What a 2-Legged Dog Taught Me About Leadership Resilience

Several years ago I was in Argentina on a mission for my church.  On one particular day I walked down a dirt road in a small town called General Castex, located in the Las Pampas region of Argentina.  I spotted an animal at the end of this street, but could not figure out what it was.  It was walking on 2 legs, but did not appear to be a 2 legged animal.  As I got closer to the animal, I stopped and gazed in disbelief.  It was a dog, but no ordinary dog.  This dog had lost the use of both its hind legs in some kind of accident, but strangely enough, it was not immobile.  It actually had learned to walk on its front 2 legs.  When it walked, it would bring the back-end of its body high in the air and walk on its front legs.  It could go up and down steps and across the not so even terrain of a small Argentine street.

I snapped a picture (which I can’t seem to find) and knew that there were a hundred lessons to be learned from that animal.  But the primary one ……is resilience.  Resilience is the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched.

I have often felt bent, broken, compressed and stretched as a leader.  I am not aware of too many leaders who have not.  Particularly at the level of start-ups and small business, the stress and problems can be too much for some to bear.  I know of hundreds of small business owners that struggle in one form or another.  Their lives are tough, they sleep little, they work a lot, their families suffer, and sometimes they wonder if it is really worth it all.

I have been there many times, and while I would like to say that those things are behind me, I know that my trials are most likely preparing me for something more difficult.  Only time will tell.   

I can’t say I have all the answers, but I’d like to share a few thoughts I have on how to foster resilience in your own life.

  1. Cling to Your Spiritual Side – If you are religious, cling to that.  If your “religion” is to get out in nature, do it.  In tough times I think we need to feel the hope that there is something, someone, or some force out there that can assist us.  It helps us to feel peace and to gain perspective.  Sometimes in the whole scheme of things, our trials really are insignificant.  The peace and perspective that is gained from spiritual renewal can help us logically think through problems and bounce back bigger and better.
  2. Learn – Reading and learning about others who have struggled, and learning ways that I can improve myself have been one of the most rewarding effects in my life.  It has also helped me find out-of-the-box answers, and better perspectives for many of my problems.  Sometimes I am the problem and I need to learn how to better myself, sometimes it is an operational or communication issue.  If you notice a weakness that you or your organizations has, don’t wait, buy a book, take a class, and start gleaning knowledge from others that will prepare you for life’s “bends”.
  3. Ask For Help – Entrepreneurs and leaders tend to have a built in pride gene that is hard to turn off.  I think it is just as important to accept help, as it is to help others.  Asking and accepting help, requires humility.  There are so many professionals out there that are more than willing to share their insight and offer assistance in many ways.  Get out there and ask for help, the worst thing that someone can say is “No”. 
  4. Manage Yourself – Manage your time, manage your energy, and manage your communication.  It is easy to get into bad habits when one is going through a hard time.  This could be bad eating habits, bad sleeping habits, bad time management, focusing on things that are not important, and poor or short communication to those who are central to your success.  You probably need every resource you can muster.  Don’t waste it by falling into common stress traps, which will work against you in bouncing back.
  5. Focus But Keep Proper Perspective – Stay focused on the problem.  Few problems go away by ignoring them.  It may require a lot of work that you do not enjoy, but things will not get any easier if you can’t bounce back, so you have to focus on the problem and not deviate.  But while you are focusing, keep proper perspective on other important things in your life.  If you work really hard to bounce back or solve a big problem, but in that time you completely ignore your family, or ignored an important part of your business or an important customer, then all you have done is fixed one problem and caused another.  You are not any better off.  Communicate with others about your problems and explain what your plan is.  Focusing does not mean you have to ignore everything else.
  6. Persist – I can’t imagine how how many times that dog must have fallen before it was able to balance itself and walk on 2 legs.  If it had just given up after a few falls it would probably have been dead.  Keep getting up!  Sometimes answers come in the final hour of struggle.
  7. Know When To Call It Quits – This may seem to counter the post, but we are talking about leadership resilience.  Sometimes you need to know that the effort to fix a problem isn’t worth it.  Maybe it will require too much money or too much time, whatever it is, you need to know when let an initiative die and move onto bigger and better things.   Bouncing back may just mean moving on.

 

Warren Bennis, a great organizational consultant and author once said “The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure – something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom–as something they thought was almost a necessity.  It’s as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need.

