New dreams call for new behaviors. What worked in the past only digs holes in the present. Start again, but don’t resort to default behaviors, imagine new.
Past behaviors worked in the past, but you’ve changed and so has the world. Old strategies and methods won’t fulfill new dreams.
Old bag:
During stressful situations you reach into a well-worn back of tools – default responses. Defaults invisibly fit your grip. They’ll work again, you believe.
Default responses blind to new possibilities.
Two year olds get what they want by kicking and screaming. Leaders, who haven’t grown up, reach in their tool bag and pull out default responses of anger, for example.
Negative defaults:
The following strategies worked for you in the past.
Pushing harder rather than stepping back.
Anger rather than openness.
Blame rather than responsibility.
Attack rather than collaboration.
Stubbornness rather than flexibility.
Defending rather than listening.
Explaining rather than exploring.
Withdrawal rather than reaching out.
Taking things personally rather than focusing on issues.
All or nothing rather than progress.
Don’t let default responses bury you.
New dreams require new tools.
Imagine:
Ask someone who is in default-mode to imagine other responses and they go blank. Addressing defaults:
Invite someone to tell you what you look like when you’re in default mode. Better yet, ask them to talk/act like you so you can see it. (Fasten your seat belt.)
Forget solutions; explore strategies. Stop solving the problem and examine the way you’re solving problems.
Uncover desired outcomes. What are you really after when you default to your default responses? Is it what you really want? What do you really want? Get that.
What do your default responses say about you?
How would someone you admire deal with situations you’re in?
What default responses do you see in others? In yourself?
How can leaders escape default responses that are holding them back?
People who change things become fanatics first. I became obsessed with developing leadership a few years ago. Many friends thought I was weird. Some friends don’t hang with me anymore. I’m more committed to developing leadership than anyone around me.
Radical leaders create radical change.
Ordinary never satisfies. Fitting in doesn’t work.
Becoming weird:
Develop radical leadership by confronting radical problems.
Stop twiddling your thumbs while waiting for golden opportunities to fall from the sky. Address an issue others see but no one confronts.
Get off your butt and find a problem bigger than you. Big problems are big leadership opportunities.
After finding a big problem, find others who are pissed too.
Create a team of angry people willing to stop talking and start doing.
Help others believe something must be done!
Warning:
Reject:
Magic pills
Quick fixes
Easy solutions.
If small worked, small leaders would have
already solved the challenge.
Difference:
Just do something. Create an underground movement to simplify bureaucracy in your organization, for example.
Change one thing at a time.
Create momentum.
Grow the team.
Seek wisdom from others.
Affiliate with other change instigators.
Press through resistance. Do-nothing people try to stop do-something people.
Get permission later.
People who change things look weird to the rest of us but they aren’t trying to look weird.
Radical dedication to mission makes leaders weird to those who don’t share their mission.
Additionally, naysayers, sluggards, and drifters believe leaders who are dedicated to radical change are unbalanced, misguided; perhaps even delusional.
Secret:
Follow your anger. Things that make you mad reveal your heart. Transform anger into motivation. Get weird. If you aren’t weird, you don’t care enough.
It’s “Sprinter” in Central Pennsylvania. Spring isn’t here. Winter hangs on. One day it’s sunny and warm. Yesterday it snowed!
Change comes slowly. Winter won’t let Spring arrive. It’s the time of uncertainty and reluctance.
Change:
Unwilling to change is arrogant resistance, fearful reluctance, or ignorant blindness. Or maybe the present is just fine.
My preference is changing others not me. Changing others enhances potential and extends capacity. Changing others feels like adding new brush strokes to paintings.
Changing me, on the other hand, feels like drilling cavities without Novocain.
Seeing Oz or not:
My focus on the future makes me wonder why you resist change. Can’t you see the glow of Oz just around the corner?
While I see Oz, you’re seeing Kansas and it looks pretty damn good compared to a fuzzy glow in the distance.
Your dreams don’t change others until others dream them.
I think about reaching forward and feel excitement. You think about letting go and feel afraid.
How to change others:
Work on changing you before others. Go no further until you’ve made changes!
Don’t demonize Kansas unless it’s already disappointing. Criticizing an acceptable present to those who built it makes enemies not allies.
Celebrate the people and behaviors that built the present. They build the future. Don’t insult them.
Talk about Oz in the language of Kansas. Connect with their passion to make a difference. Ignite aspirations. Often, inspiring others centers on helping others find courage.
Paint others in the picture. Help them see where they fit in. Connect current passion with future possibility. When people see themselves in the future they find courage to release the past.
Change begins by imagining new futures. Belief in the future releases Spring’s life. But, clinging to the present strengthens Winter’s grip.
How can leaders become effective agents of change?
Baggage barricades your future. Leadership baggage includes past:
Disappointment with others.
Unresolved conflict.
Broken relationships.
Personal failure.
Failed plans.
Financial frustrations and business setbacks.
Releasing baggage is like cutting sandbags from balloons. In, “Leadership and the art of the Struggle,” Steven Snyder explains how to see baggage clearly and expose it wisely.
Embracing the struggle enables reinvention.
