Passion poutine: the fries, curds and gravy of leadership.

In honour of the grand opening of Smoke's Poutinerie in Waterloo, I decided to delve a little deeper into what makes this food so delightful ... and why throngs of people young and old are taking the plunge into this world of savoury lunchtime goodness and afternoon office-comas.

What is so great about poutine? And what does it have to do with effective leadership? (Keep in mind that I'm talking about REAL poutine, not the mushy brown slop that they serve you at fast food joins ... yeah Burger King, I'm talkin' to YOU). 

Let's eat ...

The fries: Fresh, but familiar. Crisp, yet soft on the inside. Warm, but not so hot that they disintegrate the very structure of your mouth... well, at least if you're patient. Being an effective leader is not so different from this sturdy vehicle that escorts curds and gravy to the exclusive parties hosted by our post-bar taste buds.

As a leader, you must bring forth fresh and new ideas ... yet ensure that these ideas don't rock the boat so much that they cause fear and distrust. You must also have a tough, crisp exterior when needed, but a soft, compassionate heart to back it up. And lastly, you must be just the right temperature to keep your team close without pushing them away.

Now, what about the toppings?

The curds: Unique, but strong. An acquired taste, but widely loved. Different, yet familiar.

As a leader, being different is essential ... but you must delicately walk the line between being so unique that you're one double-joint away from Cirque de Soleil and being so generic that people mistake you for Keanu Reeves. Cheese curds are different, but we can still identify with them as a unique subset of the familiar, wonderful world of dairy. Be unique, blaze your own trail ... just be sure to blaze one that others can also follow.

And lastly ...

The gravy: The pièce de résistance (yes, I still remember that ALT+130 makes a french accent). Rich, smooth, creamy. The delicate glue that holds the dish together. Too much of it, and you end up with chunky soup that is the temperature of the sun. Not enough of it, and the cheese curds don't warm up, leaving you with cold, squeaky cheese and exposed fries.

As a leader, your actions and words are the glue that holds the team together. You must work to bind people to each other in a meaningful way, all while walking the tight rope between too much and too little. If you provide too much direction, you will drench individuality and create a soupy mess of "yes" people. But, if you provide too little direction you will have a cardboard container full of people that don't mesh and can't deliver a cohesive, well-balanced product.

As you can see, the poutine of leadership is a very delicate mix of tough and soft, unique yet familiar and just enough direction to bring it all together into a delectable finished product that caters to the masses.

So, take a minute to identify the components of your passion poutine as a leader and think about how you can put a dish on the table that delights even the toughest of critics.

"There is no passion to be found in playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living" - Nelson Mandela

Frustration, technology and how to have a good bad week

Although I am often nauseatingly positive, today I'm going over to the dark side ... to talk about frustration, how much I HATE technology sometimes (most of the time) and how to turn a week that makes you want to punch a baby into a week that makes you want to open a daycare for newborns.

My week began like any other ... slow to start Monday morning, sped up a bit by the afternoon, and by the evening I was ready to sprint through to Friday. Yikes, I would come in dead last at the Olympics. Nonetheless, everything was moving well until I came face to face with a big, bulky, obnoxious adversary ... our office printer. I shall call him Chad Kroeger. After three long hours and a LOT of crumpled up paper and self-worth in the recycling bin, I gave up and let him win.

Now, I can hear the #firstworldproblems tweets whizzing out of your smartphones as we speak. I know, this is not a big problem. But, when your week is starting off like a productive run around the track, obstacles like these have the ability to trip you and completely throw you off ... especially when they include the lead singer of Nickelback's robotic alter ego.

So, how do we get up and get back in the race? Well, here are a few tips from a girl who is still standing and was able to silence the noise coming from that awful excuse for an artist ...

1. Walk away. Avoid going all Office Space on him, channel your inner Kelly Clarkson and WALK AWAY.
2. Do something else. Preferably, far away from technology. For example, make some tea, chat with a few colleagues about Monday's episode of Bachelor Pad and try not to look directly at Chad ... your eyes may start bleeding.
3. Set something up to look forward to. For example, plan to work from home on Friday, far away from Kroegs and in the comfort of your sanctuary.

My Friday home office

4. Do something with your anger. Channel your inner frustration and turn it into action. My personal favourite is going for an angry run. What the hell is an angry run?... you might ask. Well, in it's simplest form, it is a jog. But the trick with an angry run is that you have to spend the whole time thinking about how pissed off you are and HOLY CRAP, do you ever fly.
5. Lastly, and most importantly, win. No matter what it is that is frustrating you, it is essential that you get closure and chalk it up as a win. Now, I'm not saying if a colleague is being frustrating that you should go all Biggie vs. 2Pac on them and have a showdown in the office. In this context, a "win" constitutes anything that will calm your nerves and allow you to move forward. If it's a conflict with a colleague, invite them out for a coffee and have a good chat (unless your colleague is actually Chad Kroeger). If it's a printer, ask for help, laugh it off and try to learn something valuable.

Every once in a while, you're going to have a week that feels like a  never-ending Nickelback concert. When you do, remember that you are human and it is okay ... but also remember that you can turn it around if you put your mind to it. Take the time to understand what is making your week so horrible and work to change it. Be intentional. Find the tricks that work for you and stay focused ... you'll be amazed at how much it helps.

"In every difficult situation there is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it." - Norman Vincent Peale

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