Sunday, March 25, 2012

Habits as Servants or Masters

The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.”

Successful leaders know the power of habit. They have learned to move beyond self-discipline by creating habits that align with their goals and dreams. A positive habit will serve that leader well for years to come while a negative habit can become an oppressive master of that same person’s life.

Bad habits develop rather easily like overeating, smoking, or watching too much TV. While repetition of the activity contributes to forming a habit, it is the positive feelings we garner while doing it that makes a habit so addictive. Smokers tout how it relaxes them so it’s easy to see why breaking that habit becomes such a struggle. Or just try to convince yourself that cutting back on fatty foods is important while you’re enjoying the taste of a basket of french fries.

If you have ever attempted to develop a good habit, like regular exercise, you know that it can be a challenge even for someone with lots of discipline. I have been successful at establishing a daily “walking as exercise” habit because I adopted several key ideas.
  • First, I focused on the end result I was looking for. By imagining how good I would feel about myself six months down the road I had some incentive to keep at it.
  • I also thought about the consequences of not following through. Would I want to be out of shape and unable to complete basic household chores as I aged?
  • Finally, I imagined how difficult it would be to follow through on my new exercise routine. Cold and rainy weather would be the perfect excuse to turn off the alarm and stay in bed. It would be dark for many of my early morning walks making it harder to enjoy the experience. Each of these challenges became a reason to keep going and by overcoming them I created a new habit.
Along the way, leaders will need accountability partners who are aware of the habit they wish to develop. I told family and friends about my plans and encouraged them to ask how I was doing and remind me to stay on-track. I have played a similar coaching role with clients who wish to develop their own new habits.

Albert E.N. Gray, a nationally known writer and speaker on insurance subjects, discovered one other significant key to developing habits that will impact your future as a leader. His studies showed that successful individuals “form the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do.” Perhaps that is what Aristotle had in mind when he penned the words I use to open this blog post. When leaders act in the right ways, and do the difficult things that others won’t, they achieve the excellence they seek. They make habits their servants instead of their masters. We would do well to emulate them.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Until Tomorrow

Ask any leader to identify a pressing problem and many of them will quickly recite a long list, some real and some likely imagined. The biggest problem facing our nation is federal budget deficits and the staggering amount of debt we have accumulated, now measured in abstract terms as trillions of dollars. Politicians, business leaders, educators, and average citizens all seem to know that deficit spending is unsustainable and a threat to our nation’s economic competitiveness. Yet, the spending spree continues unabated.

As with any big problem there are many contributing factors that must be addressed if we expect to change course. Folks smarter than myself would suggest they include raising revenues, addressing entitlement programs, and slowing the pace of health care costs. Instead of hammering out sensible solutions to these very real problems, political and business leaders alike have been more than willing to defer until tomorrow.
Change of any kind is almost always accompanied by sacrifice and pain. If you have ever personally struggled to confront an addiction or commit to healthier eating and more exercise you know how challenging it can be. As a business leader you probably understand the difficulties presented when a new process is introduced or employees are asked to forgo a planned wage or benefit increase. Suddenly what sounds good in theory becomes an unpleasant reality.

When a decision includes making someone unhappy or uncomfortable the easy choice is to do nothing. Unfortunately what passes as indecision really isn’t. If you agree to disagree you have made a choice. When politicians and business leaders decide not to decide they have actually made a decision. Waiting until tomorrow is like a farmer hoping the cows will milk themselves. Perhaps that analogy no longer works in an age when computerized robots can do these mundane chores without human intervention. But I hope you still get the point.

Leaders cannot continue to act as though their decision not to decide has no implications for the future of their organizations or our country. Without some painful actions and shared sacrifices (not just from those labeled as wealthy) we can expect our standard of living to decline, our economic engine to sputter or stall, and our future generations to grow up in a vastly different world than the one we have taken for granted. Waiting until tomorrow is not a decision any of us should be wishing for. By doing nothing we will get just that...nothing.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Spring Cleaning

It was a ritual of my childhood. Sometime during the months of March or April (depending on how cooperative the weather was) my mother would enlist me and my siblings to assist with her annual spring housecleaning. The chore list was exhaustive including washing windows, laundering curtains, cleaning every room in the house, and doing outside landscaping chores. I must admit to disliking many of the tasks but mom had a way of making work fun.

