organizational roadblocks

After wrist surgery this past week, this may qualify as my shortest blog ever...

What is an organizational roadblock? It is anything that keeps the institution from more fully living out its mission and vision. Such items could include:

• structures


• budgets


• silos


• unaddressed critical issues


• unaddressed non-critical issues


• weak personnel policies


• a focus on managing rather than leading fron those in leadership roles


• having the wrong people at the table


• lack of support and encouragement for the organization's best people

This list could go on and on, and will change depending on what is happening in one's life and/or organization at any given moment. The biggest question to ask is this:

AM I A ROADBLOCK WITHIN MY ORGANIZATION...

and if so, what am I going to do about it starting right now?

the one question

Excuse the shortness of this blog, but I still only have one hand with which to type...


Yesterday,I had the opportunity to interview Gerard Arpey, CEO of American Airlines as a part of our speaker series on campus. It was an amazing event - packed auditorium, great discussion (his pastor joined him for a dialogue on faith & work), and a overall feeling that we were doing something good and right. Prior to the event, I challenged some students and faculty to consider what question they would ask Mr. Arpey if they had several minutes alone with him. This is actually a harder exercise than one may think - so...


If you came face-to-face with a leader whom you admire; or someone who leads a large organization; or a person of great influence in your community; or?????? what would you ask them? Remember, you only get one question and only a few minutes with this person.

So think about your ONE question...write it down...memorize it...and be ready to use it. You may even want to practice it with a friend (their answer might lead to an interesting dialogue).

a new year

A new school year began this week, and I started it with a broken left wrist(thus the short nature of this blog) and a broken left. You see, there was this car accident on Monday morning...

A new year brings several leadership challenges within an organization, especially at an institution of higher education. These challenges include:

1. 1/4-1/3 of your population is new...how will we welcome them into and help them understand our culture?


2. those who are returning expect to see something new...what have we done to make the place better?


3. we have taken a break (at least mentally)...how much energy will it take to get the wheels in motion again?


4. it's been a long summer...what needs to be done to remind people of the mission and vision?


5. new students are now enrolled...are we really ready to start the recruiting cycle again with renewed enthusiasm?


6. next year is right around the corner...what needs to be done NOW for cetain initiatives to be in place for the new year that begins in 12 months?

The paradox of the new school year is that as soon as it has begun, our role shifts to the NEXT school year. I wonder if my administrators really get this? I wonder if my faculty really get this? I wonder if I really get this? (then again, what choice do I have?).

the four R's

Rest...Relaxation...Renewal...Re-Creation. After finishing four weeks at our cottage in Maine, I am more committed than ever to these four R's. I have very few friends or colleagues who REALLY believe in the maxim of Sabbath and take it seriously. There is a reason that God instituted the concept of Sabbath, and I believe that those who are in leadership positions need to take this concept seriously and practice it regularly. Brian Tracy, in one of his newsletters over the past year, stated that leaders need one day a week with no work...3 straight days each month (long weekend) with no work, and at least 2 or more straight weeks each year with no work in order to rest, relax, renew, and re-create. Here is what these terms have meant to me over the past four weeks:

REST: my mind has rested from the day-to-day issues that regularly arise in my work. I have not heard an alarm clock go off for four weeks (though I still get up early - but on MY time). I have not had to make decisions (except for which movie to watch each night). My body and mind both are rested and I am ready to "get back at it" next week.
RELAXATION: To be able to just sit with my wife and relax together is something that does not happen on a regular basis. I am not talking about a few minutes on a Saturday morning, but full days of relaxing together. This is the "kick back and enjoy life" relaxing, done for a concentrated period of time (four weeks for us). I literally did not look at eamil for the first three weeks I was gone...but even catching up with it this past week has been relaxing as I went through it at my leisure time. Making relaxing a habit during these four weeks carries over to the rest of the year as I remember how important this is.
RENEWAL: My vacation is spent mostly reading - I probably read about 7-8 hours a day. I put together my reading list all year long, as well as remain serendipitous to see what might come my way during the time here (we have a great library and bookstore in town). I get to read long novels that I have been putting off, as well as some of the "hard" stuff (philosophy, etc) that needs my concentrated effort and time. As I read, I come up with new ideas and ways of thinking, always considering what I am learning in the process. To be able to read this quantity and quality of texts with little or no interruption is a real gift to myself.
RE-CREATION: The song "Morning Has Broken" talks about God's re-creation of the new day, and I beleive that this might be the best part of Sabbath, to be made NEW again and again throughout the process. I see the world differently today than I did one month ago...my relationship with my wife is more full than it was one month ago...my spiritual life is more complete than it was one month ago...I will be a better teacher than I was one month ago...I am more fit than I was one moth ago...I will lead differently than I did one month ago...I have different experiences to talk about than I did one month ago...I have a wider vocabulary than I did one month ago...I am a better person than I was one month ago. I am a NEW creation.

