Tuesday 26 June 2012

Leadership parkour

Back in the glory days, a few of my wonderful friends and I spent an evening running around, jumping off of random blocks, log-rolling along the sidewalk, and generally making fools of ourselves ... all in the name of being extremely hip and with-it because, ofcourse, we were "parkouring". If by chance you aren't as avant-garde as my "posse" was, check it out ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEeqHj3Nj2c (what the pros look like) / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_1Ezczq06I (what we looked like).

Why do I bring this up? Well, after my previous childhood wisdom post, I started delving further into my thoughts with respect to the concept of a personal "leadership journey". In CW, we looked at the EXTERNAL journey ... so now I want to turn the tables and look internally.When I think about the internal development that every leader goes through, it becomes evident that it is far from a straight line. Instead of walking casually from A to B, it is much more like parkouring from A - B ... well, A-D-concussion-Q-upside down-F-M-L-flip-B.

Now, I know that this may get confused with my previous post ... so remember that we are focusing on how you develop your self-concept as a leader, not the way that you act as one.

I use the parkour analogy because it is vital that you are INTENTIONAL about your internal development, instead of just walking aimlessly towards a location. You need to identify things to jump over, to bounce off of, to roll over, to use as a platform. Every point of contact is an opportunity to learn, improve strength, re-calculate your journey and look ahead to locate your next strategy.

In development, much like in parkour, the course can be busy with a lot of highs and lows, big gaps and tall obstacles ... an ever-changing environment filled with distractions and challenges. And the objective is to get to the desired state with the least amount of scrapes and bruises. Now the fascinating thing about parkour, which ties back to our own leadership journey, is that "parkourers" (like myself) don't go from A to B as quickly as possible ... instead, they go from A to B by making contact with as many different objects as possible.

This, my friends, is the hidden gem of parkour. Often, we look at our leadership development as being linear instead of letting ourselves ricochet off of whatever point of contact we ACTUALLY need at that exact moment in time, regardless of what or who it is.

So with this, we can identify some takeaways from our fearless friends who jump around like cheetahs through the city streets. When travelling through our own personal leadership development, we must see our path for what it truly is ... risky, exciting, ever-changing, full of people and places that we can use as touch-points, and almost entirely contingent on an accurate assessment of our abilities and needs at any given moment in time. Parkourers know themselves - they know their own strengths and abilities, they know what they should do next to cater to these strengths, and they know exactly what they need to push themselves over their next hurdle. But most of all, they TRUST themselves to do it safely and successfully.

Sounds a lot like self-awareness and leadership to me.

"Success is not a matter of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." - Fred Shero


Tuesday 19 June 2012

Childhood wisdom: "Don't step on the cracks!"

Yesterday, as I strolled to my car (which, coincidentally, had been towed), I was busy tweeting and somehow misjudged my gait, causing me to take an epic fall. Highlights include: my cellphone skidding across the pavement, my glasses flying off my face and soaring through the air like a frisbee, scraping my elbows, and widespread shock and awe from my awkward onlookers.

After I collected the remains of my belongings and self-esteem, I got to thinking... What caused this hysterical blooper? And then it hit me ... I stepped on a crack. This immediately time-warped me back to my childhood days when there was molten hot lava under every sidewalk in North America and I, a fearless trailblazer, was determined to avoid having my feet burned off in a tragic accident... much like what happened to me yesterday. Oh, what I would have given to have been paying attention to where I was stepping instead of trying to think of a hilarious hashtag for my most recent tweet.

I began to reflect on this childhood game that we all used to play and it really started speaking to me ... in a leadership kind of way. Let's break it down for a second: On any journey towards an ultimate destination, you would walk cautiously, keeping your eyes on the ground with extreme focus. Sometimes you would have to slow down, shuffle your feet and take a few smaller-than-normal awkward steps to avoid a crack. Other times you would have to speed up and jump to barely squeak by a crack a few feet ahead ... and stick the landing with a quick wave to the audience (irritated Mom). Sometimes you would have to judge 3 or 4 cracks ahead to ensure that you had the appropriate amount of hop-skip-jumps planned out to clear all of them in one fell swoop. Ultimately, you would reach your destination with burn-free feet and a reluctant high-five from Mom.

