Summer of '08 Leadership Learns

It’s been a few weeks now since I wrote this leadership blog. Traveled many thousand miles, been in several countries, and enjoyed family time making sure that my Scottish accent remains loud and clear!!!

From a beach in Majorca, to the glens of the homeland, to the post-segregated Northern Ireland ……this summer gave me new experiences, experiences that offered leadership insights and developments. Yea we read many books ..but some of our most vivid summer leadership learning’s came from our locations.

Think about this.
Scottish people can cope with the 260 days of rain they get – if for two weeks they can fly away and soak up some glorious sunshine on some Spanish island.
260 hard days made bearable with 14 days of sun!
Leadership Learn - Sounds sociologically a version of Kotter’s short term win leadership strategy. Celebrate a win to help people stick with the mountain climb of change.
When last did you give your people some sunshine amidst the wind and storms.

Think about this.
We visited Northern Ireland to preach in Belfast, but on the Saturday we took a taxi ride up the Falls Road …and the taxi driver was an ex-IRA guy!
You maybe don’t know all about the issues in northern Ireland. But you’ve heard of the IRA and know that they were responsible for the innocent killings of many over years of the bloody conflict. They were a paramilitary organization wanting Northern Ireland to cease being part of the Union and join with the South – they used weapons to advance their cause. Now there’s more to it that that – but that’s the gist of it.
So we ‘re being driven up the Falls Road – a staunch IRA street …covered with photo’s of IRA hunger strikers and other paramilitary heroes and we’re listening in to the story of the troubles and the present through the opinion of an ex-IRA guy. This was a city where if you worn blue in a green area, or green in a blue area you’d be shot at! WOW!!
Leadership Learn - peace and progress can look very different that you imagined! Have you caricatured what peace and progress looks like and in so doing you’ve closed your mind to how that actually might look in the present. Who do you now consult with, listen to, befriend that you never imagined you would …or perhaps you haven’t …..take the risk. We were being driven around the Falls Road area by a taxi driver wearing green and we didn’t have a stitch of green on!!!!
Secondly – the story is very different when you hear it from the other side. Truth might be stranger than you think. The story we heard was from his perspective was the real story. It was how he viewed reality. The job of effective leadership is to help people view reality differently.
Leadership is managing differing realities while moving everyone towards a new reality.

Think about this:
We complain about $5 price of gas …..but it cost me $14 a gallon in the UK!!! So everything there is about fuel efficiency. Weird seeing GM or Ford try to sell a car here promoting it as getting a good, ‘here’s why you should buy this car’ 32mpg ……..the equivalent car in the UK or Europe would get around 45/48mpg!! Some argue its because of our US emissions requirements; some argue its because of the weight we require our vehicles to have for safety ….but the bottom line …we could if we really wanted to manufacture cars that have exceedingly greater fuel efficiency.
The point, the Leadership Learn – what could we do if we really wanted to.
There’s an old African proverb “Want something long enough and you don’t want it.”What is it you are saying you want but you don’t yet have …and question if you truly want it!

As for more summer 08 leadership learning’s?
Two more short ones -
A quote from Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission – “Jesus did not ask the disciples for what was needed, he just asked for what they had!” very helpful - made me and our team quit complaining about what we didn't have!
Secondly , Ax-i-om @ Bill Hybels …read it.

Got the time? Hit the blog response and let us in on any leadership learning’s you had this summer.