Author: Justin Irving

Leading on Gratitude Road

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Gratitude Road, by Bart Maguire, Flickr

Gratitude Road, by Bart Maguire, Flickr

This past week I had the opportunity to share briefly in a chapel service at our school. The theme was thankfulness and gratitude. Whether in the Thanksgiving season or beyond, learning the art of gratitude is important for leaders and followers alike.

The Good and the Bad of Future Focus

But nurturing a spirit of gratitude comes more naturally for some.

As I consider my personal tendencies and strengths, one of the tendencies that can work against a spirit of gratitude is an orientation toward the future.

Future focus has many benefits. As leaders, a focus on the future is important for planning and strategic thinking. I take up the importance of this theme in another post (see Strategic Foresight).

But future focus has a down side as well. At times, this future orientation can work against nurturing a spirit of gratitude. Sometimes gratitude and thanksgiving are not primarily about looking to the future, but rather reflecting on the past and being present in the moment.

Thankfulness through Remembering

The Bible affirms the value of remembering throughout the pages of Scripture. Remembering what God has done in your life and in the lives of those around you is often the seedbed from which thanksgiving and gratitude arise.

One example of this is in Psalm 105 where the author calls the reader to give thanks to God by remembering well:

“Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name….
Remember the wondrous works that he has done”
(Psalm 105: 1 & 5).

If you are like many leaders, it is easy to have your sights set on the future and where your team and organization are headed. But are you taking time to pause for gratitude? Are you taking time to pause and be present in the moment and to look to the past with thankfulness?

Walking Down Gratitude Road

As you consider nurturing a spirit of gratitude, perhaps you may need to join with me in taking time to pause and look at the present and the past. In this act we have the opportunity to see the faithfulness of God in our lives. As we look back and remember well, we begin to see that through both the joy-filled and difficult days, we have much for which to be thankful.

I hope you will be able to take some time in this season to nurture a spirit of gratitude in your life and leadership. Learn to remember well; learn to remember with gratitude.

Leading Organizations Fit for People

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Facescape_Viewminder

Facescape, by Viewminder, Flickr

Organizations are increasingly utilizing data-based approaches to decision making. These approaches provide helpful insights for organizational leaders aiming to be responsive to their constituents and markets.

Losing Sight of People

Noting this trend from a marketing perspective, the following quote from a recent Harvard Business Review article identifies a hidden danger such approaches:

“As marketers continue their love affair with analytics,
there’s a danger that they’ll lose sight of their customer’s humanity.”

In marketing circles, the “4 P’s” of marketing are often emphasized:  Products, Price, Place, & Promotion. In my MBA program, my Marketing Management professor emphasized that those leading in the realm of marketing must not forget about a fifth “P”—People.

Servant Leadership in the Organization

Whether in the realm of marketing or in broader discussions of organizational leadership, such insights are vital. Leaders must remember the priority of people in the work of lead. Leaders must never lose sight of the humanity of their followers, team members, customers, and constituents.

From a servant leadership perspective (Find my blog series on Servant Leadership here), the core of effective leadership involves putting the needs of followers before the self-interest of leaders. But such principles of leader-service are not just about certain leadership roles. It involves looking at the totality of the organization and working hard to keep the focus on people.

Management 2.0

Gary Hamel discusses such principles around the concept of what he calls Management 2.0. At the heart of Management 2.0 is asking the question of whether or not our organizations are fit for human beings.

The industrial revolution brought about significant management strides that contributed to increased levels of organizational performance. But such strides often came with a cost of dehumanizing organizations.

Within the Management 2.0 movement, organizations are again seeing significant change in management that contributes to increased performance. In contrast to previous approaches to management, these recent changes focus on advancing organizational goals while also recognizing and working with people’s humanity. They focus on making organizations that are fit for human beings, not just fit for organizational output.

