Category Archives: Millennials

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Don’t Be Afraid to Wait

You’ve heard it said, “Good things come to those who wait.” Well, not always, sometimes more waiting just comes. But, don’t be afraid to wait!

Everyone hates a waiting room. Everyone hates waiting in line. We don’t mind lines if we are first, because waiting makes us feel unimportant, devalued and impatient.  But, purposeful waiting has value.

Waiting is a part of life, but it is not punishment. We most often view waiting as penalty. This is an error.  Pointless waiting feels like punishment. But, waiting is powerful when you wait with a purpose. If you need to see the doctor, but his waiting room is full, getting up and leaving is not going to get you the diagnosis or medicine that you need. The purpose of the visit was to see the doctor, the waiting was part of the process. If you need to get your car repaired, a good mechanic will take you, but you will have to wait. The baseball batter has to wait for the ball to arrive. The wise shopper has to wait for the sale to arrive. Sadly, we have grown so self-centered and self-absorbed that we rarely view waiting as a positive part of any process.

One reason that we don’t like to wait is that we see ourselves as the priority. We like to be waited on. Yes, admit it, most people if the truth be known like to be waited on. Now, we don’t want to seem that arrogant so we call it “pampering ourselves,” “taking a me day” or even recently I have seen “I don’t feel like adulting today.”  The reality is we really enjoy being waited on. Now, it can get uncomfortable if we actually think about the other people who are doing the waiting, so we don’t. We keep our minds on how much we are enjoying the experience and what benefit it is bringing us. We pay ridiculous amounts of money to get our hair done, not because it actually increases our value, but it increases our perceived value. We pay ridiculous amounts of money on shopping and getting new clothes, not because it actually changes anything about us, but because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We waste ridiculous amounts of time in and on activities that don’t actually make us any smarter, give us any more wisdom or create in us any more faith. When self is the priority, self is served. Self hates waiting (perhaps one very critical reason God makes his people wait).

Another reason we don’t like waiting is we don’t actually practice the habit or behavior of waiting. What we do practice is convenience, immediacy, and instant expectation. We do this because we want instant gratification. Delayed gratification has died. No one wants to wait for anything. For millennia, people had no choice but to wait. They were dependent upon the seasons, upon their families and their neighbors. They didn’t depend on the government, the news, the credit lender, their employer or the internet. Because they had no choice but to wait, they had to accept that waiting is a part of life–their life. We don’t mind waiting to be a part of life–just not our life.  In order to be effective at any thing, you have to learn to become a good waiter. A good waiter is disciplined, committed and faithful. But, most importantly a good waiter is attentive. Attentiveness is where readiness meets preparation. The best waiters are attentive to every detail and then move with certainty and anticipation. When you are a bad waiter, you don’t anticipate you react because you were not ready.  A good waiter has learned the value and importance of the behavior of waiting with a purpose and acts accordingly with purpose and anticipation.

Another reason we don’t like to wait is we are afraid to wait. We are afraid to wait, because we are afraid to miss out. We are afraid to miss out because we don’t view God as sovereign and faithful. In fact, most often, we live like we want God to wait on us. Fear is a part of life. There is no escaping the fact of fear, but you can be free from the fiction of fear. The  fiction of fear is the feeling of uselessness, hopelessness and pointlessness which causes worry, anxiety and hurry.  Because, we allow these fears to fester, we often live in a self-induced sphere of the perpetual fear of missing out. Social media has done some good.  However, a negative by-product of social media is the constant bombardment of seeing what you think you are missing (advertisers know this). Social media is a clever construct of fantasy for most people. Who posts their bad days? If they do, too often you get annoyed and  you “unfollow’ them or ignore them. It doesn’t fit in our afraid-to-wait-no-bad-days narrative. Social media looking at filtered parts of peoples’ lives often creates unnecessary pressure on you. This self-created pressure leads to anxiety, doubt and premature activity (called rushing).