I hope that iron can enter all our souls so that we can be more resilient in our lives and leadership capacities and ultimately achieve all the goals we have set for ourselves and our organizations.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, experience, or comments below.

Leadership In War and Business…It’s not all that Different.

This is an inspiring video produced by the U.S. Army. It contains LTG Hal Moore’s four principles of leadership. It is a must-watch for any leader.  The thoughts that he shares are meant for a leader in battle, but his principles are not just applicable to war and battle, but are very applicable to leadership in business and life.

How To Be A Horrible Leader – 50 Bad Leadership Traits

Bad Leadership

I have read so many books about how to be a great leader.  I thought it would be “fun” to make a list of the bad leadership traits to identify what a horrible leader looks like.  Of course this is done in the hope that one can avoid the ill effects on an organization from any of bad leadership behaviors.  We cannot all be perfect, but all it takes is a few of these in the right combination to kill moral and create a horribly run organization.

50 Bad Leadership Examples

  1. Belittling and condescending communication to staff.
  2. Little communication with your staff.
  3. Not empowering your staff to succeed.
  4. Asking them a hundred questions with every decision they make.
  5. Not admitting when you have made a mistake.
  6. Not giving raises to your staff or not compensating them appropriately.
  7. Not recognizing your staff for achievements they have made.
  8. Ignoring your staff.
  9. Not providing executive level sponsorship for your management.
  10. Not providing management with the authority to perform their jobs.
  11. Not providing the resources to your management staff in completing their objectives.
  12. Yelling at your staff.
  13. Forgetting common occasions. (Your staff gives you a Birthday/Christmas card or gift and you never do the same for them.)
  14. Using threats with your staff.
  15. Making your staff feel guilty if they do not do something extra.
  16. Using fear tactics to “motivate” your staff.
  17. Always having to throw in your 2 cents to every idea your staff offers.
  18. Playing favorites with your staff.
  19. Doing things that are self-serving.
  20. Incompetent in something critical to the organizations success and unable to improve or fill in that incompetence with other staff members.
  21. Lying to your staff—and then trying to cover it up.
  22. Making “examples” of a staff member in front of others.
  23. Disregarding the health and welfare of your staff.
  24. Not providing your staff the training to succeed.
  25. Not providing your staff opportunities to progress and grow.
  26. Being callous.
  27. Being unforgiving of staff mistakes.
  28. Holding past mistakes against your staff time after time.
  29. Not giving your staff adequate working environments.
  30. Analysis Paralysis – i.e. indecisiveness.
  31. Ignoring needed change.
  32. Being cheap.
  33. Not planning.
  34. Not setting a clear vision.
  35. Being a poor example of execution and accountability, but expecting others to execute.
  36. Butting into your staff’s responsibilities by doing things under their role without consulting with them.
  37. Not providing structure in your organization.
  38. Unwillingness to take risks.
  39. Poor management of oneself.
  40. Deceitful.
  41. Impulsiveness.
  42. Unable to take criticism.
  43. Unwilling to improve from criticism.
  44. Unethical business practices.
  45. Does not use conflict to correctly drive innovation.
  46. Believing your staff when they sing praises for you and then forming an ego.
  47. Misinterpreting signs.
  48. Disrespect for your staff.
  49. Unable to trust.
  50. Overly negative or overly positive.  (Overly positive meaning, ignoring bad signs and taking action, because you are so positive and hopeful that things will improve.)

I decided to limit myself to 50.  I am sure you have some more to add.  Please comment below and let me know your thoughts and add to the list.

Welcome to A Slice of Leadership, Let it begin…

LeadershipWell here I go! Those that know me know I am somewhat opinionated, so I decided that the best outlet to express those opinions would be here on my very own leadership blog.  I am passionate about leadership, efficiency and execution.  I am a voracious reader of any book on leadership, management, communications, team building, time-management, execution and just about anything else in the business realm.  

In this leadership blog, I plan on sharing my thoughts on well…leadership and management and all the many facets that those two concepts envelop.  Each post will be a small “slice” of an area that falls under the big “pie” of leadership.   I will also bring guests to the blog, such as authors and business leaders, that can bring more value to the information I share and can bring a perspective that others might enjoy and find helpful.

I do not know what will come of this leadership blog or if anyone out there will find it interesting, but I hope that it serves some purpose in helping others be successful in their careers. I know I have a lot to learn and that things are constantly changing, so all I have to say for now is, “Let the ride begin.”