Principles of Management 2.0

Principles often associated with Management 2.0 often include the following:

  1. Openness
  2. Community
  3. Meritocracy
  4. Activism
  5. Collaboration
  6. Meaning
  7. Autonomy
  8. Serendipity
  9. Decentralization
  10. Experimentation
  11. Speed
  12. Trust

Leading Organizations Fit for People

As you consider the role you play in your organization, how are you using your leadership and management responsibilities to move toward principles that take the humanity of your people seriously? Are you working to help create organizations that are fit for humans?

Perhaps you see other principles that help to nurture this type of culture. I’d love to read your thoughts. Please take a moment to share below.

 

David Brooks on Vocation and Making Commitments

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The Graduates, by Luftphilia, Flickr

The Graduates, by Luftphilia, Flickr

I spent some time today reading a commencement address by David Brooks to the Dartmouth Class of 2015 entitled “The Ultimate Spoiler Alert.”

In it, Brooks sought to provide a picture of what the decades of life beyond college will look like for these graduates and presented an argument that their “primary mission in life is to be really good at making commitments.”

The Importance of Commitments

On this point, Brooks notes:

“Making commitments sounds intimidating, but it’s not.
Making a commitment simply means falling in love with something,
and then building a structure of behavior around it
that will carry you through when your love falters.”

What a powerful observation about the nature of commitments.

Brooks goes on to argue that these students will end up needing to make four major commitments in their life. A commitment to:

  1. Their spouse and family,
  2. A career and a vocation,
  3. Their faith or philosophy, and
  4. A community and a village.

Though it would be great to engage any of these commitments, I’d like to focus on Brooks’ observations around the commitment to a career and a vocation.

Vocation is Something that Summons You

Brooks’ provides a thoughtful comment regarding the difference between a vocation and a career. He notes: “A vocation is not a career. A career is something you choose. A vocation is something that summons you.”

That’s not always the way people think of vocational discernment; personal choice is often the point emphasized.

But Brooks sees vocation as more of something that calls from outside of us rather than arises from within by simple personal choice. Explaining further, Brooks continues:

“People with vocations don’t ask: What do I want from life? They ask: What is life demanding me to do? What gap is there in my specific circumstances around me that demands my skill set?

It’s not found by looking inside you for your passion. People have studied this. Eighty percent of you don’t have a passion. It’s found by looking outward, by being sensitive to a void and need, and then answering the chance to be of use.”

Looking Outside to Find an Opportunity to Provide Value

If Brooks’ observations are accurate and vocation is found by looking outside, this calls for answering a few key questions:

  • Are you paying attention to your surroundings?
  • Are you being sensitive to the voids and needs around you?
  • Are you responding to the opportunities to be of use?

In business, people understand the priority of providing value. Rather than asking “what do I want to do in life?” the more fulfilling line of inquiry is “what is the vocational path on which I may contribute the most or best value to those around me?”

In other words, vocational fulfillment is not just an individual pursuit. Vocational fulfillment is found within the context of community. At each stage of life ask: “Am I looking outward to see how I may be used to provide meaning and value to those around me through my vocation and service?”

God’s wisdom to each of you as you engage such significant questions and pursue the vocational path that lies before you at each life stage.

10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports (Part 3)

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Soccer !, by Craig Sunter, Flickr

Soccer !, by Craig Sunter, Flickr

This is part 3 of 3 in my series reflecting on 10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports.

In this season our family has been asking a few questions as we make decisions regarding where to invest our time with youth sports:

  • In what way are youth sports meaningful?
  • How do they contribute to the development of children and youth?
  • What life lessons may be learned from participation in youth sports?

In response to these questions we landed on a list of “10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports” that fall into five main categories: Physical Lessons, Emotional Lessons, Relational Lessons, Mental Lessons, and Spiritual Lessons.

In my previous two posts I shared lessons 1-6 in the physical, emotional and relational areas.

Physical Lessons

  • Lesson 1: Physical Health Is Important
  • Lesson 2: Athletes Are Born and Made

Emotional Lessons

  • Lesson 3: How to Lose, and Win, Well
  • Lesson 4: How to Press through Perceived Barriers

Relational Lessons

  • Lesson 5: We’re in This Together
  • Lesson 6: How to Respect, Engage, and Share in Authority

Now we turn to lessons 7 – 10 in the mental and spiritual areas for this final post.