Another reason we don’t like waiting is because we have been conditioned to rush. When you rush, you are in a hurry. To hurry is to act quickly with little concern for discipline or focused activity. The focus is on the movement not the mission. There are many things in life you can’t hurry and expect success. Ask any baker, any builder, any artist, any musician or any chef if waiting is a part of their process. Speeding things up is detrimental in many cases, actually in most cases. You can’t rush growth. Good growth takes time. Rapid growth often creates a pattern of instability and imbalance. Efficiency is not rushing. Efficiency is where productivity meets responsibility. Rushing is where impatience meets activity.

Maturation is a process that takes time. The world is subject to God’s law of time. God’s law of time is that he set it, controls it and you & everyone else are subject to it. You cannot advance it or turn it back. You live in and with the time you are allotted. According to recent reports, the world is actually slowing down by a millisecond each year. So, although we are speeding up our connections, actions and activities, the world we walk on is actually slowing down. God controls time. You are responsible for the time you have been granted. Waiting is a sub-law of time. Learn to wait and your time becomes more valuable, more useful. If you can’t learn to wait, you will never be effective at resting or at worshiping or leading people.

Effective leaders, effective parents and effective followers will all learn to wait well. They see that waiting with a purpose is trusting God with the outcome, with the unseen and with your time. Waiting with a purpose drives fear away and renews your strength. There are some things that you are not designed, gifted or able to make happen. Therefore you have to wait. God will send the response. Your name will be called. God will send the help. But, you have to wait. Waiting means God is working, most often in you or through you.

“but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.“

Isaiah 40:31

(c) Alex Vann, 2017

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Mistakes Leaders Make Today with Tomorrow’s Talent

The talent shoreline has changed. Developing leaders standing where you used to stand doesn’t work anymore. Waiting for the tide to come back in isn’t going to happen, because the shore line moved out. You are standing, waiting and meanwhile the weeds are growing up around you while you sink in the mud. You are holding on to your old mindset and its only weighing you down further. Your competition has moved down to the new shoreline. You are frustrated. But, if you want to catch fish, you have to go where they are. They aren’t where you are anymore.

There are some common mistakes leaders make in development today, especially the next generation of leaders. Development is never accidental or casual. Development is an intentional and critical system. Development is not natural, decay is natural. So, assuming that people will develop because they are present, working hard and seem to be listening is a mistake. You must intentionally engage in the development process and activate a development system.

Every system doesn’t have to look the same. A leadership development system is reflective of the leader guiding it, thus leadership systems will look different. But, one commonality is that the system will actually produce and develop new leaders. Let me say this as well, not every person you are trying to develop into a leader will work out. But that’s not an excuse to keep having the same failures and making the same mistakes.

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Frequent Failures Leaders Make Today:

Failure to construct a system for new leaders to develop in. With what and who we are dealing with today, a leadership development structure is absolutely essential to facilitate the maturation of new leaders. Millennials and Centinnials need structure in all that they do–including steps to grow as a leader. Organizations and leaders who realize this and create a platform are attracting and winning the top talent. Leaders of organizations must invest time, resources and energy into a structure that engages and guides the next generation through development. If you leave the next generation working for you to “figure out for themselves” (because that’s what we did), the only thing they will figure out is how fast they are going to leave you.

Failure to have a leadership strategy. Yes, you actually need to have a leadership strategy. No war is won without a strategy. We are in this War for Talent. And guess what? The Millennials won. There are 82 millions Millennials and only 63 million Gen. Xers and 72 million Baby Boomers. There are more Millennials and they had the weight to fundamentally alter the way we think, the systems we use and where we will work. The work still has to get done, but we are now in the aftermath of the war. This is called reconstruction. You must have a strategy, because your competitors do. A leadership strategy is a plan that systematically recruits, retains, develops and releases leaders.

Failure to launch. The point of your leadership development system is to launch these new leaders out. Now, what is actually counter-intuitive is that when you talk about departure and launch, these next-gen leaders actually seem to stay in your organization longer. But, if you aren’t willing to launch new leaders away from your organization, you become an unattractive organization. Be willing to create a system that has a launch point for your leaders. In today’s talent pool, creating a system that celebrates the launch and promotes the launch and looks forward to launch is actually becomes highly attractive for the top talent.

