Quote: self-awareness

More leaders could use a dose of self-awareness, like Reeko (the skunk) in Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild:

“I always thought they didn’t want me around because I was a skunk, well…you know it turns out they didn’t want me around because I was a jerk.”

Self-awareness is the first step in discovering your purpose. What were you created to do?

(Thanks to Michael at the Leading Blog.)

Wannateam?

Thanks to DUST!N for drawing my attention to this site, an online whiteboard where people can move letters around. After a mind-numbing few minutes of watching this insanity, it occurred to me that this a perfect example of art immitating life. The process reminds me of how we often behave in meetings and on project teams:

• In one of the rooms I visited, there were more than 100 people participating. Far too many people form a cohesive team.
• Nevertheless, there seem to be a few sub-groups that form to work on a pet project. None of these projects have any real relationship to each other — just pockets of self-interests.
• The sub-groups band together to vigilantly protect their turf and agenda, while outsiders in the room take pleasure in wrecking their progress. In fact, it appears that there are some people who come to the room just to see how much pain they can cause for the others.
• There seems to be a lot of people in the room, but relatively few people are doing anything productive. Most are just observing, wondering what the heck is going on.
• People pop in and out all the time. There is no commitment to the room (i.e. project).

If this sounds like I’m cyncical about human behavior, I’m not. Rather, it’s a commentary on how we form and lead teams. We tend to put way too many people in a room to solve a problem; the brilliance or creativeness of the solution is often inversely related to the number of people trying to solve the problem. I think an interesting social experient for wannaspell.com would be limit the number of participants in one of the rooms (to, say, ten or so people) and see how much more creative and productive the team becomes.

The Profane Leader?

Profanity in the workplace used to relegated to dimly-lit smoke-filled testosterone-raging boardrooms, but has become more mainstream in recent years. Call me old-fashioned, but this strikes me as an unfortunate trend. Those who habitually curse and swear are not gaining respect and influence as they might imagine, and may in fact be hurting their careers. The following quote from President Ulyssis S. Grant sheds some light on the folly of swearing:

“I never learned to swear. When a boy I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always notices, too, that swearing helps to rouse a man’s anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better og him. In fact, I could never see the use of swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear excessively that it is a mere habit, and they do not mean to be profane; but to say the least, it is a great waste of time.*”

The problems with swearing:

• People who curse are relying on the effect of the curse words to give power to their message rather than the idea itself. If the message is worth listening to, it does need to be laced with curse words to get the other person’s attention.
• Excessive swearing rouses anger and makes contructive debate more difficult. The “cool head” usually wins.
• Excessive swearing demonstrates that a person is either incapable of self-control or is insensitive to the feelings of others.

All of which begs a question: Can “excessive profanity” and “effective leadership” co-exist?

* Kaltman, Al, “Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant” (Prentice Hall Press, 2000), p 10.

Happy New Year’s Resolution

I have never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, perhaps because mine have always been driven by guilt. I tend to think of things I should stop doing, or more frequently, things that I feel guilty for not doing more of. Such as exercising more often, calling my friends and relatives more often, saving more for retirement, or praying more often.

Yes, I can heap mountains of guilt upon myself for these omissions of discipline in my life. But I’ve discovered that guilt is not a good motivator. This year, I decided to take a different approach to a resolution. Rather than letting guilt be my motivator, I decided to let opportunity be my motivator. In other words, what opportunities am I missing or overlooking? Not something I feel guilty about not doing, but something that – if I started doing it – would enhance my life.

Hence, my 2007 New Year’s resolution is to start blogging. I’ve called this blog Waypoint, which is simply a navigational marker along a journey. Metaphorically speaking, this blog represents the milestones and markers along my personal journey. My hope is to create some dialog, crystallize my own thoughts, and increase learning.

Now, if I could just overcome the guilt of sitting in front of the computer instead of exercising…