Mental Lessons

Lesson 7: Successful Execution Engages the Mind

Although success in sports is tied in part to physical, emotional, and relational dynamics, successfully execution involves a significant mental dimension as well.

At every level of competition, athletes must stay focused. They must learn their specific job on the court, field, and mat. They must remain engaged. They must effectively execute on their job. They must be able to recognize challenges to their play and make necessary adjustments.

In sports, successful execution engages the mind. On the practice field, in the midst of a game or match, and in reviewing performance after the fact, athletes must stay mentally engaged.

Teammates depend on each other to know and execute their role in the right way and at the right time. Athletes not only need to learn their own role well, but also must be mindful of how their role coordinates with those around them on their own team, and how the opposition is working against them in the competition. Youth sports provide an opportunity for kids to stay focused mentally and to execute on this understanding.

Lesson 8: Pursuing Perfect Effort

One of my son’s favorite movies is When the Game Stands Tall. The movie provides a dramatic account of the De La Salle Spartans’ journey to a 151-game winning streak in high school football. The coach of the Spartans was Bob Ladouceur, and he built his program on the philosophy of expecting perfect effort from his players.

In the movie, this principle of perfect effort is communicated by the coach in the following manner:

“We’re not asking you to be perfect on every play. What we’re asking of you and what you should be asking of each other is to give a perfect effort from snap to whistle.”

Perfect effort requires engagement from the whole person. Athletes need to be present physically, emotionally, relationally, and mentally. They must be ready to engage, and stay engaged, with their whole self to offer the perfect effort of which Ladouceur speaks.

Spiritual Lessons

Lesson 9: You’re Not Alone

Youth sports can be tough at times. Youth athletes can feel pressed in all of the areas noted above: physically, emotionally, relationally, and mentally. When things get tough, as they do in sports at times, it is an important opportunity for individuals to recognize that they are ultimately not alone.

To begin, players are surrounded by the many people who care for and support them along the way (fellow players, coaches, and loved ones). But even when this is not the case, when it feels like so many who are surrounding are not being supportive, athletes are able to turn to the one who is faithful through it all.

In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul writes, “In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret…. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).

Though many athletes may want to quote such a verse to point to God’s help in providing them with a victory in a match or game, the reality is this verse is not about victories in sports. It is about finding strength in the Lord, whether in victory or defeat.

Paul did not write these verses from a place of comfort and excitement. Paul wrote these verses to his friends while sitting in a prison cell because of his faith in the Lord. So in the midst of joy and sorrow in sports, and in the midst of joy and sorrow in life, we can say with Paul that we “can do all things through him who strengthens” us. In competition and in life, we are not alone.

Lesson 10: Play to Win the Prize

Finally, youth sports provide a context where individuals and teams compete to win. On one of our kids’ teams, the coach emphasized playing for the greater reward.  This meant several things: (1) playing for the win, (2) playing to improve as an athlete, and (3) playing to grow is a person of character and commitment.

Lessons like these point to playing for the greater spiritual reward as well. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul speaks to the greater reward of the gospel in the following manner:

“I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Cor. 9:23-25).

Victories on the field, court, or mat feel great. But these victories in sports are temporary. Paul says there is a greater reward that will last. For Paul this lasting reward is all about the gospel—the relationship with God made available to us because of the forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ.

So run for the athletic prize, but recognize this is pointing to an even greater reward. Nothing matters more than finding peace with God in this life. The prize of peace with God is found in Jesus Christ.

Youth sports provide countless opportunities to learn lessons about life and leadership. In these posts, I’ve highlighted 10. I hope you enjoy the life lessons that you are learning along the way as well, whether through your own involvement with sports, or as your children are involved in sports.

Take a moment to share your insights below!

Here are all of the posts in this 3-part series:

10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports (Part 2)

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Play Ball!, by TMAB2003, Flickr

Play Ball!, by TMAB2003, Flickr

As with many families, our kids are regularly involved in youth sports. With so many demands for time in the life of a family, it is important that parents are intentional about where they invest their family time.