So I urge each of you reading this to take Sabbath seriously. I know it might not be possible to do four weeks every year, but remember these items as you prepare for an extended time away:

• there will always be work left to do


• no one is irreplaceable


• you can always delegate more


• the less you are around, the less people will rely on you


• being away is a great way to develop other leaders


• we got along without email and cell phones in the past


• you have a lifetime of work ahead of you

Thanks for letting me share my Sabbath thoughts with you. How can you plan NOW for an extended Sabbath sometime in the future? And while you are at it, take that three day sabbath(no work) very soon!

leadership ala proust

This past week I finished volume three of Marcel Proust's epic novel Remembrances of Things Past. The third volume (The Guermantes Way) is pretty droll...it spends over 100 pages describing a reception at one of the homes and another 130 pages describing a dinner party. The writing is phenomenal...the story progresses slowly yet keeps the reader interested...and since it is considered one of THE novels of western literature, I will keep reading over the next several summers until I finish all seven volumes.
Since most of my reading is done with what I call "leadership lenses," here are two leadership lessons learned from reading Proust:

1. The narrator (the novel is semi-autobiographical) seems to idolize (and idealize) many of the characters prior to actually meeting them - he holds them in such a high esteem that he misses many opportunities to engage them and get to know them (i.e. the Duchesse Guermantes). Once he gets to really know them, he realizes that they are people just like him, with all the flaws that accompany humankind. We often put certain leaders on pedestals and become immobilized in approaching them or learning from them. Once we realize that all leaders put their pants on one leg at a time, it can become much easier to call them, approach them, email them, or invite them out for lunch. We should not be afraid of approaching people and getting to know them, just because they have a certain title or position. Much of the narrative of the novel is Marcel listening to these people talk amongst each other and getting to know them in that manner. Listening is key to building these relationships - and people love to talk about themselves. So be sure to show up at the right occasions, and just listen in.


2. During the dinner party, after listening to some very "silly" conversations, the narrator makes this note to himself: "so there is no conversation, any more than there are personal relationships, from which we can be certain that we shall not one day derive some benefit." How true this is for each of us in our own lives. Every conversation - every talk - every person we meet - every relationship might have something to offer that will be of benefit to us in the future. Every book we read - every movie we watch - every speech we listen to - every opportunity to engage in a conversation might offer to us something that we can use in our own leadership in the future. Taking advantage of these opportunities and then making the most of them might be the mosts important part of our leadership development. As noted above, LISTENING is a key element in learning, so take advantage of all opportuniites presented to you to listen and learn.

By the way, in a recent Wall Street Journal article on summer reading of the 2012 presidential candidates, it was noted that Governor Rick Perry reads (and re-reads in the original French language) Proust's Remembrances of Things Past. While I am no Rick Perry, it was nice to see that others in leadership positions read this novel. Hope he also takes away leadership lessons from reading great literature.

what?

I was at The Blue Hill Book Store the other day and picked up a curious little book entitled What? written by Mark Kurlansky (whose 1968 and Cod I just loved). In previous blogs, I have extolled the importance of asking good questions, and how the role of the leader is to be one who consistently asks good questions of both themself and others. If that is the case, then this book might just be the bible on leadership, for it is a short book that is written in nothing but questions (even the table of contents and the index are written as questions).

