Month: December 2015

Great Parent = Great Leader?

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“No idea is born fully formed. It emerges a little bit as a child is born – kind of messy and confused – but full of possibilities. And it’s only through the generous contribution, faith and challenge that they achieve their potential.” – Margaret Heffernan

I need to treat ideas (my ideas and the ideas of my team) the way I plan on treating and raising my children. Ideas and children need to be surrounded with positivity, love, respect and all that other fluffy stuff. Yes, they need the hard stuff – the discipline, the management, the planning, the analysis, the strategery 😊, and the “sweat equity”. But I am a huge believer that “all the HOWs [hard stuff] will be meaningless, until your WHYs [fluffy stuff] are powerful enough.” – Darren Hardy

I’m not a father just yet, but here’s a thought/idea: I could only imagine that if I am a great father, I will be a great leader for my team. I think that the exact same behaviors are needed to be successful in both roles.

But hey, we’ll see – I’m not a father just yet. This idea may change after a few years of fatherhood. But IF this idea does hold up to be true and I am able to raise my team the way I raise my children, I am excited to see what the future looks like.

 

A Hero

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“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

When was the last time you were a hero? How much heroics will you display today? Believe it or not, it doesn’t take much to be a hero. It doesn’t take much to be a hero, yet being a hero and doing something heroic adds so much love and positivity into this world. And we need this, right? We need more love and we need more positivity, which means we need more heroes. And you know we’re all heroes right? So, IMO, all we really need to do is: (1) be ourselves and (2) allow others to be themselves. Seems simple, when I break it down to these two things, but don’t be mistaken. A lot of things (good things) need to be present for us to (1) be ourselves and (2) allow other to be themselves. And I won’t go into these different things, but I will talk about one component that I think is something we can focus on today.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, the thing that separates the hero from the ordinary man is what? Time. Yup, time – five minutes to be exact. So if we want to be a hero today, let’s all pay closer attention to devoting more time to the more important things that make up our day. And for me and the work I do at the Y, what this looks like is me having a conversation with a member or one of my staff for at least five minutes. And it won’t be about work stuff, it’s going to be about life, something they’re passionate about, their family, something/anything that isn’t work related.

And so much good comes from this. I am strengthening the structure and the foundation of our team. And our foundation, our core values at the Y are: Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility. And this is important because IMO, strategy follows structure. Meaning, we need to make sure that the basics are mastered, that our foundation is strong and that our core values are alive and well before we do anything else. We can create the best strategy this world has ever seen, but if our structure isn’t sound, that strategy will fail. With that said, I also see the need of a sound strategy for a team to follow – all teams need a game plan to be successful right? It’s all about balance.

Ok, so now what?

Think about your family, how will you be a hero for your family today? What does it look like – what is it exactly that you will do? How will it make your family stronger? What about work – how will you be a hero at work today? What good will that do for your team and your organization?

Being a hero is all about adding more love and positivity in this world. And sometimes being a hero means caring and listening for five more minutes. And remember: “we can do no great things in this world, only small things with great love.” Thanks for reading this J