In light of this, as a family we took some time recently to ask a few questions about youth sports:

  • In what way are youth sports meaningful?
  • How do they contribute to the development of children and youth?
  • What life lessons may be learned from participation youth sports?

In response to these questions our landed on a list of “10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports” that fall into five main categories: Physical Lessons, Emotional Lessons, Relational Lessons, Mental Lessons, and Spiritual Lessons.

In my last post I shared lessons 1- 4 in the physical and emotional areas.

Physical Lessons

  • Lesson 1: Physical Health Is Important
  • Lesson 2: Athletes Are Born and Made

Emotional Lessons

  • Lesson 3: How to Lose, and Win, Well
  • Lesson 4: How to Press through Perceived Barriers

Now we turn to lessons 5 – 6 in the relational area.

Relational Lessons

Lesson 5: We’re in This Together

Along with the physical and emotional lessons, youth sports provide a significant opportunity to learn about the value and importance of working as a team. In the realm of most youth sports, the priority of teamwork is pronounced. Even in individual-oriented sports like wrestling, gymnastics, or tennis, individual effort is working toward team outcomes. In other arenas like basketball, soccer, or football, the priority of coordinated teamwork is expressed in an added level of team commitment.

Through such dynamics, kids learn that they are “in this together” with those around them. There are interdependencies that abound. As an athlete, they are motivated by the support and care of their family and friends. They are guided by the insights and direction of coaches and officials. They are strengthened by the encouragement and performance of fellow teammates.

This sense of interdependence was pronounced on the football field this past season. Quarterbacks and running backs could not move the ball without the protection of their offensive line. Linebackers could not do their job without defense ends and corner backs doing their essential work of containment. On the football field, you quickly learned both that others are depending on you to do your job, and that you in turn are depending on others to follow through with their jobs. Success comes when the coordinated efforts of the team moves toward a desired outcome.

Lesson 6: How to Respect, Engage, and Share in Authority

Along with learning the lesson of being in this together and being mutually dependent in a team, youth sports provide an important opportunity to learn how to respect, engage, and share in authority. First, youth athletes encounter authority in the form of coaches and officials.

Coaches and officials make many decisions throughout a game. Coaches decide how to run practices prior to games. Coaches decide which players to put in and what time to put them in the game or match. Coaches decide on key plays that will be made or strategies that will be utilized in light of the team’s performance on the court or field.  Similarly, officials of various types make judgements about athlete performance and adherence to the rules of the game or match.

Anyone that has played sports long enough realizes that good and bad calls are made both coaches and officials. In light of this, one of the key lessons is how to respond well to these calls. When a bad call is made, will athletes stay focused on the work that is before them, or will they become distracted and disrespectful to these authorities.

In addition to respecting authority, youth sports also provide significant opportunity for youth athletes to begin to exercise authority in appropriate ways. Coaches cannot personally enact the strategies and plays they call. Only the youth athletes can do this. And so they learn to take responsibility and authority on the field, court, mat, and beyond. And, they learn to share this authority with others, learning to take direction from fellow athletes when needed. Youth sports help young people to learn how to respect, engage, and share in authority.

I’ll pick up next time with Mental and Spiritual Lessons associated with youth sports.

What are your top lessons from youth sports? Please take a moment to share your thoughts below.

10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports

/ Justin Irving / 3 Comments

IMG_4560 - Copy

We just finished another season of youth sports in our household. Over the years our kids have participated in a variety of team sports including soccer, football, wrestling, softball, baseball, and basketball.

As a larger family with five children, we need to be intentional both with how we invest our time as a family and with the activities in which our kids participate. This includes the need to be intentional about involvement in sporting activities.

As a family thinking through the stewardship of our family time, it is helpful to think about youth sports not only from the angle of what is fun, but also from the angle of what is meaningful. In light of this…

  • In what way are youth sports meaningful?
  • How do they contribute to the development of children and youth?
  • What life lessons may be learned from participation in youth sports?