The art of asking questions is critical to the learning process...and leadership is about learning. Whether it is learning about one's self...learning about the organization...learning about other people...or learning about leadership - learning begins with questions. In one of the textbooks used in our Introduction to Business course at Concordia University Texas, the statement is made that the more one learns, the more questions they ask, and the more questions they ask, the more they learn. I often challenge my students and others with whom I work to figure out their question to comment ratio in any given day. This book takes it to the extreme: 100% questions to zero comments. Here are a few of the questions asked by the author:

• In a world that seems devoid of absolute certainties, how can we make declarative statements?



• If it is amportant to ask questions, is it equally important to answer them? Doesn't questioning have its own value?



• What is at the heart of intellectual pursuit? Is it "what?" If so , shouldn't the previous sentence be read as a statement?



• Is a question always a search for an answer?



• Shouldn't we distrust an answer that comes without a question?

Of course, the book is much more than these few questions noted here, as the "chapters" flow from one idea (or series of question) into the other. Perhaps what struck me most about the book is it's ability to do nothing than ask questions, and still engage me in a learning process. Of course, that is how I am wired. Are you wired in a similar way? Have you considered your question to statement ratio lately? Why might questions be so important to thsi author? And should they be that important to you? How do others react when you do nothing other than ask questions? Will they be satisfied that they are not getting "answers" from you? Can one be considered a leader if they only ask questions? And what are the important questions that leaders should be asking?

Is this the end of this blog? Or will you continue it by raising even more questions about how leaders lead by asking questions?

who decides the common good?

This past week I read Rick Perlstein's 2008 book Nixonland, a look at how the 1960's shaped America's political landscape as we know it today. For some reason I have always been fascinated by the 1960's (I was born in 1959, so I missed the essence of the 60's in a personal way). Having read much about this era (and much about Richard Nixon), I found this book interesting and point-on in its thesis of how the years 1964-1972 created the political landscape we know and recognize today as liberal-conservative ideology.

The question I kept asking myself throughout the book was "who gets to determine what the common good should be?" In the 1960's there were the "radicals" who believed that the US should have pulled out of Vietnam and that civil rights, women's rights. and other "rights" needed to not only be law but needed to be accepted as "the American way of life." On the other side of the spectrum were the "conservatives" who wanted to keep things the way they were and believed that "rocking the boat" was not only anti-American but bordered on the cusp of sin. I remember (vaguely) my parents having discussion on these points and hearing about these debates in my school (though little did I know what was REALLY going on). So who was right - and who (if I had been of age) would I have been supporting during this time?

The "common good" has often been described as what is beneficial for the most people at a given time within a given community, with special regard given to those who have little or no voice in the matter. Each of the "sides" in the 1960's could easily have argued that their position was what was needed for the common good - and that any deviation from that position would hurt the common good. In my own little world, it becomes very easy for me to believe that what I believe is good, right, and salutary at any given time is what should be accepted as the common good. And yet, there are many people who will believe different from me. I then need to decide whether I am right in my thinking...or could someone else be "right" in this debate?

Leaders are those people who influence others towards a shared goal that benefits the common good (DC's personal definition of leadership). Understanding that the "common good" might mean different things to different people makes the leadership role difficult at times...mostly because it means that some people will disagree with the leader (and maybe not even like them). The conundrum for leaders is in wrestling with the paradox of defending what they believe to be the truth (their defintion of common good) and listening to, understanding, and considering the "rightness" of what the other side declares to be the common good. Perhaps it is in this paradoxical struggle that the understanding of the leader is sharpened and that a way toward a more communal understanding of "common good" can be achieved.

I have still to understand my fascination with the 1960's - perhaps it is because I 'just missed it" in my coming of age; perhaps it is because the times resonate with my personal world view; perhaps it is because I am still trying to reconcile some of my own beliefs at that time (coming from a conservative mid-western family and town) that I now know to have been wrong; or perhaps it is because I did come of age right after that time, and I want to know what it is that shaped my own coming of age. But this consideration is for another blog...stay tuned!

What period of history most fascinates you? And how does your understanding of it shape your personal leadership?