Failure to recognize the cost. The cost of development requires more than ever before. Many leaders today are applying the same mindset around development and cost. Grooming people who will “one day” be ready to be a leader simply doesn’t happen at the rate it once did. Those days are gone. Developing leaders is like fishing. The fish still bite, but the gear, the equipment and getting to the fishing hole cost more, often significantly more. Just as egos have inflated, the cost to develop leaders has inflated as well. You can not like it, you can not accept it, but this will not help you recruit, retain, develop and launch new leaders. You are going to have to spend more. This is why a strategy is so important, otherwise you will fail to see the return you desire.

Failure to invest.  Investment means you are addressing risk. There is a risk in releasing your resources to the unknown. However, you must be willing to invest in new methods, new ideas and new processes in your leadership development strategy. You must not only have new hooks in the water, but new nets and new divers! The good news today is that a little goes a long way with millennials. You don’t have to invest extravagant sums, but you need greater frequency. Next gen leaders need more access to the top leadership. IMG_9688

Failure to create a leadership network. A network is part of the strategy, its not the strategy. A network by definition is a group of interconnected people. Your leaders are already way more connected than you realize. They connect with everyone. Many leaders today fail to engage these systems of connectivity. Create a leadership network of past leaders, present leaders and future leaders. Every leadership system today should look at the value of an alumni network. Viewing your leaders that left you as assets as opposed to simply absent, will engage the sense of value in your whole system. They already stay connected with those in your organization. Alumni can become some of your best advocates, promoters and recruiters.

Failure to see themselves as a follower. Every leader better have someone they are following. The death of leadership is arrival. Arrival is complacency. Complacency leads to apathy.  When a leader feels like they have arrived, they’ve reached the pinnacle of their ability, they begin to take more than they give. Too many modern leaders detach from themselves being a disciple. If you don’t have a plumb line, you will build where ever the pressure pushes you. You will accept less than the best because pressure creates desperation, panic and anxiety. Leaders must keep learning and keep applying. Great leaders who are also great followers are easy to follow. Leaders who are only following themselves or the wind are difficult to follow. When you are difficult to follow, look back and look around, chances are you’ve had a trail of people leaving you.

Failure to put in more than they take out. When a leader begins to reap the benefits of what they have sown, many times a subtle mindset shift happens. This subtle shift moves from “put in” to “take out.” This is a temptation and a trap that is easy to fall in and is devastating to the development of your people. These days what leaders are putting in requires more than ever before because of scale, volume, pace and complexity.

Failure to adapt. Because the shoreline has changed, you must adapt. Without adapting you will be overwhelmed and overcome. Many leaders today feel exactly that: overwhelmed and overcome. This creates extra tension and pressure in the whole organization. Adaption is the adjustment to environmental conditions. Your talent environment has changed. When you fail to adapt, you end up getting trapped. Being trapped means being stuck. When you are stuck, you don’t move and you get left behind. Leaders today must practice strategic adaption. Which means you don’t change who you are, you change what you do. This is the fundamental difference. Many leaders fear adapting for fear of change. Embrace the change of what you do or how you do it, not the change of why you do it.

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Failure to move in humility. Failure to adapt is often a sign of pride. Pride will kill leadership development quicker than any other thing. Pride is a heart issue. I’m not talking about the pride of shared joy in an accomplishment. I’m talking about the insidious pride of self-centeredness. When a leader makes it all about themselves, they are self-centered. Successful leaders practice humility, which means they easily recognize others and don’t need recognition themselves. Too many leaders today will not adapt because of pride. Pride makes you angry, frustrated, lazy and aloof. Humility keeps you hungry, engaged and serving. Humility helps you remember why you started developing leaders in the first place.

The greatest leader outside of Jesus Christ was one of his chief followers/disciples, Paul the Apostle. Paul spoke about adaptation in his disciple-making strategy. He said, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). This is some of the best counsel that I can ever offer someone frustrated in their development of others. Paul is basically saying, “I adapt whenever necessary to the standing of others, so that I can relate to them and win them.” If you really want to win with talent, you must adapt. You don’t win talent by demanding they become like you. You win talent by going to where they are.