On the heels of another season, a few members of the Irving household sat down to think through the value of youth sports. Out of this conversation came our list of “10 Life Lessons from Youth Sports” that fall into five main categories: Physical Lessons, Emotional Lessons, Relational Lessons, Mental Lessons, and Spiritual Lessons.

Physical Lessons

Lesson 1: Physical Health Is Important

To begin, youth sports remind us as a family, and remind our children in particular, that physical health is important. As parents we really do not care about what specific sports our children engage. We just want to them to engage a sport, or an activity, because through this engagement they are able to stay active and physically fit. When their days of youth sports end, we hope that they take the value of physical activity with them into adulthood. Care for our physical bodies is not the only part of life, but it is an important part. Youth sports help children value the importance of physical health.

Lesson 2: Athletes Are Born and Made

Youth sports also make it clear that although each individual is equally valuable as a person, not everyone is equally gifted with particular skills. To say it another way, athletes are both born and made.

People are born with gifts that differ from others. Those engaged in youth sports quickly see that not every person on a mat, field, or court has equal abilities. Youth sports provide an opportunity to face such realities, and these are realities that are true in other areas of life as well.

Although everyone is born with different levels of specific gifts and talents, everyone has the opportunity to make the most of what they have been given. Discipline and hard work go a long way in the realm of sports and in the realm of life.

Regardless of the level of talent that one has at the start, everyone can take the talent they’ve received and make it grow through discipline, hard work, and practice. Youth sports teach such lessons. Youth sports help young people to recognize that athletes, and mature humans in general, are both born and made.

Work with what you have been given and then take this talent to the next level.

Emotional Lessons

Lesson 3: How to Lose, and Win, Well

As with recognizing different levels of gifting, youth sports also provide a chance to recognize that not all outcomes are the same. Some teams win and some teams lose. Such realities raise emotional lessons for life as well and provide powerful opportunities for maturing. While defeat is difficult, youth sports generally provide a safe environment where children can learn how to both lose, and win, well.

Another way to talk about this is how to win and lose graciously. As individuals and teams battle it out on the mat, field, court, and beyond, they encounter the need to face deep emotions such as fear, disappointment, sadness, joy, excitement, and more.

Through defeat and victory in youth sports, children are able to face diverse emotional experiences in a structured environment. Although the world of youth sports may not always feel gentle, the adult world will likely be less forgiving. Learning to engage both loss, and victory, is ultimately a gift and a key life lesson that youth sports provides.

Lesson 4: How to Press through Perceived Barriers

Along with the flood of emotions noted above is the reality of facing both real and perceived barriers. Whether it is in a challenging practice or in the heart of a sporting event, youth sports provide numerous opportunities to bump up against barriers. In these moments, when it feels like quitting or giving up is the easiest solution, children are challenged to dig deep emotionally and find a bit more to offer to both themselves and their teammates.

The feeling of wanting to give up, and the feeling of being so tired that you can’t go on, is not limited to the world of sports. It relates to life in general. It relates to the world of study and academics. It relates to the world of family and relationships. It relates to the world of work.

Youth sports provide a place for children and youth to recognize that the feeling that there is nothing left to do or nothing left to give is not always the reality. The emotion is real, but the emotion is not always accurately expressing reality. Sometimes there is more that can be done. Sometimes the barriers that are felt are perceived rather than actual. Youth sports teach how to press through such perceived barriers.

I’ll stop at Lesson 4 today and pick up next time with Lessons 5 – 10 in the relational, mental, and spiritual domains.

In the meantime, how have youth sports contributed life lessons to you or the youth you know well?

Are You Able to Lead with Clarity and Calmness?

/ Justin Irving / 2 Comments
Communication, by Paul Shanks, Flickr

Communication, by Paul Shanks, Flickr

One of the “tweetable” leadership thoughts I like to share often is the following:

Followers need clarity and calmness in challenging times.
Provide authenticity and a non-anxious presence for those you lead.

There is actually a lot of thought, and research, that goes behind this call for clarity, calmness, and a non-anxious presence. Some of this research may be found in an article a colleague and I have published in the academic journal Management Research Review. If you don’t have access to this journal, you may find another discussion of the research directly here through the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences.