Glorious space:
Clinging to baggage weighs down, clogs up, and produces victims of persistence.
Refusing to let go empowers baggage
and assures repetition of the past.
Embracing the struggle rather than rejecting it creates space for new opportunities. Listen to Steven and me talking about letting go of my personal baggage (1 min. 34 sec.):
Positive Baggage:
Success seduces and convinces leaders that what worked in the past works today.
Leadership baggage includes success as well as failure.
Frustration over the changing workforce, for example, indicates baggage. The inability to adapt because past strategies don’t work today indicates you’re clinging to the past. Those who learn and adapt rise and reinvent themselves and their leadership.
Longing for the good ole days indicates baggage.
Frustration over the present suggests you’re hanging on to the past. Accepting “what is” enables transformation. Rejecting realities, frustrates.
Bill Gates and Baggage:
Steven Snyder personally watched Bill Gates reinvent his leadership. Early in Microsoft’s history every manager was more technically savvy than their direct reports. That approached worked for ten years.
As Microsoft grew, Bill adapted his leadership model. Microsoft began hiring managers with more management expertise than technical savvy.
Past success didn’t become baggage for Bill Gates.
Steven Snyder on Bill Gates and the inverted hierarchy (2 min. 32 sec.):
Your approach to baggage, both positive and negative, is pivotal to leadership effectiveness, business success, and personal opportunity.
An employee frustrates the heck out of you. Wish you could start over? Your boss drives you crazy. Wouldn’t it be nice to start fresh?
What’s stopping you from starting over? You!
Start over – 5 ways to address the past:
Identify frustrations and name failures. Ignored frustrations always escalate.
Accept their weaknesses.
Take your blame. What role are you playing in the problem? Rest assured you are. Employ honest outside eyes for this exploration. You can’t do it alone.
Forgive. Act without failure or offences in mind. Forget forgetting, you can’t.
Believe failure in one area isn’t failure everywhere.
Bonus: Start over by leaving the past in the past, at least for today.
Employ forward-facing language. Stop bringing up the past.
Define success. Undefined wins can’t be won. What does a winning relationship with your boss look like, for example?
Begin with small wins that energize more wins. Small is the path to big.
Define what you’ll stop doing.
Visualize positive behaviors before they’re needed. If this happens, I’ll ______.”
Practice positive interactions with trusted advisors.
Ask, “What would I do if my next meeting with ‘Mr. Frustration’ was my first meeting.”
Focus on behaviors not feelings, at least for today.
Realize the key to starting over is your attitude and response to failure.
Yeah but:
I hear you thinking, “Starting fresh won’t eliminate old frustration.”
A series of small wins may eliminate the need for “perfect” solutions. Additionally, starting over provides positive energy for addressing negative history, when the time is right.
Free yourself from the past, just for today. Turn forward. Stop pushing back, controlling, and fixing. The path to the future begins by starting over.
Every team has a few passionate leaders chomping at the bit to create the future. But, dead weight weighs them down.
Most teams lead by consensus, the lowest common denominator.
I believe in leading with teams but struggle with drifters, underperformers, and the fearful who hold organizations back.
It’s frustrating when playing it safe is success, for example.
Obstacles:
Leaders who have retired in their positions.
Politically adept but leadership deficient chair holders.
Organizational cultures that honor silence and punish candor.
Lack of intention to build high performance teams that press into the future.
Hope:
One unselfish person with passion,
skill, courage, and patience changes things.
First, identify untapped opportunities:
Few resources.
Low cost.
Observable results.
Ignites your passion.
Look for something you can lead, not others.
Focus on bringing positive benefit not solving problems or pushing dead weight. Maintain positive focus. Most importantly, forget about convincing the entire team to join you.
Second, leverage allies:
Approach people of influence and bring up your list of untapped opportunities. “I’ve been mulling over…”
Avoid selling your ideas, just lay them out. Ask for more.
Look for something that makes their eyes twinkle and explore it.
Never develop ideas with people who don’t care. Leave them behind if you must.
Have coffee-conversations and toss ideas around until a few bubble to the top. Don’t push people, ignite them. Pushing invites resistance.
Third, pull the trigger:
Choose an opportunity with the most supporters. (Back to looking for the twinkling eyes)
Take personal responsibility. “I’m moving forward with …”
Ask for suggestions.
Develop and share your plan with influencers who buy-in.
Do it on a small scale and share results.
Don’t apologize if criticized; own it.
Key:
Look for the biggest bang for the fewest bucks. Remember, something is better than nothing.
How can frustrated leaders create positive impact in organizations where leadership teams are dead weight?
“What makes me think you can be a leader?” The person I asked is in their early 20’s with many leadership accomplishments.
Maybe it was part humility, part fear of saying the “wrong” thing, or part sincerely not knowing, eventually they said, “I don’t know.” I said one word, “dissatisfaction.”
Dissatisfaction makes me believe
you could be a successful leader.
Why I said dissatisfaction:
I wanted to take something others might see as a weakness and make it a component of strength.
A person satisfied with the present can’t lead. All leaders want to make things better.
I wanted to encourage them.
