A Personal Note Regarding my Recovery

November 20, 2011 hangs in the misty past as one of life’s turning points. It’s the day I was life flighted to a regional trauma center after a severe car accident that nearly took my life.

Three and a half months later, I’m doing very well. Specifically:

My broken right hip is responding well to therapy. I’m scheduled for full weight bearing on March 13.

My neck still gets stiff but continues to progress. There are no long term back injuries, as far as we can tell.

The broken left hand is the slowest healing of my injuries. Apparently there’s some nerve damage but over time it should slowly improve. I’m right handed, thankfully.

The right eye/eyebrow area that required two doctors nearly an hour and half to stitch is fully recovered and offers no problems. My vision is as a good now as it was before the accident. You can barely tell it was injured.

Sometime this week or next I’ll replace my wrecked pickup truck with another. I can’t see myself in something other than a truck. I’m a country boy.

Please understand that Leadership Freak is my way of giving to you. That’s why I don’t talk much about my recover. However, I know you are interested.

Every day I’m thankful for the support I enjoy from an army of generous people who care for me.

Here are three posts related to my accident:

My first post explaining why I hadn’t posted for a few days.

My favorite post The Hidden Power of Weakness.

A post in gratitude for all the support I was receiving The Power of Accidents.

Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.

The Power of Accidents

***Danger! This post is 400 words. Danger***

Incompetence makes you push challenges away. Inadequacy causes you to pull back. “Not good enough” (perfectionism) is the reason you don’t start.

I’ve been putting off this post for a few days because I feel incompetent and inadequate to write it. I can’t write it good enough.

Radical Change:

Life radically changed on Nov. 20, 2011 when I lay bleeding, bruised, and broken in dried leaves after a car accident. I don’t remember what happened to cause the accident but I remember what the accident caused.

People rose up in support of my family and me. This inadequate note is for my online friends; people I’ve never met face to face who reached out to us with generous compassion.

A Trio:

A trio of people led the way, Becky Robinson, Jesse Lyn Stoner, and Lolly Daskal. The first phone message I heard was from Becky, “Are you ok? We care for you. What can we do?” There were more conversations, cards, and emails from them and many others.

Others:

Mike Henry Sr. and the Lead Change Group joined Lolly, Jesse, and Becky by providing a channel for financial contributions to cover uninsured costs.

Jesse, Lolly, and Becky posted articles, along with many others. Contributions ranging from $5.00 to $5,000 started coming in, nearly $20,000 in all. It’s overwhelming. Many of you leveraged your influence on our behalf. People from around the world participated. I wish I could list everyone.

It’s 6:50 a.m. The sun is peaking over the cold mountains in central Pennsylvania. Once again, I’m warmed and teary eyed thinking about the outpouring of love and support that fills our hearts.

Impact:

You change me. You’re teaching me about compassion, initiative, and doing what you can to make a difference. Great stories make us great; this is a story I’ll tell my grandchildren.

I feel honored and I honor you. I’m privileged to receive your love.

Thank you.

Update:

I’m getting better; still using a walker and wheelchair. But, I’m improving. Indications are a full recovery is possible. They tell me it takes about six months. Two down; four to go. The words are patience and obedience (do everything the doctors say).

There’s a bit more information on my accident on this article I wrote from a hospital bed: “The Reason I haven’t Posted in a Week.” (warning: it’s poorly written)

Life Always Requires Intervention

Life always requires attentive intervention. Death arrives on its own. Do nothing you die. Do something you may live.

Products, people, and organizations follow predictable life/death cycles.

The organization I lead is positioned on a recent three year reinvention. It’s an exciting time where teams dare to think new thoughts and embrace new challenges. The ideas floating around scare me. That’s a good thing!

Personally:

Writing Leadership Freak was an intervention in my life – an expression of reinvention. The “Leadership Freak Life Cycle” is on the upward side of the curve. At the current pace, views exceed a million a year – and growing. I’m thankful and thrilled.

But, I know the curve inevitably turns downward unless there’s intervention.

Mission and vision aren’t altered. I want to encourage leaders along their leadership path in small daily doses.

Some of you intuitively share and participate in that vision with your comments. I’m thankful and thrilled. By the way, I love the multi-layered conversations the regularly pop up.

Image source

Intervention?

Is there a next level or intervention for Leadership Freak?

Your insights, suggestions, warnings, and observations can help me explore what’s next, if anything.

Questions:

Do you see an evolution of the Leadership Freak community?

Do you see next level opportunities that help leaders reach higher?

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Follow @leadershipfreak

Community Update 01/15/2011

I’ve opened a Leadership Freak fan page on Facebook, “Leadership Freak Coffee Shop.” It’s your opportunity to shape future posts, offer suggestions, share insights and give back to others. The Facebook page is not a repeat of the Leadership Freak (LF) blog. Stop in and share your thoughts. I’m listening. You can enhance Leadership Freak influence by clicking “Like” to join.