In the face of challenging times, followers need clarity, calmness, authenticity, and a non-anxious presence from their leaders.

What do I mean by this? I’ll use some quick points of contrast to explain.

This Type of Leadership IS NOT About:

  • Leaders “having it all together,”
  • Leaders pretending to have all the answers, or
  • Leaders being overly controlling.

This Type of Leadership IS About:

  • Leaders being calm… engaging with a non-anxious presence,
  • Leaders providing followers with clarity … being clear and authentic with what can be shared, and
  • Leaders guiding with conviction … leading with moral resolve and fortitude.

“Self-Differentiation”

In the study noted above, we found that leader resiliency was associated with a social science construct called self-differentiation. Self-differentiated leaders are able to maintain a non-anxious presence in the face of what often raises anxiety for others.

The reality is those who lead in the manner described in this post face challenges just like any other leader. The difference is in how they respond.

Responding with Clarity and Calmness

Rather than letting circumstances dictate their demeanor, self-differentiated leaders find a way to recognize the challenging realities and then approach these realities in a calm and non-anxious manner.

I don’t know about you, but I love to work for and follow leaders like this. I also desire to provide such leadership for others as I’m able.

So what about you? Are you able and willing to lead with clarity and calmness? Remember:

Followers need clarity and calmness in challenging times.
Provide authenticity and a non-anxious presence for those you lead!

Observations from an Overwhelming Week

/ Justin Irving / 4 Comments
Stress, by Environmental Illness Net..., Flickr

Stress, by Environmental Illness Net…, Flickr

Life can feel quite overwhelming at times. This past week felt like this for me. Perhaps you can identify.

In light of my week, I’m going to take a bit more of an autobiographical approach to this post.

My week was not overwhelming due to a massive crisis hitting my life, though there are plenty of crises hitting our world these days. In fact, most of the various items hitting the schedule were extremely enjoyable taken individually. The overwhelming feeling simply came as the normal flow of life built up and a few added curveballs were thrown into the mix.

I’m sure you have your own list of ordinary and normal flow of life items, but here are a few of mine from both the professional and personal levels:

Professional

  • Preparing class lectures
  • Meetings with students
  • Teaching classes
  • Grading papers
  • Recording lectures for online students
  • Participating in administrative meetings and attending to administrative needs for our school

Personal

  • Spending time as a family
  • Enjoying a date with my wife
  • Attending a friend’s wedding
  • Engaging with our community group at church
  • Teaching a Sunday school class
  • Spending time in the minivan with my daughter who is learning to drive
  • Watching my daughter’s high school soccer game
  • Helping coach my son’s football team with multiple games and practices
  • Helping with the normal flow of house work

Navigating the Curveballs

I’m a bit tired just typing out this list of normal flow of life activities! I know you have your own list as well.

For me, this list shifted from normal flow to overwhelming when spending time working on two vehicles needing maintenance — one vehicle that was outsourced to a professional and one vehicle with work I did myself. Oh, and I lost my wallet as well!

You get the idea. We all have our normal flow of life activities, and then the occasional week comes along that throws us a curveball. My curveballs this week were vehicle repairs and a lost wallet. Your curveball likely was something else.

Working Hard from Passion rather than Stress

In the midst of this slightly crazy, and wonderful, week, I landed on a delightful quote from Simon Sinek:

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress;
working hard for something we love is called passion.”
– Simon Sinek

With the exception of the vehicle maintenance and calling credit card companies to report lost cards, as I look back on this past week, a vast majority of everything with which I engaged thankfully fell into the passion category. Although I hope to avoid such a busy week as I move into another, I’m grateful that even when the work feels hard, it still feels meaningful.

May you find work in the week ahead that draws out passion rather than stress for you!

I’ll be aiming for this sweet spot as well.

Wide-Angle Leadership

/ Justin Irving / 2 Comments
Lense, by Richard Heaven, Flickr

Lense, by Richard Heaven, Flickr

What makes leaders distinct from other organizational members or employees?