Failure to paint a picture of better & brighter tomorrow. The next generation leader already has a very clear picture of what their tomorrow looks like–even if you think it is just fantasy. If you don’t speak into that picture or paint a better picture their tomorrow, then their shelf-life with you will be extremely short and you wont have an opportunity to bring reality into the fantasy.  And it’s pretty hard to develop a leader when they leave you. Leaders today must paint accurate pictures of a better and brighter future.

Failure to speak with a social conscience. This is why I have found that despite the perceived unpopularity of my Christianity, when I speak with a social conscience, the next generation leader welcomes and responds. The next gen leader has more of a social conscience than ever before. Your leadership development style and structure needs to at least acknowledge this reality, if not engage this reality. Millennials really want to make their world a better place for everyone. Now, they often are not entirely sure how to do this or where to start. This is where you come in. You have resources, you have connections in your community and you do have a social conscience. A social conscience basically means you care and will demonstrate concern for others.

Conclusion

Developing leaders is always worth it. Today talent costs more and demands more. The shoreline has moved. The talent tide will not return. Throw off your pride, slosh through the sand and rediscover the joy of a new talent beach.

 

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(c) Alex Vann, 2017

 

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The Secret to Winning with Your Millennial Leader

The Secret to Winning and Developing Your Millennial Leaders is simply this:

If you want to truly influence them, then you have to understand where they are. Many leaders today only understand where they aren’t.

This article is designed to help the Baby Boomer, Baby Buster and Gen. X leader gain better insight into the mindset of the millennial leader. If you have leaders from 20 to 35, then you have millennials who are leaders or see themselve as leaders. Stop trying to change reality and start understanding it. Ignorance leads to arrogance. Increase your insight and your leadership development strategy will be better for it. Too many senior leaders have created a leadership culture that is unforgiving to millennial leaders. If you want to win in leadership today, you better learn what makes the millennial mindset tick. Then, you can teach it how to tock!

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Millennials are bombarded with information, yet they are highly selective and individualization in what they believe works best for them. Human nature has not changed. But, our access to information has changed. This has accelerated the belief-and-achieve curve, inflated egos and self-assurance among the next generation called Millennials. But, a lesson for every Millennial, Centennial, Gen X’er and Baby Boomer is this information doesn’t make you a leader any more than a new paint job makes a car without an engine move.

Leaders today must learn what’s under the hood before they hit the road.

There’s one question that can quickly get you past so much of your frustration and help you identify a better course action with your millennial leaders or millennials your are trying to develop. This question will help you understand where your millennial is building from or why they aren’t able to build much at all.

Ask this question: “Who is your model?”

Chances are 50% of them will pause, look at you like you just asked them if they speak Nepalese, and say “Myself, I guess.” The next large group of them will say someone they have never met or someone that is really only an acquaintance. The smallest group will identify either you or someone in your organization. If I have learned nothing else in my over 20 years of leading and developing people it’s this: Every successful leader has had a model or models that has influenced them greatly. No leader pops out of the womb or arrives on the scene ready to lead all by themselves with no outside influence, no training and no development. That kind of leader is reckless and inexperienced. That kind of leader is like putting a toddler behind the wheel of Tesla. The reality for many of your millennials is they simply have the wrong model or no model at all. You cannot be your own model. Sadly, many leaders across the generation divides have this strategy. When you are your own model you are destined for failure.

Ask your Millennials who they are modeling themselves after. How they respond will give you better insight into where they really are in their leadership development and growth track.

Lesson #1 – Teach Millennials the Model is for Measurement. View leadership development as growth. We have a “growth chart” on our wall in our mud room at home for our children. Each September, my wife will measure them on the wall and make a mark. I remember as a middle-schooler using my mother as my measuring stick. I remember catching her in height and then passing her. But, once I passed her I needed a new model–my dad. Millennials must also be taught that a model is not solely for admiration and accreditation. Most of our young leaders have a strong desire to build a large network, but only in as much as they can get from it and not give into it. Be careful that you don’t foster the idea that a model is more than a reputation or status enhancer. A model is for emulation and measurement.

