Giving Back: The Selfless Leader
Reflecting is as much a reminder of what we have experienced as it is a challenge to document how we have changed.
We can too often get caught in the merry-go-round of life.
Waking up, working, tasking, going to bed, anticipating the weekend, spending too much time doing exhausting hobbies or pastimes to wake up and do it all over again.
Day after day. Week after week. It can quickly become month after month and year after year.
We’re human; the person who declares that has never happened to them, I have a hard time believing they are mortal.
A few weeks ago, I reread a passage from Peter Drucker I read a couple of years ago. The corkscrew effect.
Life spirals. Our actions and experiences move in a corkscrew type of pattern. What we experience today was similarly experienced in the past and will occur again.
We can choose three paths from today. First, be at the same point the next time. Work to grow and be above it the next, or we can revert and end up worse off or below when it similarly occurs again.
We end up on the lower path when we give in and allow our days to turn into years without reflecting.
Reflecting can be as simple as asking and answering a few questions.
What is important to us?
What fulfills?
Are we on a growth path?
Who am I serving, and why is it significant?
I had a conversation with Benj Miller of System & Soul a few days ago. You may remember him as a guest on my podcast on Episode 87.
We were discussing psychological safety in the workplace. As our conversation went along, Benj shared how psychological safety has become a call to make everything comfy in the workplace.
As he and I chatted, we agreed it's not safety we should be after but building resilience.
Reflecting.
My conversation with Steve Miller is the 3rd look-back episode, the end of Season 2, and the 100th episode of the Impact Driven Leader podcast.
I can't help but smile and gleefully smirk thinking of Steve. He’s that type of caring, loving, serving, poking, and laughing you enjoy being around.
In our conversation, we spoke a lot about resilience and the ability to continue facing adversity.
Looking back, I see how the anchoring effect of values moves us along the corkscrew at the same or higher level.
If we become uncoupled from our values, we won't build resilience and spiral downward.
A letter from March 11th, 2022.
Below is the email I shared to release the 59th episode with Steve. I'm sharing it as it was an excellent reminder for me, and I hope you get value from rereading it too.
I get excited about challenges.
I am an Enneagram 8. Aka, the Challenger.
The idea of getting excited about challenges is more about me than about the challenges.
I get excited about challenges because they are a puzzle to solve. Or better yet, it's a puzzle to try and solve.
Let me clarify this further; I don't like the classic cardboard 1000-piece type of challenge.
I enjoy life challenges. The chess match of life challenges. (I only recently learned how to play chess with my sons.)
More specifically, I enjoy challenges I can try to solve.
The impossible challenge is just defeating, and yeah, that's the word for it defeating.
As the classic quip asserts, you don't know what you're made of until you are challenged.
Life offers plenty of challenges. Challenges start early in our lives and last as long as we try to move.
A challenge shouldn't be viewed as a roadblock but merely an obstacle to get around.
Leaders are faced with many challenges. We can choose to “play” the game, or we can “pretend.” Leaders who pretend are more concerned with their position and safety. Leaders who play are more concerned with the mission and seeing all the other players move towards the goal. (Maxwell Leadership Podcast Player vs. Pretender Pt 1 Mar 9, 2022)
Resilience is the key to facing challenges as a player than a pretender. Resilience is built by facing challenges and either prevailing or growing.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Miller. Steve is the founder and co-owner of Millwood, Inc. Millwood is an American staple. As noted, any product you consumed or used today transported inside the United States likely was moved on a pallet Millwood either made or refurbished.
Pretty substantial for a corporation with humble beginnings born out of a sawmill in Northeastern Ohio.
With all that said, Steve, his family, and his company have faced many challenges. Yet, these challenges built a tremendous resilience and reliance on an ‘anchor’ of beliefs and values.
If you ever have the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Steve, you will recognize two traits; an ability to laugh at anything, anytime, and a heart to serve.
As leaders, we choose to play rather than pretend when we have the mindset we are meant to make an impact when we can lead.
It's a challenge to separate the emotion connected to our role and responsibility and then, with resilience, accept we can’t solve every problem nor expect others to do the same.
We can only solve problems and overcome challenges when we see the best of people, even when they aren't at their best. Do we want others to do the same for us as leaders?
Resilience is built through challenges and directed to serve when anchored to values.
I don’t have to stress this very hard; we live in a polarized world, getting more polarized each day.
For a person, much less a business leader with over 2000 employees, to express their faith and anchor of values with some much distinction, it takes courage. It takes courage knowing many people want to attack and tear out the anchors of values.
Yet I urge you to consider this: is it still an anchor if you aren’t willing to hold onto your anchor?
A boat can be anchored at sea and still move. It's not so steadfast that the waves tear the ship apart.
A leader with a proclaimed anchor of values is not an intolerant person. Instead, they have created a fixture to measure their mission and vision. A foundation built on rock as opposed to the sands of time.
Our world clamors for leaders to be players and anchor their ships to something solid. Not to be right, but to have the courage to show them care. So, even if I can’t, I am willing to show you that I care.
P.s. After the new year, Jan 9th and 10th, I will host a workshop sharing the 4 Barriers of Leadership and the strategy and keys to working through and overcoming those barriers. These are the foundations of becoming an Impact Driven Leader. I’d love to have you join. Register here
