Category: Thought Leaders

My early years of professional service were spent pretending to be an athletic coach. 

I heard Nicholas Keith of the Texas Education Association speak this week to to the powerful progression recipe for learner development:

> Acquisition (initial learning of the knowledge/skill)     

   > Fluency (practicing for speed and accuracy)

      > Generalization/Adaptation (applying the knowledge/skills into real-world contexts)

The best coaches I have known over the years use this very formula toward the development of athletes.

The wisest teachers, leaders, and mentors I know do exactly the same thing.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

We all want to feel like we matter.

The wisest leaders I know are masters of helping us feel like we matter.

How do they do that? They…

• LISTEN to us, intently.
• ASK us questions, to probe our perspectives, opinions, assumptions, values.
• TREAT us as equals and volunteers, not subordinates.
• INVITE us into conversations and explorations around consequential stuff.

The day we stop learning is the day we put the first foot in the grave. Becoming the very best version of ourselves is a learning journey, from the first breath to the last.

Existing, however, is not the same as living a meaningful life.

Some things that help us BECOME all that we can be…

• Remain curious – enough to keep asking questions.
• Learn – purposefully, in a fashion of daily discipline.
• Care – for others, for the earth, for the future (and show it).
• Exude transparency – in all ways being genuine and authentic.
• Forgive – freely, often, and with the knowledge that the blessings flow in both directions.

That’ll be a day’s worth of work. 

A car without fuel won’t go. An electrical appliance that is not connected to a power supply won’t spin, chop, heat, cool, light, jiggle, or ??? A sailboat without wind drifts. A solar panel without sunlight won’t generate electron activity.

Stuff that requires energy to work…………requires………..ENERGY!

Same goes for organizations that are trying to accomplish important things. Same goes for individuals that are trying to live impactful and meaningful lives.

Energy comes in all kinds of packages: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual.

WE — you and I — can be the source of energy provision……for ourselves and for those who depend on us.

Being an ENERGIZER is a daily learning journey.

Time to power up!

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

We tend to think of learning as just one process or event. In fact, the most impactful learning is a three-fold undertaking: 

Learning > UN-Learning > RE-Learning

Fundamentally, this triadic process is a state change. What we know gets modified, what we can do evolves. Some of the elements that trigger (and sustain) this process are:

• Attention – a focusing of our brain by observing, by listening, by reading, by experimenting.
• Agency – no one else can do the learning for us; we only own it when we do it.
• Application – testing what we think we know and can do against real-world contexts.
• Will – we triadicly learn best only when we want to.

Maybe the problem is not the problem. Maybe it emerged as result of a faulty pattern.

Looking upstream of the problem is often very revealing as to why the problem is a problem in the first place. 

And the thing about pernicious patterns is that they reliably persist in pushing out problems. 

Is there a pattern doctor in the house???

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

Delegating is sometimes — too often — viewed as a way to reduce load. There are, however, some powerful underlying reasons for delegating important tasks and decisions to others on the team (whether that team is one’s family or a multi-national organization). 

Effective delegating sends powerful signals to others on the team, such as…

• We’re a TEAM and can only be successful if we contribute as such.
• I trust you to do important work and make consequential decisions.
• I’m here if you need me, but I intend to “stay out of your way.”
• You take care of this important work; let’s communicate regularly on how it’s going.
• Expect to get credit when things go well; I’ll provide cover when they don’t.
• I’ll keep you in the loop on looming storms or rattlesnakes in the grass; you do the same.
• You have the authority to make improvements. In fact, it’s expected.

We deceive ourselves when…

> We think we’re smarter than everyone else.
> We consider talking of more value than listening.
> We accept blame and excuses as proxy for solutions.
> We assume that ignoring a problem will make it go away.
> We underestimate the power of our words — for good or for hurt.
> We decide others need our unsolicited criticism.
> We lose sight of the power of genuine caring.
> We conclude that we’ve learned enough.

When we tell ourselves these lies, we lose. As do those who depend on us.

Or, we can quit deceiving ourselves, and win. Which results in betterment for all concerned.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

I once heard physician and leadership guru Dr. Eddie Erlandson say, “At the end of the day, we all just want to be more effective.” An excellent point.

A number of years ago McKinsey & Company (a multi-national consulting firm), conducted a study of leadership effectiveness that included responses of 189,000 folks, from around the world, and from all kinds of organizations. You can read about it HERE. 

The researchers identified 20 key practices of effectiveness:

1. Be supportive.
2. Champion desired change.
3. Clarify objectives, rewards, and consequences.
4. Communicate prolifically and enthusiastically.
5. Develop others.
6. Develop and share a collective mission.
7. Differentiate among followers.
8. Facilitate group collaboration.
9. Foster mutual respect.
10. Give praise.
11. Keep groups organized and on task.
12. Make quality decisions.
13. Motivate and bring out the best in others.
14. Offer a critical perspective.
15. Operate with a strong results orientation.
16. Recover positively from failure.
17. Remain composed and confident in uncertainty.
18. Role model organizational values.
19. Seek different perspectives.
20. Solve problems effectively.

I worked once for an impactful leader who taught me much about how to think and behave if I wanted the best from others. Dr. Tom Gaul regularly reminded us that he “didn’t hire us to enforce policy, but rather, to do what was right for our students (aka customers).” 

TG’s argument comes down to the mindset of the leader, and whether it comes from an insistence on compliance, or conversely, an intrinsic commitment to worthy and noble outcomes.

The Enforcement Bosses I’ve worked for over the years focus on:

• Endless compliance monitoring.
• Layer upon layer of “permission” mechanisms.
• Systems grounded in DIStrust.