This question may be answered several ways, but one key answer centers on ownership and perspective. First, leaders bring ownership to their work—they own challenges and problems rather than pass them off to others. Second, leaders bring perspective to their work—they focus on the big picture and see how the various parts work together.

Leadership Lenses

When thinking of lenses for leadership, I imagine the diverse lenses available to a professional photographer as a helpful leadership metaphor.

For instance, there are macro lenses that allow for a magnified perspective of the micro level as a photographer captures images extremely close to the subject. Through macro lenses, we can gain great perspective on small and particular objects at a granular level.

There are also wide-angle lenses that allow photographers to capture a broader perspective on the subject. Through macro lenses, we gain great perspective on broad and sweeping views of the whole of a scene.

I would argue that leaders need to draw on both of these metaphors in their leadership practice. They need to be able to zoom in on the details of an issue, but they must bring to this detailed analysis the broad perspective that comes from seeing the big picture. While organizational members or employees have their specific area of work, leaders not only look at the specifics, but also the specifics within the context of the whole.

Wide-Angle Lenses and Organizational Perspective

If you desire to move into leadership within your organization, one of the first steps is to begin thinking like a leader from your particular vantage point. This means that you need to begin using not only the macro lens of seeing details, but also the wide-angle lens of looking at the big picture.

Wide-angle leadership is about looking at the organization as a whole. In a traditional business setting, this means thinking through how various departments and units need to work together to bring success to a particular venture. From product development, to marketing, to sales, to customer service, and beyond, wide-angle leaders are not content to just pay attention to particular job responsibilities, but rather to think like owners and look at the whole of the venture in broad perspective.

“That’s Not My Job”

How many times have you either heard, or perhaps said, the phrase “That’s not my job.”

As opposed to those who think like leaders, organizational employees who are not thinking like leaders are often solely focused on what is in their job description alone. If a question, need, or demand arises that is outside of that job description, the response may simply be: “That’s not my job,” or “That’s not my problem.”

If one does not aspire to leadership responsibilities, “That’s not my job” may work as a response. But for those that want to progress into leadership responsibilities, such a response no longer cuts it.

Aspiring leaders must begin to think like leaders. Aspiring leaders push aside the “that’s not my job” logic and begin to take ownership of the problems as a whole and the solutions as a whole. They begin to think and act like owners.

Ownership over Excuses

Leadership comes down to taking ownership rather than making excuses. Leadership comes down to moving beyond just the narrow concerns of one’s job, and seeing how these narrow concerns connect to the big picture of the whole enterprise. Leadership is about ownership over excuses.

Wide-Angle Leadership

Not only is leadership about ownership, leadership is also about gaining perspective on the broader situation. Marketing leaders cannot simply be concerned with marking problems. Product development leaders cannot simply be concerned with product development concerns. Sales leaders cannot simply be concerned with sales problems. In contrast to just looking at problems at the micro level, leaders need to gain wide-angle perspective to inform area-specific problems.

In other words, wide-angle leadership is holistic leadership—seeing the unique demands of a particular business area in light of how the whole of the organization works. In contrast to a “just doing your job” mentality, leaders recognize that part of their job is about seeing the big picture, and this comes by engaging in wide-angle leadership as particular problems are addressed.

Next Steps—Starting to Think and Act Like a Leader

Leaders bring ownership to their work—they own challenges and problems rather than pass them off to others. What opportunities do you have to take ownership and responsibility in your work? Are you intuitively responding with a “That’s not my job” approach, or are you learning to take ownership for solutions?

Leaders bring perspective to their work—they focus on the big picture and see how the various parts work together. What opportunities do you have for taking a wide-angle approach to your work? Are you learning to see the big picture rather than just focusing on your specific area of work responsibilities? While you need to deliver on your particular job responsibilities, this will be best accomplished when done from a place of wide-angle leadership perspective.

