Regardless of age or stage of life, something inevitably comes next. Sometimes you’re well prepared. Other times the unanticipated happens and it’s so good, or so bad, that there is no way you could have been ready. Some leaders will rally, while others are derailed.
The fact is, some leaders have better and more satisfying lives than others. Some leaders have greater opportunities than others. Being prepared enhances your chances for success.
Consider these principles and actions:
Routine is good, rut is bad
Motorola pioneered Six Sigma in the US to reduce variation in manufactured product quality and as a result claimed savings of $17 billion between 1986 and 2005. Likewise, Toyota pioneered Lean Manufacturing which saw quality and safety as inherent in all processes and sought to eliminate waste at all points. GE, under Welch’s leadership, brought Six Sigma and Lean together. The results of these efforts were a significant component of GE’s success during his tenure. A good and stable routine, as in the case of Lean and Six Sigma efforts, becomes a rut as soon as status-quo is resistant to constant improvement. Flexibility and agility are essential to move beyond the resistance.
We all also have our own personal processes. These routines make life easier yet also may be ruts. Small personal changes can build resilience and perspective for bigger transformations. Business travel is a simple example. It is easier when consistent with the same hotel chain close to the airport, the same room service dinner, same airline, and same rental car, and you get bonus frequent traveler points. Yes, I know you’re tired at the end of the day — you want easy, you have work to do, and there is corporate travel policy.
But change it up, try something different. Stay in a boutique hotel downtown. Search out a unique dining experience. Eat at the bar. Take a walk around town. Talk with people. Do something that scares you. Read something that challenges what you believe. Defining and leading transformation requires a leader to build personal flexibility and resilience before expecting it from the team. Start with yourself.
Try a different approach, just to break the routine. The only way to know what may emerge from creating a different experience is to create a different experience. I stay at a bed and breakfast sometimes in Colorado. Several interesting mornings last year my breakfast companions were a young couple relocating because the wife, a Ph.D in climate science, has accepted a department chairmanship at the local University. The young man was a fellow consultant and like his wife had a graduate science degree. He was currently working on a project for the government of Vietnam to help them decide on the right placement of a new north/south highway to ensure that the road would not be negatively impacted by rising sea levels in the future. The discussion was one of those make-my-day interactions. A much more enjoyable breakfast experience than reading the WSJ with a cup of coffee at the Marriot buffet.
Be bigger than your professional discipline
Congratulations! The credentials look great and are a valuable validation that separates you from the masses. Your life and business experience are solid as well. The related learning and connections are a perfect foundation for what’s next. Some of it transfers and is highly pertinent to what is new and some of it needs to be left behind.
Big picture perspective makes for a bigger ‘what’s next’. Watch out for the organizational gravity that is accentuated by the demands and expectations of being a leader in the business. That gravity tends to pull toward the confines of the business and the dominant thinking within its walls, which is not what a transformational leader is hired to do. Guard against it by staying professionally connected outside the business. Keep track of what is changing outside that provides opportunity or causes risk inside. Bring external perspective to your team. Get good at seeing connections. Lead “What if?” and “Why?” discussions.
Play your own game – and play it consistently above the line
Those who enjoy great lives make a series of better decisions than those who don’t. A leaders reputation is built by a combination of accomplishments and the leadership actions demonstrated in the process. The leaders I most admire are those who while achieving big things demonstrate personal character and make decisions guided by strong personal principles. It all becomes part of the personal brand.
Replace “Work-life balance” with “It’s my life”
This is an issue of personal accountability and self-awareness. We each own our life and the hours of the day. There are multiple arenas of life that are essential to a life well lived. These arenas never equally balance and simply will not for any high achiever in any snapshot of time.
If, in the big picture, being a high achiever in one area of life makes you persistently an unacceptably low achiever in other essentials of your desired life then it is time for adjustment. Making the multiple elements of a good life work together is no small task. The magic is in making the essential elements of the desired life work in as integrated and mutually supportive a way as possible.
Dedication to business and career success takes a big chunk of time, mental energy and commitment. Self-awareness is fundamental. Click here and we will send you a graphic from our Personal Integrity workshop with instructions for an exercise that will challenge you to take an introspective look and take control.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