Get the Model Right

It is important to select the right model. The right model is a more than modern mentoring. Modern mentoring is rapidly becoming an exercise in frustration and futility. A good model is consistent in practice, character and conduct. A good model exercises wisdom and sound judgment. A good model is a good leader who seeks the growth and maturation of others.

A model is a person that serves as a pattern for others with character qualities worthy of imitation. A model serves as a point of reference and who has a position that will influence and foster growth in others.

When you have the wrong model, you are shaping yourself the wrong way.

Recently, I sat down with a frustrated millennial leader. This leader didn’t understand why they weren’t getting promoted. I stopped them after hearing a lot of excuses and asked this question: “Who is your model? Who are you modeling yourself after?”

This leader paused. Looked at me. Looked out the window. Looked back and me and said, “No one here, really. Just myself, I guess.”

I responded, “That’s the problem.” When you have the wrong model, you get the wrong results. Since, all leaders start at immaturity and are growing up toward greater maturity, models are critical to our development. Models are others who are at a more mature place in their own development and have qualities and attributes that are worthy of emulation and replication. A young leader might do many things well, but no one (except Jesus) does all things well.

Lesson #2 – Millennials tend t0 choose a make over a model. Typically, they want the shiniest, prettiest car that elevates their status, instead of the most trusted, reliable and consistent performer. It’s largely not their fault. They have been conditioned to believe these things. You must help them see that what’s under the hood is more important that the color of the paint–that the performance is more important than the appearance.

Models are used for imitation and replication. We all need models. The Apostle Paul wrote that someone could have 10,000 teachers and no father, thus they were to model or imitate him (1 Corinthians 4:15). We all need models, because we are filled with deficiencies, defects and deficits. Models show us why we need growth, how to grow and where to grow. The wrong models will never provide the right vision for growth. Models give us examples to see. And appearance is important to Millennials.

Lesson #3 – Millennials have a bent more toward being concerned with how they externally appear than how they internally constructed. Their undeniable lack of emotional maturity and subsequently, emotional intelligence, insulates their ability to think very circumspectly outside of themselves. They were not told “life isn’t fair,” “there is one winner and a bunch of losers,” or “you want something,  go work for it.” They were told, “great trying,” “wow, you are special,” and “here is ribbon for 12th place.” Their ignorance is your responsibility, if you want to develop them. You will never win them if you don’t understand them.

Lesson #4 – Millennials lack maturity and your frustration or disdain doesn’t help them gain more maturity. Your frustration pushes them away. We live in a development climate that senior leaders must adapt their systems and styles of development like never before. Human nature doesn’t change, but because of our access to information and our inflated self-evaluations, our systems of development must change. You have to earn their right to be their model and your title and position is not enough.

Lesson #5 – Millennials are not looking for fun, they are looking for engagement. Don’t mistake entertainment with engagement.  At the deepest level this is what it is. Because of social media and the constant connectivity of their world, we live in an era of over-stimulation. Engagement is your ability as a leader to connect at an appropriate level, (a) which starts with the heart, (b) shapes thoughts, and (c) influences behaviors. Effective leaders who work with Millennials are able to paint a picture of the future that aligns and appeals to the Millennnial, but is in harmony with the needs and goals of the organization. Leaders often get frustrated with having to “cater” to Millennials. Let me encourage you not to see your adjustments as catering, but as connecting. If you don’t connect with the millennials in your organization, their departure will be hastened.

Lesson #6 – Millennials see themselves as highly mobile with an upward destination–they are always looking for what is next. You become more effective as you become more accepting of this. Millennials as a whole (of course not all of them) don’t understand loyalty the way previous generations do. I don’t like it, but it is the reality of our day. When you are willing to engage and help your millennial leader explore the future, then the by-product is more loyalty.

Millennials see you as either helping them or holding them back. There is no middle ground. If you want to be effective at developing Millennials as leaders, then you must help them see that your system increases their competitiveness in a highly competitive landscape. They must see that your system values their individuality and helps them move forward.

