All leadership begins with the maximum Know Thyself. Having felt like he was losing knowledge and confidence in himself over the past few years, Lance struck out on an adventure that would test who he is, what he believes and what values he cherishes. Here is who he found as he prepares to re-enter life.
Given nothing to do, his mind wanders toward the wistful. Peace is to be found in the wind in the trees, rain on a roof or the silence of a sunset. Hours alone in a car helped him rediscover the glory of silence and now he much prefers it to the television, radio or blaring CD's so ubiquitous to modern life. Silence has become the rare exception, the fleeting window into the soul, and must be sought out since it doesn't come easily anymore. The quiet reflection needed to understand one's self can only be heard when the ambient noise of life is muted. A quiet space and time is more important now than it was before when he feared it. Silence is in Lance's power to find and productively use.
Emerging from a life of heavy responsibility for taking care of others, Lance is less encumbered now than he has been in 30 years. He is more capable of feeling compassion, rather than pity, and takes more time to connect than to deflect people. Lance's Life at 3.0 can be more about love and less about duty. Time has real boundaries to Lance and since the final plight of man is undeniably universal, the reality of our differences is mundane. That missionary zeal in Lance's youth, to make us all of one image, is gone. And the new freedom it affords Lance is both intoxicating and empowering. Now is the time to act on it. Start with who we are, not who we are not.
Lance knows research shows the most desirable reward for employees is to be challenged to achieve, to be recognized for success, to be given real responsibility and trust, to be provided the opportunity for advancement and to have the chance to grow into a more empowered person. Meaningful work and a trusting workplace provide all of that. It is Lance's job to continually ensure these conditions apply to his workplace while still accomplishing the mission at hand. Leadership isn't about being loved, being right or being someone else. Lance is coming back to work with a new respect for rewarding character (who you are) and competence (what you can do well). Only that combination builds trust, the real key to a good workplace and sustainable organization. And it starts at the top or sadly ends there.
When the little voice inside his head speaks, Lance will listen very carefully. It rarely steers him wrong. (However, sometimes it is silent and Lance is on his own.)
The journey Lance was on was never about sites to see, but insights to discover. That journey can continue every day, just as long as Lance remembers he can choose how he spends time. And as long as he listens more than he talks. His silence must be eloquent.
Lance doesn't need more achievements. Now he needs to help others achieve theirs. In his Faculty Phase of Life, he must enable and empower others. Lance has always preached that "leading from the back of the room" is the hardest but most rewarding kind of leadership. Upon his return, every day is a new chance to practice this at work and at home. It's time to help others plant trees under which Lance will never sit. That humility is where it all begins.
Speaking of home, Fatherhood is much more gratifying now that the kids have to deal with the real world. Not easier. Not more important. Just more fulfilling and better suited to Lance's skill set. He can almost sit still and know they will be coming soon because Life is impacting them in new ways every day. For once, Lance has seen the answers in the back of the book before they have. Enabling and empowering them has nothing but upside. Bring It!
Lance's recent shift in life perspective coincides with a dawning, in a different but no less compelling way, in his wife. Now that she is established in her dream career and the children are leaving the nest, stirrings of the mind not heard since the pre-baby era are rustling in the trees tops of Sunday morning musings. Still distant from the "over 60 issues" Lance is exploring, she nonetheless is imagining possibilities of reshaping the homestead for two that present themselves without the bondage and blinders of young parenthood. Patience will out.
Lance acknowledges his unrepentant tendency to be an intuitive transformational leader which requires being surrounded by judgmental transactional leaders. Neither type can succeed without the other. He knows his place and appreciates theirs much more, having been without them this summer. He knows upon his return he must get outside more to acquire new resources, engage the private sector with vigor, reassure the ever changing public sector with confidence, and support his Board and employees at every turn in their work. His success must always be their success. The next future of Strathmore is now brewing and past glories are fast losing their currency. Future tense, new dreams and the next vision are the language of Now.
Of course, all is not new. Lance The Present still values many things from his Past. He still believes:
The best life lessons are always right there in front of us, if we only look within.
The Creativity Solution lives just outside all of our regular assumptions.
Most people want to dream big, not small and they will pay attention to ideas with energy. People will give only after they engage, so create opportunities for engagement of the many.
Never wait for the right people, the right ideas, or the time. They may never come.
If it was easy, it would have already happened. If it hasn't happened, know the reason why.
Managers follow recipes. Leaders draw maps.
We can only do what we envision, so think and speak in pictures. Then others can follow.
Everyone just wants to be loved by someone, even if they can't say it out loud.
Everyone needs to love somebody or life has no meaning.
Sometimes we love what we can't have. That is life, too.
The arts are like a sprinkler, wherever they flow, everything is somehow greener.
Much to his surprise and relief, Lance The Present is getting excited about returning to work.
Who knew...
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