Numbers continue to grow. Views are up 30% from December. Typically LF has more views in one day than it did the entire month of January, 2010. Readership spans the globe. Thanks for your support and participation. If you find LF useful, I hope you’ll invite your colleagues and friends to subscribe. Reading LF takes about 90 seconds. You could change a person’s day.

Additionally, there have been over 6,000 comments over the last year. I read and enjoy every comment. For example, recently Ajay and Al expanded my thinking by explaining the scope and limits of passion.

Ajay wrote: “I think when passion is to achieve tangible things, then it usually blinds the person. On the other hand, when it is based on intangible things like creation of trust, reputation, knowledge building and doing something impossible which is not directly connected to any material gains, then it does not blind.”

Al added, “I tend to agree with Ajay’s take on this however, and differentiate motivation from passion. Perhaps we are just “dancing” around semantics here but I believe the distinction is important.”

You can read their insights in the comments on “Passion Blinds You.”

Finally, I’ve begun doing a limited amount of coaching and consulting in the leadership and social media arena. Drop me a note if I can be helpful at dan@leadershipfreak.com.

Nonnegotiable’s

Dr. Al Diaz, featured Leadership Freak (LF) contributor, asked where are the Leadership Freak values. Here’s a first attempt at discovering, not creating, core LF Values.

Ten Core Values

Leadership: Individuals make a difference.

Generosity: Leaders giving back to the community.

Exchange: Leaders are enriched by exchanging ideas.

Honesty: Dishonesty undermines influence honesty enhances influence.

Respect: Leaders extend courtesy and respect to others.

Encouragement: Leaders need support.

Growth: Leaders improve.

Courage: Leaders press through resistance

Experience: Leaders learn how to lead through failure and success.

Reading: Leaders expand their potential by bringing the outside in.

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Core values drive the focus, content, conversation, and goals of the Leadership Freak community.

In the broader context, values drive decisions. Values stabilize in an unstable world. Values underpin mission and vision. Values lift individuals and organizations above being driven by personal ease and preference. Without values leaders and organizations are adrift.

Values aren’t negotiable.

I’m not sure if it’s realistic but I’d like to boil Leadership Freak core values down to 3 to 5 core values that drive the LF community.

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What core values underpin your leadership?

What core values are driving the Leadership Freak community?

What top 3 core values drive the Leadership community?

Community Update – 8/28/2010

You make a difference.

The Leadership Freak (LF) blog continues growing. Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing LF with others. August became a record month on August 25th.

Special thanks to John Spence author of Awesomely Simple. His interview and the book review generated a record number of comments. Along with that, thanks go to Doc for summarizing the top three leadership qualities and creating a graph illustrating the results. Character based or Behavior based leadership.

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Suggestions & Feedback

Some LF readers are making suggestions for extending the reach of Leadership Freak.  They suggest; creating videos, blog summaries, comment summaries, more book reviews, using LF blogs as a foundation for writing a book. I’m still learning and appreciate your suggestions.

Book Reviews

I continue receiving books from publishers. I’ll be reviewing at least two books a month.

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Blast from the past

If you haven’t read it, 4 Ways to spot backstabbers before its too late, is one of the most viewed LF posts.

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Leadership quote:

“Before you can lead you have to believe that you can have a positive impact on others.” Kouzes & Posner in The Truth about Leadership.

It’s striking that with all the LF conversations on John Spence on Life and Leadership about the top three leadership qualities that we didn’t include the #1 quality that  Kouzes & Posner suggest.

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Thanks for your support!

Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

Selected Comments – 06/21/2010 to 06/25/2010

Thanks for all the great comments!

In order to limit the length of this digest, I’ve selected one favorite from those who left multiple comments. Even at that limitation this post far exceeds the norm post-length of 300 words or less.

Three A’s that Energize Others – 06/21/2010

Kelly – When someone does something on-target you can energize them by using positive accountability. Celebrate their accomplishment, pat them on the back, take the time to show them the impact of their actions.

The Best “B” word for Leaders: Better – 06/22/2010

Jim – “Belief” that the members of your organization can overcome the challenges they face and deliver on the commitments they make.

Dr. Harvey – “BOLD,” not to be confused with being reckless, rash or even heroic, but rather being courageous enough to “do the right thing”. This of course implies leading from … (an) enduring sense of purpose.

Mary – I think “build up” and “bring out” are two more “B” words that leaders must do.

Lenna – What I most appreciate on leaders I’ve known is the human “BE” behind the job title, function, position or market.

The Letter “C” for Leaders: Constraint – 06/23/2010

Richard – Other C words Conflict, Control, Consistency, Conversation, (dis-)combobulation.

Ajay – The main root of constrain is self interest… A leader should be full of candor and credence.

Geoff – Good leadership is about carving new paths and while there are loads of people who will help us do that, they can’t help us with the vision that gets us to our destination.

Kate – In other words, hire your “complement”. That’s a good start. To make it work — there has to be outstanding communication between leaders and their complements.

Dr. Asher – Courage, Creativity and Cohesiveness can make good teams which can deliver and is the prime need for any leader to succeed.

Mark – A Champion Culture – is one where people are encouraged and strive for championship status.