BUSY = The Enemy of Strategic Leadership

/ Justin Irving / 7 Comments

Strategy, Stefan Erschwendner, Flickr

Strategy, Stefan Erschwendner, Flickr

Leaders vs. Managers

The work of managers and leaders is different (See my previous post on key distinctions of leadership and management here). In larger organizations, some roles have the luxury of focusing on one or the other. Increasingly, organizations are looking to individuals to fulfill both roles within the same position.

Individuals are being ask to consider both giving direction (a leadership function) to their team and organizational unit and also guiding processes with efficiency of execution (a managerial function). Drawing on John Kotter and others, here are some key difference between leadership and management.

Leadership is about Doing the Right Thing by:

  • Direction Setting
  • Aligning
  • Motivating

Management is about Doing Things Right by:

  • Planning and Budgeting
  • Organizing and Staffing
  • Controlling and Problem-Solving

Vision, Strategy, & Goals

Both “Doing the Right Thing” (leadership effectiveness) and “Doing Things Right” (managerial efficiency) are vital in organizations. While both of these activities require time and attention, and busyness can be the enemy of both healthy leadership and management, perpetual busyness is especially the enemy of the leadership function of direction setting.

Time is required for setting direction as a strategic leader. It requires time to think. It requires time to reflect.

Healthy organizational vision, organizational strategy, and organizational goals come best to those who pull back from busyness for intentional time to think and reflect.

Identifying the Right Strategy

The issue is not whether or not your organization has a strategy. The issue is whether or not you have the right strategy. Leaders must continually be asking whether or not they are focused on the right things for their organization.

While strategic questions may be asked in seasons of busyness, thoughtful answers to these questions often only come when enough mental bandwidth is freed up in the life of leaders. Strategic insights come most often when there is intentional space to think and reflect.

Hard Work vs. Busy Work

Certainly hard work is core to successful organizations. Organizations thrive when talented members pull together with conscientious, attentive, and coordinated work.

But hard work and busy work are not the same thing. Busy work is not necessarily the hard work that your organization needs. As I share in another post, make sure that you Don’t Confuse Motion with Progress (see related post here). It is possible to be busy and not be effective.

The Work of Leaders = Time for Thought and Reflection

So what is the Hard Work to which leaders must devote their time?

One answer to this is to engage in the work of thought and reflection. This seems simple, but actually there are many factors that often work against this strategic priority for leader time management. Demanding schedules, organizational fires that need to be addressed, requests for time and attention, and just general busyness can work against this “simple” leadership agenda. In response to such demands, it is all too easy for leaders choose busy work over hard work.

Over time, in the face of such realities organizations often create a work climate that validates busy. This validation is rooted in the belief that busy = hard work, and that hard work = organizational performance. While it sometimes works this way, often we are making assumptions that are not accurate.

Sometimes working smarter rather than just working harder requires a different pace—a pace that provides space for the leadership work of thought and reflection. So how are you making time for this vital work of strategic leadership?

Making Time for the Work of Strategic Leadership

Leaders must make time for the work of strategic leadership. This is especially important because the cultures of our organizations are often working against finding this time. It doesn’t just happen—leaders must make time for this vital work.

Some of the most effective public leaders have made time for this work. Warren Buffett is known for insisting on time to just sit and think almost every day. Bill Gates was known for taking a full week off twice a year in order to think and reflect about the strategic needs of Microsoft.

7 Questions for Leaders Engaging the Work of Strategic Leadership

  1. Are we staying focused on what matters most?
  2. What is changing around us that requires a strategic course correction?
  3. What are we doing that needs to be ended or scaled back?
  4. What are we doing that needs to be continued or scaled up?
  5. What are we doing that needs to be improved or strengthened?
  6. What is missing? What are we not doing that needs to be introduced?
  7. What’s next? What is our next top priority for strategic focus?

Taking Time for the Work of Strategic Leadership

The work of strategic leadership is vital for organizational health and effectiveness. Are you too busy for strategic leadership, or are you making time and setting busyness aside for this essential leadership work?

Find some time in the next month to step back from the busy pace of leadership so that you may engage these 7 questions in the work of strategic leadership.

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For additional reading on strategy and leadership see Strategic Foresight: The Past, Present, and Future Focus of Leadership