Not enough:
Dissatisfaction is the beginning of leadership; it doesn’t guarantee you’ll lead. Many dissatisfied people remain stuck. They never change anything. They comfort themselves by blaming others.
Dissatisfaction destroys people
unless they take responsibility for change.
Make your move:
Focus on things you control. Move from dissatisfaction with current conditions to identifying and taking imperfect steps toward change.
Build imperfect relationships and alliances. Make it easy for people to join you. Dissatisfied people aren’t always fun to be around. Our dissatisfaction gets old. Being dissatisfied and feeling alone is nearly unbearable.
Develop imperfect solutions. The trouble with dissatisfaction is there’s never a satisfying solution.
Celebrate imperfect progress. If you don’t celebrate imperfect progress, progress always ends. Forget the magic pill. It doesn’t exist.
Don’t let go of dissatisfaction; embrace it.
Deal with an imperfect world, imperfectly,
if you don’t, you’re doomed to become what you despise.
Are complainers potential leaders? Listen closely to their complaints; learn from their techniques. Seeing problems is the beginning of leadership; circling problems ends leadership.
Some see problems and complain;
leaders see problems and seek solutions.
Political Complainers:
The first time I met a political complainer I was twenty-five and leading a growing nonprofit.
She came representing the complaints of others.
In reality she wanted her own way. She overstated problems and ignored success. It didn’t matter that a dying organization had found new life.
Every organizational growth cycle produces political complainers who come representing others. Their power to gather followers is in compassion, real or fake.
Their power of influence is making people feel they care and suggesting you don’t.
My experience indicates political complainers can devastate organizations. They pursue restoration of the past in the false hope that going back solves growth pains.
Growth causes pain. Compassionate people complain about change because change hurts.
Leadership ends when preventing discomfort becomes the ultimate goal.
Never let those who don’t like
what’s working change it.
Pit bull Complainers:
Unlike political complainers who represent others, pit bull complainers never let it go. Round and round you’ll go discussing the same issues over and over. Tenacity is their gift.
Questions to ask about complainers:
Can they go beyond pointing out problems?
Can compassion and tenacity be refocused?
Are they willing to create and execute solutions to the problems they see?
Are they willing to do what’s best for the organization?
Do they align with organizational values?
Is forward-facing possible?
Can they become loyal?
Can they find ways to talk about the future without complaining about the past?
Can they transition from pressuring you to achieving on their own?
Breakthrough moments rise up and grip you by the throat. Resist them and you’re stuck. Navigate them and you’ll achieve new levels of success.
Many leaders resist the very thing
that most lifts their leadership.
The leadership journey includes extended periods of gradual growth punctuated by moments of terrifying, turbulent change – breakthroughs. Sadly, we’re prone to fight off the beast rather than embrace it.
Breakthroughs are stifled when you:
Run from hard truths – the ones you know but don’t want to hear.
Refuse to admit you’re wrong.
Surround yourself with weak yes-men.
Repeat standard behaviors.
Leverage proven skills.
Cling to comfort.
Stick with familiarity.
Resist responsibility.
Focus more on others than yourself.
Express tenacity to the point of stubbornness – refusing to change.
Breakthrough moments occur when:
Strategic distress in the form of new challenges stretches confidence.
Frustrations outweigh satisfactions.
Untested skills are tested.
Unexpected failures challenge standard operating procedures.
Sudden crisis confronts the status quo.
New opportunities rise up.
Fresh eyes observe stale attitudes and behaviors.
Someone courageously points out the elephant in your life.
Someone believes in you more than you believe in yourself. Self-limiting beliefs hold people back.
Someone presses you more than you press yourself.
Some suggestions on breakthroughs received on facebook:
Personal breakthroughs are about you. Others can help but no one makes you breakthrough. Skills-based breakthroughs happen when you’re taught. But only you can step into the unknown of a personal breakthrough moment.
How have you navigated your breakthrough moments?
How can we help others navigate their breakthroughs?
Transition is the no-man’s-land of “in between” where old hangs on while new is not yet. But, nothing really works.
Temptation:
The temptation of transition is going back. The pain that drove you to change in the first place doesn’t seem so bad, anymore. At the same time, painful uncertainties about the future rise like dragons from the mist.
New dream:
New dreams are conceived in a present that isn’t working. Products are outdated. Systems fail. The world changed but you didn’t. Or, you changed but your world didn’t.
Dreams are lights, emerging. They’re invitations without substance. They glide in our thoughts and fly on our feelings.
Dreams inspire us to pursue something new. They create transition moments. People and organizations that successfully navigate transitions – and life is filled with them – thrive. The inability to transition is like living in a dream where you’re running but can’t get away.
Stuck:
You feel stuck because new dreams crawl before they run but in the old world you already ran.
New competencies:
Current competencies are about the past but dreams are about the future. Dreams require new, unproven competencies.
Remember the pain.
Trust your passion to serve in new ways.
Experiment. Say, “What about?”
Live with uncertainty, for the moment.
Consider mistakes and setbacks as new starting points.
Talk with those who have navigated transitions.
Reflect on your future.
Read.
Rest.
How can individuals and/or organizations navigate the no-man’s-land of transition?