Al – … leaders can really propel their teams to be innovative and creative at all levels by “Cheering” them on.

Three “D” words for leaders – 06/24/2010

Paula – One “D” word that falls into the cure (for discouragement) category is “decisiveness.” I usually want to gain consensus AND keep everyone happy, which can really detract from leading well.

Doc – (sources of discouragement) Denial that there may be a problem. Denial of negative feelings. Denial that we need to change…to even feel better. And sadly, denying hope for others or ourselves.

“E’s” for Exceptional Leadership – 06/25/2010

Tim – With that in mind I submit “Empathy” as an important E-word. Working in a sustainable way with people means making connections with them.

M P Friedman – My Fave: Edge – the leader’s Effort to Enhance and continuously Evolve personal and organizational Excellence and advantage…and Empower others to Enhance and Evolve their Edge.

Community update – 05/23/10

Last weekend we were in Colorado for our son’s graduation. It was great visiting. It’s great being back in Pennsylvania. Thanks for the well-wishes. I appreciate it.

Our son’s graduation gave me the opportunity to think back on my own graduation. One phrase circles in my head. “You weren’t stupid enough to be smart.” It’s odd that the path to wisdom begins with being dumb. I heard this illustrated in a movie when a lead character said. “you can’t put anything in a full cup.” His comment was directed at an over confident character who felt he already knew it all. Wise leaders remember their cup isn’t full.

Related John Maxwell puts it this way:

“The greatest obstacle to discovery isn’t ignorance or lack of intelligence. It’s the illusion of knowledge.”

“If you want to lead, you must learn. If you want to continue to lead, you must continue to learn.”

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The look of Leadership Freak is changing. I’ve added a custom header and as time allows, I’ll be adding other pages. For example, I want to honor those who consistently add value to the Leadership Freak community. With that in mind I’m thinking of a page for the bio’s of those who consistently add value to the Leadership Freak community, perhaps a “Featured Commenter’s” page? Additionally, it could include links to their website. What do you think of this idea? Any problems that might emerge? How many words in a Featured Commenter’s bio would be appropriate? How should featured commenter’s be selected?

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Finally, thank you for your comments, corrections, additions, and tweets.  In addition, I enjoy receiving your email messages. Some are instructive, others encouraging, and some share your personal questions or struggles. Rest assured that I respect your transparency and I’m committed to maintain your privacy. The Leadership Freak conversation is my favorite part of blogging.

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Leadership Freak,

Dan Rockwell

Community Update – 05/15/10

I’m in Colorado with my wife attending our son’s graduation from Colorado State University. Graduation signals an ending that includes beginnings. That’s life. That’s leadership. From my perspective, after inspiring shared vision the most challenging leadership task is skillfully leading others through letting go of the past.

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Kelly Ketelboeter records some life lessons from her niece’s graduation on the Experience Factor. She was on the edge of her seat during the ceremony. I wonder if that will be true of us tonight? Speaking of the Experience factor, Kelly’s partner Jen Kuhn used a compass-metaphor to write about leadership. Her blog has me thinking about the power and importance of metaphor. Check out, “Take me to Your Leader”

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The appearance of the red dot in the LF administration page beside comments is one of my most enjoyable moments as a blogger. It means a first time comment awaits moderation. It means a another person took the time to add value to others. The LF conversation is my favorite part of blogging. Thank you to everyone who shares their thoughts, experiences, wisdom, questions with the LF community!

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Thanks to Ian Sanders from the UK for sending his book, Juggler. I read it on the flight from Pennsylvania to Colorado. The central question I ask while reading a book is, “How will I change?” I’ll be posting a review of his book soon.

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Thanks to eCollegeFinder for listing Leadership Freak as one of their top 50 Career Advocates. Honestly, it’s humbling and a bit unnerving to be listed in the leadership category with five heavy hitting sites. I appreciate their recognition.

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Best to all,

Dan

Community update – 05/08/10

“Things that Tick Leaders Off” received more comments than any LF blog. If you didn’t read it, check it out. Some comments are serious. Some made me laugh out loud. I didn’t reply to any comments but I read them all and continue to read new ones as they come in.

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I’m delighted to participate with the growing LF community where most days someone new leaves their first comment. Additionally, LF is adding new email subscribers every day.

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Scott Eblin pointed out one of the best leadership articles I’ve read in ages,“Solitude and Leadership” By William Deresiewicz. It’s a speech at West Point. It’s a great read.

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The LF blog “Influence Over a Cup of Coffee” is soon to be published. More on that later.

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Mother’s Day is May 9^th in the USA. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s and mommy bloggers who read and participate in the LF conversation. If you’re a mom in a country that celebrates Mother’s Day on a different date, Happy Mother’s Day to you too.

Mothers are leaders. My wife and the mother of our children suggests that selflessness is a key quality of successful leader-mothers. Everyday great leaders make gritty choices to selflessly serve others. There’s no glamour and little glory in that choice. However, it’s a choice that fuels and directs our future.

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

Don’t miss Leadership Freak. You can receive LF in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.