Who's Writing Your Headline?

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

-Amelia Earhart

The book, The World’s Worst Predictions, records some of the worst predictions ever made in history. Among some of the more notable bad predictions include how in 1773, King George II said that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution. Another reveals how in 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American would not have time for it. And in the early 19th century, an English astronomy professor said that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate.

History is filled with examples of men and women who chose a dream larger than the faith of those around them. Consider Walt Disney; he was fired from a newspaper because he “lacked imagination,” and “had no original idea”. Cut from his high school basketball team, Michael Jordan locked himself in his bedroom and cried. A teacher told Thomas Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything,” and should go into a field where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality.

For every time you watched Jordan play ball, enjoyed a family vacation at Disney World, or turned on the light switch in your home, imagine how different your life would be if they had taken their well-intentioned advice. Against the odds, these individuals decided to write their own headlines at the risk of being a failure.

The construction of your headline as a leader is a process. It involves risks, disappointment, failure, and reward. Here are three simple truths that will help you understand the process and the meaning of your leadership as you write your headline.

Your talent alone is where you begin. Within each person lies a certain set of gifts and abilities you were blessed with to use. No one else is created like you and no one else can fulfill the role destiny has for you; it is yours alone.

The construction of your headline begins with an understanding of the talents you have and the great causes you can serve. But this is just the beginning. If you want to succeed at the next level you cannot do it alone.

Your talent joined is where you grow. When you join your leadership skills with those in your organization you will create results far greater than going it alone. Michael Jordan said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence joined wins championships.” A successful leader understands that the headlines of success are typically not written alone.

In your organization the success headlines are collectively written by the bean-counters, administrative professionals, and the heavy-lifters in the trenches. In addition, countless others with great skills and talents  have set aside their egos and put the team first. John Maxwell was right when he said, “Every leaders potential is determined by the people closest to him.” Do you want to know who is writing your headline? Look around you.

Your talent shared is where you multiply. On this level is where you begin to understand the purpose of your leadership and its lasting value in the lives of others. Lloyd D. Mattson said, “A great person takes a small talent and develops it as a tool for serving others. A small person with great talent soon fizzles, and wonders why.” When a leader understands this truth it will make all the difference in his leadership style.

Multiplied talents and resources achieve greater results than what could otherwise be achieved alone. Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.” The wisdom of your leadership is acknowledged when you join forces with those around you. It begins with the talents you have; it grows when you join forces with those around you, and multiplies when you share it with others. The headline written will be larger, bolder, and far more significant.

Who’s writing your headline?

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

Does the Final Score Define You?

The circumstances of life, the events of life, and the people around me in life do not make me the way I am, but revel the way I am.
- Sam Peeples, Jr.

In a Sports Illustrated story years back, Gary Smith relates the suffering of the late North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano from terminal spinal cancer at the age of 47. Speaking with a reporter, he looked back on his life and told a story about himself as a 23-year old coach of a small college team.

“Why is winning so important to you?” the players asked Valvano. “Because the final score defines you,” he said, “You lose, ergo, you’re a loser. You win, ergo, you’re a winner.” “No,” the players insisted. “Participation is what matters. Trying your best, regardless of whether you win or lose, that’s what defines you.”

It took 24 more years worth of living. It took the coach bolting up from the mattress three or four times a night with his t-shirt soaked with sweat and his teeth rattling from the fever chill of chemotherapy and the terror of seeing himself die repeatedly in his dreams. It took all that for him to say it, “Those kids were right. It’s effort, not result. It’s trying, God, what a great human being I could have been if I’d had this awareness back then.”

In an era where winners and losers are defined by the final score or the bottom line, is it any wonder that leaders today get caught up in the trap of believing that the end game is all that matters? As a result, the final score or bottom line is the all-consuming obsession that shapes the leader, his company, and its future.

Have you fallen into the trap of being more concerned about the bottom line than the process of leadership? Have you allowed your worth to be defined by others or by a rubric of success that does not fit? Here are three simple observations that will help you gain perspective about the final score and the measure of your leadership.

What defines you is your passion, not your position. This is perhaps one of the easiest traps for leaders to fall into. It is the belief that when they have a title or a position they will be a leader. A title is just that; a title. A position is place of responsibility. A true leader transcends both.

Nelson Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” And this is how leaders see themselves; not defined by the restrictions of a title but by the creativity of their passions. Living the life you are capable of is fueled by passion. Find your passion and you will not have to worry about a title.

What defines you is your purpose not your power. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it.” And this is the leadership challenge. The trap is buying-in to the end game mentality that says because you have acquired power derived from a position that you are a more viable leader.

What gives you power as a leader is found in your ability to lay it down. What gives you power as a leader is the discovery and practice of your life’s purpose and to serve people and causes greater than self. Do you want to be empowered as a leader? When you find your passion you will be empowered to serve.

What defines you are your principles not your popularity. Popularity is a powerful force for a leader to reckon with. After all, who does not want to be on the receiving end of the accolades and praise of his or her team? A wise leader will discover that the respect he or she earns by being a principled leader will endure long beyond that of a leader who thinks it is an audition for American Idol.

