violence.”

As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community’s struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha—he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest.

For more on change, see: 5 Points for Leaders on Change

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This is just my opinion and it is an opinion, not a fact.  I honestly think that the most difficult place to lead is at home.  At home with family, friends, and relatives is the most difficult area of leadership.

I haven’t referenced the Bible in this blog extensively, because there are other leadership blogs that cover Christianity, the Bible, and Church.  I am more focused on leadership in organizations, businesses, institutions, and government.

At any rate, I remember a thought about leadership at home presented in one of the Gospels.  Jesus went home to Galilee and was not accepted as he had been in other cities.  Jesus made the statement, “…Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” (Luke 4:24)

At home, your family, friends, relatives, and neighbors know you.  They know you very well.  They know all your weaknesses, all your faults, and all your mistakes.  Especially, growing up, a lot of leaders don’t demonstrate much leadership as a child, teenager, or, even, a young adult.

There two things that you must remember of the most difficult place to lead:

1. Leaders know how to change.

Whatever your history, irregardless of your youth, and inspite of past mistakes, the future is the platform for your leadership because of change.

2. You can make your weaknesses irrelevant.

You can overcome past mistakes, you can counter the bad with good, and you set a clear path for the future that is build on a foundation of learning from the past.

In time, people at home, people from your old neighborhood and your old friends will still remember you and all the bad about you, but they will learn respect for who you are today and the leader that you are going to be tomorrow.

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Last week, I started the new weekly article series with How to Create a Foundation for Developing Leadership Potential with the first two steps:

1. Recognize what you know that you do not know, write it down, and then learn.
2. Recognize there are things you don’t know that you don’t know and create a lifetime of continuous learning.

Continuous Learning

Today, I want to focus on leadership development by focusing on a lifetime of continuous learning.

John C. Maxwell on leadership development:
“Leadership develops daily, not in a day.”

Write, Learn, and Practice

Last Wednesday, I wrote Developing as a Leader Takes Time So Start Today.  In short, you will not be a great leader at the age of 27 and I know that I personally have many years ahead of me of learning and developing as a leader.  One major focus of my learning and developing is this blog where I can think about and write about leadership.  That powerful act of writing about leadership is a powerful act of developing my personal leadership potential; that is why I write this blog.

3. Take time to write out your thoughts on leadership.

You don’t need to start a blog or write a book, but take the time codify your thoughts.  You are invited to comment on my blog and I will engage you in a dialog to work together on developing leadership.

4. Learn Daily and start learning today

This is no more powerful force of change and development than a positive, daily habit.  Take learning, changing, and developing on an incremental, daily process to produce the greatest impact on your life.  You can read my blog, read other blogs, read some good books, or review leadership quotes.  What ever you do, do it daily.

5. Practice Leadership

I should add “daily.”  Each day, you will be presented opportunities to lead.  Tomorrow I am going to write about the most difficult place to lead (so come back tomorrow), but that place is somewhere that you are nearly every day.  For practicing leadership, there are four basic steps: To Be, To Develop, To Think, To Lead.

See also: How to Create a Foundation for Developing Leadership Potential Part 1, How to Create a Foundation for Developing Leadership Potential Part 3.

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Change Happens

Work for the same organization for a five, ten, or twenty years and you are guaranteed to experience a significant amount of change.  Change can be good and change can also be detrimental.  Change requires leadership.

Leadership quote from Peter Drucker:
“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.”

Why Change

The world is constantly changing.  Technology has had a tremendous impact in the past and continues to have a tremendous impact in how we interact with friends, how we connect with associates, how we conduct business, and even the substance of our businesses.

When to Change

Always and never change.  Technology changes, but several theories and concepts never change.  I cannot count the number of business classes that I took which touched on ancient philosophies from Aristotle or ancient strategies from Sun Tzu.  Many of the terminologies employed from knowledge management, enterprise 2.0, and so many others are re-hashes of the same underlying concepts with better descriptions and lessons learned.

For more, see: 5 Points for Leaders on Change

Weekly series: How to Create a Foundation for Developing Leadership Potential

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Yesterday, I wrote about the 5 Points for Leaders on Change. Today, I want to share a quote from the former CEO of the notable Barnett Bank of Florida, Charles Rice.

Leadership Quote from Charles Rice:
“Think of managing change as an adventure. It tests your skills and abilities. It brings forth talent that may have been dormant. Change is also a training ground for leadership. When we think of leaders, we remember times of change, innovation and conflict. Leadership is often about shaping a new way of life. To do that, you must advance change, take risks and accept responsibility for making change happen.”

Remember: Leaders know how to change.

FYI, Barnett Bank is now part of Bank of America.

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Leaders know how to change.

1. Everything and everyone changes. We get older, we start a family, we have kids, and our kids have kids. It’s the same with an organization. The economy changes, technology changes, personnel change, and the organization changes.

2. Change can be beneficial, but change can also be detrimental. That’s why it is critical for a leader to know how to lead change. Leaders guide and direct the organization toward the correct economic and technological path.

3. But for a leader to know how to lead change, the leader must know how to change. Adrian Savage wrote a piece for LifeHack.org on 10 virtually instant ways to improve your life. I recommend you read it, because there are a lot of good points.  Until you learn how to change yourself, you not know how to change an entire organization.

4. In order to be successful at change, leaders learn how to deal with change.  I remember a book that I read many years ago, Who Moved My Cheese?. The title is a bit comical, but the topic is not. For many organizations and many individuals, change can cause you to feel lost. You have to learn new places, new procedures, and new habits. You can feel like the world is passing you by and along the way someone moved something you need. The very substance that you rely on for existence may no longer be available through the same means.  Who Moved My Cheese? is a book about how to deal with change (available here).

5. Change requires adaptation and acclimation. Both are learned over time and are best learned by doing. Sometimes you need to take small steps, but then there are times that require drastic and decisive changes. Experience is often the only guide. Leaders have experience with change – personal and professional.

Remember: Leaders know how to change.

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