Alright, analogy time. As leaders, we are often so focused on our final destination that we sometimes step on a crack and launch our glasses into the middle of the street, all to find that our final destination has been towed and now our elbows are bleeding. So, instead, let's channel our inner 6 year old and play a little game of "don't step on the cracks".

As a leader, there are times when you have to slow down, change your pace and re-evaluate the steps that you are taking ... shuffle your feet a little bit in order to better prepare for an upcoming obstacle or challenge - one that you may not have seen if you were solely focused on the ultimate goal. There are also times when you need to take a risk, a leap of faith in order to clear an obstacle and land safely on the other side. And there are also times when you need to have foresight and look ahead to challenges three or four cracks in the future and create a current action plan to overcome them.

As you can see, there is no easy way for us leaders to get to our final destination ... there will always be cracks along the way. The trick is to pay attention to these cracks and adapt to them. You will never be able to get from A to B with the exact same pace and strategy; Leadership requires much more than that. Be flexible, adapt, welcome change. You will reach your destination much more effectively ... and if you do miss a crack because you're busy tweeting - get up, brush yourself off, LAUGH, and keep moving towards your goal.

With this, I will leave you with a quote from one of my favourite poems, "Dream Big":
"There is only one you and you will pass this way but once. Do it right."


Friday 15 June 2012

Let's talk tangibles

First things first, I'd like to start by saying how irritating leadership is... well, as a concept at least. How many articles can you read about being transformational before you LITERALLY transform into something else? Not that it wouldn't be wicked to be an AutoBot, it's just that I don't see how it relates to my abilities as a leader. Wait, I like this tangent ... let's think about Optimus Prime for a second ... talk about leadership! He casually saves all of EARTH and it's not even his own planet. I digress, the point is that we need to blow up the buzz words and start talking like real humans (or OpPri) in order to fully understand what leadership is and, in turn, become better leaders ourselves.

Now, I'm not saying that all of the literature and research on leadership isn't beneficial for our development ... I'm just saying that there's WAY too much of it to boil down to create our own leadership style. If we have any How I Met Your Mother fans out there, it would be a hell of a lot like Ted's first day as a professor ... for those who aren't fans, become fans.

In order to open the leadership Cryptex, I believe that we need to focus on the tangibles. The see, feel, touch, hear, dos and don'ts of day to day leadership ... they make the difference. It isn't the transformational vision of the CEO of AmeriCorpCapitalMarketMegaBros & Co.. It's the day to day moments, the "be all you can be" of every day life ... THAT'S leadership in its truest form.

So what are these moments? Well, they are all around us. To quote Mother Teresa (get used to her, she's my GIRL), "We cannot all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love." Now, I recognize that this sounds pretty damn cheesy ... but hear me out. The thing about small things is that they are never small things. Think about the last time that a complete stranger smiled at you on the street. After the minor  I-may-know-him-but-don't-recognize-him-but-don't-want-to-look-like-a-forgetful-jerk inner panic that you felt, didn't you feel AWESOME? That random dude with the cool hat just looked at you and flashed his pearly whites, for no other reason than the fact that he thought your hat was cool too ... or whatever accessory you were rocking that day. He didn't have to smile - he could've frowned, scowled, or worse, flashed you some weird hand gesture that made you feel uncomfortable... but he didn't. He smiled. A good old-fashioned Mister Rogers smile.

These moments are what I'm talking about. They are tangible. You can feel them, remember them, share them with someone else ... and most importantly, they ignite your heart. They light your pilot light on days when you definitely aren't heating the whole swimming pool to a comfortable 80 degrees (Fahrenheit ... ofcourse, we want to keep our skin if at all possible). These moments make you better, even if you don't realize it at the time. Because of these moments, you are a better person for at least the whole day ... at least. And that is something that should not be taken lightly, especially in the world that we live in today.

So, to finish off my very first post I want to leave you with this thought: How many times a day do you choose to frown instead of smile?