The end of any winter season, however cold and dreary, is always a welcome respite for one’s soul. Leaders may find new energy as warmer winds and sunny skies usher in the promise of new beginnings. Seasonal activities often pick up and consumers typically hit the stores just to get out of their homes. It’s a time when new orders may be ready for production and the phone begins ringing with requests for new proposals.
In recent conversations with business leaders there is an air of cautious optimism that this incoming season will bring with it more opportunities than last year. I chose to write about spring cleaning because I’m aware that some leaders are ill-prepared for what may be emerging, good or bad. If you have been hunkered down this past winter trying to survive what has become a consistently inconsistent business malaise you just might need to do some sprucing up personally and as an organization. Chances are you have been ignoring best practices and cutting corners on training and other investments so you could weather the season. While those decisions seemed right a few months ago you may now be vulnerable as business cycles change.

A good spring housecleaning plan for your business might include remodeling the office or storefront, finding new ways to engage employees, reaching out to current and past customers, and spending time on leadership development or staff training. It’s likely some of your internal processes need tweaking or a major overhaul. Perhaps your entire team needs a refresher in the key elements of customer service. Might your own goals and personal development require some added attention and renewed passion?

Like my annual housecleaning rituals, some of these activities won’t be much fun. Employees may not fully embrace the fresh ideas and new approaches that will be required to succeed. As a leader you might not have the discipline or courage to acknowledge places where your performance is still stuck in the throes of winter’s doldrums. But that’s no excuse! It’s time to grab that broom, pick up that pail and sponge, and don those overalls. Spring is just around the corner. Will you be ready to make a new beginning?

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Home to History

This weekend my wife and I enjoyed an extended trip to Charlottesville, Virginia where we visited two of the historical sites located in the area, homes to our nation’s earliest leaders. Montpelier is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and was the lifelong home of James Madison, Father of the Constitution and fourth President of the United States. Monticello, the plantation home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, sits on a mountaintop overlooking the city. Both homes feature a state-of-the-art visitor center and engaging guided tours of the respective mansions. While the houses and grounds were certainly intriguing, I was most impressed by the leadership qualities of their respective occupants.

James Madison was intellectually brilliant, well-educated, and versed in multiple languages. His extensive research and thoughtful writings in preparation for debates about the Articles of Confederation led to the eventual adoption of our nation’s first constitution. He helped inspire American citizens to support and ratify the Constitution through the publication of many of his papers on the subject. As a leader in Congress he introduced the Bill of Rights, and ensured it would pass. As president, he guided the young nation through it’s first war, demonstrating that this new form of government could survive.

Thomas Jefferson believed that reason and knowledge could improve the human condition. He studied science, was an art enthusiast, shaped public architecture, and contributed to horticulture, paleontology, archeology, astronomy, and more. In his retirement years he founded and designed the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. His 33 years of public service included serving as a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly and Congress, as governor of Virginia, as minister to France, secretary of state, vice-president, and president for two terms.

The contributions these two men made to the history of our nation is undisputed. Their character and intellect helped shape the debates over how our country would be organized and governed. Yet the things I learned on my visit that were just as important to their leadership identities included the many times they failed in their efforts as plantation farmers, how long it took each of them to build and rebuild their homes, and how conflicted they both were about the enslaved families who helped them to run their homes and farm the land. Both men endured difficult family issues and neither ended up as successful businessmen.

As I stood in the rooms where these leaders studied, entertained, and managed their plantation businesses I couldn’t help but sense a new appreciation for their accomplishments. I wondered what advice they might offer to our current crop of national leaders who have lost touch with the original intent of Jefferson and Madison’s grand design for our nation. Perhaps each of them should spend some time at home with history as I did this weekend. Monticello and Montpelier would be good places to start.