Tag: Lane 8

Who Needs This?

“Who needs this”?, is stereotypically said in a sarcastic tone, and maybe even with our arms thrown up in the air is frustration.  Can you picture it?

But that’s not what I mean here.  Not today ever.

Today, in these tough economic times, these extraordinarily turbulent world times, we need this.

We need leaders.

Not managers.  Well, we need managers, but not as much as we desire leaders.

We need someone with passion to make a difference.

Most humans are hard-wired to do good – to make a difference.  But most are hard-wired, also, to fear.  Fear keeps good people, who want to make a difference, in the shadows, where it’s safe.

We don’t need any more people in the shadows.  it’s too crowded there. We need people to go out in the sun, and lead the others who want to make a difference, but have no one to follow.

Now What?

The past two days, talking about “Big Picture”, vision, and perspective has me thinking this morning, and reflecting.

Re-reading the past two posts, written from here in Anchorage, Alaska, it makes me curious about how and why leaders choose their leadership style.  It also begs the question, “How much thought do leaders put into their present day, yesterday, and tomorrow”?

A friend of mine was here in 1993 and visited Portage Glacier with his wife.  From the visitors center, he said you could reach out and touch Portage Glacier.  Too cloudy to see anything while I was there two days ago. But even if it had been clear, the only way to see it now is to travel by boat.

Didn’t anyone see this coming?  Where were our global leaders when it came to thinking about environmental lessons learned from the past, real time consideration for current direction, and a look into the future to visualize where we will end up?

Whether it’s global warming and icebergs, or business conditions and technology, every leader ought to be thinking big picture as they plow headlong into their day.  Otherwise, we may get to our destination, but our ship has already left port.

Tip of the Glacier?

Yesterday, we saw this glacier from 15,000 feet.  Today, we see it from the ground.  What’s different about the two views?

Alaskan Glacier

What’s different? There used to be a time when I didn’t understand the difference. And not only that, the difference never even hit my radar screen.  Why?

Because, “Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from making mistakes”.

So what has become clearer over the years is simply this. We have the choice to look at things from more than one perspective.

Funny thing is, we’ve always had this choice. The difference in the perspectives makes all the difference in the world.

We have this choice today.  And that’s just the “tip of the iceberg glacier”.


Top 10 Web Bookmarking Sites

Click here to see list on Top 10 Social Bookmarking Sites on the Web. Social networking has many tools, and many challenges. There’s an ocean of competition, but technology makes for smoother sailing.

Don’t ya just love technology?  The more we do something, the less fearful we are of it.  That’s one of the key drivers that makes many people want to try something new – to lessen fear.

And that’s one of our key accountabilities as a leader, isn’t it?  To lessen fear.  Carpe diem.

PS. Skyped a friend in South Africa yesterday.   Wasn’t exactly fearful of it, but had never done an International video chat before. Now I wonder why I waited so long.  It was ridiculously easy.

jungle jeff Leadership 101 Tip

jungle jeff Leadership 101 Tip:

“Leadership  – Inspiring others by the courage of your own example”.

This is the essence of what I personally believe is the ultimate leadership definition.

Perhaps the best way to fully understand its meaning is to re-read it, think deeply about it, and ultimately, evaluate our own “daily examples”.  This would lead us to a “personal leadership score”.

We would base our “score” on our daily leadership example.  And our basis should be brutally honest.

It seems, to me, that on days where I don’t need much courage, I’m probably not a very good example.  Hope today is a courage-filled day for all of us.