Thomas Jefferson said, “In matters of principle, stand like a rock, in matters of taste, swim with the current.” As a leader, this is what you must learn. Your passion, your purpose, and your principles are what matters. The final score is not nearly as important as how you played the game.

How will you be defined?

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

Rest for the Weary

Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.
- Benjamin Cardozo

A story is told of a man who challenged another to an all day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day.

At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.” “But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman, “that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest.”

The paradox of the story lies in the unfounded belief of the challenger who equated his relentless chopping of wood to certain victory in the contest. Yet in the end, it was the wise woodsman who won the day not because he worked longer or harder, but because he was smarter and sharper.

In a story at keyorganization.com it was reported that only 38 percent of employees are taking all of their earned vacation days. The average used only 14 out of 18 days. It also reported that 40 percent of employees said their workload had increased in the past 12 months. Additionally, many are doing more with fewer resources, are doing the work of two because of the recession, and as a result find taking time off from work more difficult.

Are you weary? On some days do you feel that you are burning the candle at both ends? Benjamin Franklin said, “He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.” As a leader, when you learn to rest you will not only do yourself a favor but your team as well. Here are three suggestions to help you make rest a useful part of your leadership strategy.

Rest to recharge. In his insightful book, Focal Point, Brain Tracy writes, “The more rested you are, the brighter, sharper, and more alert, and more productive you will be at your work and every other area of your life. You will get more done by taking more time off.” While it is great advice, what is your experience?

Rest is one of the least utilized tools in your arsenal for success. Most succumb to the notion of the woodsman who believed that if he just relentlessly cut wood he would win. In the end he was discouraged to find that for all of his labors he lost. The lesson learned? Now and then you need to take a break and recharge.

Rest to reflect. The ability to think, process where you are, and chart your future is best done in times of rest, not in the heat of the battle. When you are physically and mentally exhausted, your perspective will be skewed. Your best decisions as a leader will come when your body and mind are rested. You owe it to yourself and those you lead to make the best possible decisions with a clear mind and rested body.

As far as perspective is concerned, your reflections during times of rest will polish off the rough edges when tired and irritable. If you embrace the insight of Charles Dickens who said, “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty, not on your present misfortunes, of which all men have some,” you will see your world in a different light.

Rest to re-enter. Your gifts, talents, and leadership skills will best be utilized on all levels when you are rested. Imagine the difference in your workplace if you and your team are rested? Imagine the possibilities of sharper employees, improved attitudes, and greater productivity? The woodsman who won the contest did so not because he rested, but how he rested.

Times of rest will help you recharge and reflect. It will help you re-enter as a sharper leader prepared to excel. Rest is a lost leadership quality that will improve your skills and increase your longevity. A wise leader will make rest a practice and a priority.

Are you rested?

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

The Truth About Troubles

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

- Mark Twain

In Bits & Pieces a few years back a story is told of Somerset Maugham, the English writer, who once wrote about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him.

Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars.

One day the banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor of St. Peter’s Church in Neville Square.”

The story illustrates what happens when a person is not shaken by his circumstances but seizes troubles by the horns and turns it into something positive. And this is the test of your leadership. Some might say these are troubled times we are living in at the moment. Chief among many concerns is the state of the economy and how it will impact their business, employees, and their family.

Will Foley said, “The world is full of cactus, but we don’t have to sit on it.” As it relates to troubles, are you sitting on cactus? Are you hunkered down in survival mode? Here are three simple reminders about troubles and how to respond to them.

Troubles will visit you – embrace them. Not the advice you expected to hear is it? Now that you have considered this idea, what do you plan to do about it? This is the character test of your leadership. Each leader will face his or her unique set of challenges or troubles to overcome.

Just as the janitor at St. Peter’s had to choose how he would react to his setback, you too, will choose a path forward. Harry S. Truman said, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” And this is what you must decide. Like the janitor, your present trouble could be the beginning of something great, but not until you embrace it.

Troubles will leave you – learn from them. It’s been said that experience is the greatest teacher. When the school of hard-knocks is in session I understand the temptation to skip class. But in the words of John Wooden, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” And this is the separation point between a leader who learns from his troubles and the one who only resents them.

Leadership is a learning process. And along the journey are lessons to be learned and opportunities seized upon. How soon your trouble leaves depends on how long it takes for you to learn your lessons.

On my leadership journey the troubles that stayed with me the longest did so because I was too slow too learn, too slow to act, and at times just too hard headed. How about you? Be assured today that the troubles you face will eventually pass. The secret to growing wise as a leader is to never stop learning.

Troubles will grow you; thank them. While it is a given that troubles will grow you as a leader; the hardest test to pass is the one in which you look back on your troubles with gratitude. As you read this you are probably asking, “Why should I be thankful for my troubles?” It’s a great question that I, too, have asked.

James A. Lovell said, “Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability may have your job.” The troubles and challenges you face today are the benchmarks of your growth as a leader. The size and scope of the challenges you face today are not the ones you dealt with a year ago, and will not be the ones you will face in five years.

Think about it; your next trouble could very well be the blessing in disguise that you have been waiting for. As you embrace them, learn from them, and be thankful for them, you will not be overcome by them. What troubles have you embraced today?

© 2011 Doug Dickerson