Being out in front, questioning, asking, telling, wondering, trying, failing, starting over, relentlessly striving, pushing, pulling, challenging, never satisfied.
These are all attributes of the heretical leader we all need, and hate, most.
The big question for baby boomers, whether for personal leadership or professional leadership, is whether or not we can balance the overwhelmingly obvious need to be goodgreat good at each critical building block.
In jeff noel’s mind, it comes down to the difference between good, very good or excellent. The effort to move from one level to the next grows exponentially. So do the results.
So then how much drive and desire is enough? In our (assumed) quest for personal leadership excellence, do we pursue what’s easier to do and what we like to do, or do we work ridiculously (and continually) hard at having a balanced approach?
What if a business didn’t focus on these five: Leaders, Employees, Customers, Financials, Innovation? What if they were good at two, three or even four, but deficient at the other(s). Now apply that to our personal life: Mind, Body, Spirit, Money, HQ. How much is enough?
jeff noel took this photo a year ago in Seattle while out for a pre-dawn run. As an Orlando-based motivational speaker, jeff must be creative to maintain work life balance. What caught jeff’s eye was the simple element most everyone else misses – passion.
The person (or company) that placed these signs is passionate about junk cars. Their vision for their business, their drive, tenacity, perseverance – unmistakable. People think only fortune 500’s have this in their DNA. Ha!
I think this is where jeff noel got a little confused. The personal leadership lessons he was passing on to his son through stories, insights, pictures, videos, and real life experiences had a profound impact on the casual blog reader who stumbled upon Mid Life Celebration’s crazy, but balanced, look at life as having five big choices.
Leadership is tricky business. As Jesus said, give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him to fish and you feed him forever. jeff noel has never satisfied the hunger of a selfish beggar. Nor does he intend to. He aims to teach his son, and in the process, others, how to feed themselves.