This is what Gen Xers and Baby Boomers often fail to see–how competitive the landscape is and how hard (in their minds) progress actually is. What this really means is to a millennial is pressure. Millennials see opportunities without clear solution paths which increases anxieties, fears and stress. You, the more mature leader, know the pitfalls and realities of life they aren’t seeing. But, when you play the expert as opposed to promoter, then Millennials have a tendency to move on. The most effective developers of Millennials I have seen really do promotion well–they are (in today’s lingo) the “hype-man.” You may not like it, agree with it or believe in it, but it is true. Hype is for a Millennial is belief. When you hype them, they feel you believe in them. For many of us, to hype someone goes against everything we believe in and stand for. Don’t be afraid of it, hype is just a modern way to think about encouragement, attention and praise. Everyone likes encouragement, just as every millennial likes to be hyped! I’m not encouraging you to resort to flattery, but don’t be afraid to take your organizational encouragement to a new level and explore new methods.

Lesson #7 – Millennials are going to move on, don’t be afraid to talk about it. They don’t know this causes you anxiety. They are discussing it among themselves. You must create a system that encourages them to move on. This will engage them on a deeper level for you.

I spend time with a lot of leaders who are afraid of their people moving on. This is an error. Don’t be afraid to talk about your Millennials moving on. In fact, you increase your credibility with your Millennials when you talk about what they will do next in life. When your people see that you are not afraid to loose them, they will often stay longer. I don’t have any science to back me up, but by the behavior I have observed, there is clear evidence that this has a reverse-psychological effect, which in turn often creates greater capacity for patience. Stop trying to keep them and start preparing to help them leave. In doing this, you become their model.

Conclusion

The bottom line is this: If you want to go up, then you have to grow up. This is for both the Baby Boomer/Gen Xer and the Millennial. Don’t play the expert. Be a learner. Some of the greatest joy you will ever experience is the joy of seeing a young leader who you’ve poured into grow, blossom and bear fruit. Invest deeply and be prepared to let go. This requires patience and selflessness. Chances are, one day you will look up and see a “mini-me” looking back at you!

Develop leaders, it’s always worth it.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2017

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Leadership is an Exercise in Patience

Leadership is like a muscle. It doesn’t grow just because you want it to. It doesn’t grow because you dream of it growing. Growth and skilled leadership take real work, hard work and most of all patience. Hard work means patience. Hard work means practice.  This combination of practice and patience establish the rhythm by which the leadership muscle is perfected.

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:5 (NKJV)

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Me as a freshman at Hardin-Simmons University, 1995. An impatient outside linebacker.

Those Who Stay will be Champions 

I played five sports (football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and soccer) in high school and in all of them our practice-to-game ratio was a combined average about 3:1 or 4:1. That means we practiced 300 to 400% more than we played games! And that was during the season. Each season before the first game, we practiced nearly a month before the first game. That means before our first significant test, match or game it was a nearly 20-25:1 ratio –2000-2500% more  practice before the first game!  I think when you start to break down hours spent in practice versus hours spent in game time, the ratio is probably much more pronounced. I would go on to the next level. Little did I know as you advance in athletics, in life, in relationships and especially in leadership, the next level always requires more patience. I watched many players start with a lot of talk, but grew impatient quickly and quit.

Higher levels = more practice. I discovered this playing NCAA III football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas under Head Coach and West Texas legend, Jimmie Keeling, who loved to practice. He’d say things like “Men, this is where we get better” as you had sweat pouring in your eyes in the 116 degree West Texas oven.  Nearly, every day in team meeting he would say “W-I-N. What’s Important Now?” and he would go on to say things like, “Practice, men, practice…” in his west Texas drawl with a sly smile and a twinkle in his eye. Too many developing leaders view practice as a waste of time. This does not allow for healthy development in leadership acumen.

Always one to value my personal time, I calculated that between three-a-days (three practices a day in summer), working out, watching film, meetings, actual practice time, team meals, extra work and logistics, I spent anywhere from 80-100 hours some weeks for a 3 hour football game of which a starter would be on the field 20-30 minutes of actually game time. With the average play lasting only 6-8 seconds, college football is primarily a game of preparation for a split second of execution. Just like leadership, many decisions have to be made in a split second.  That’s why in football, you drill, drill, drill and more drill. Many leaders don’t think that what they are doing when they are waiting matters. They couldn’t be more wrong! There is not a wasted play or wasted practice in leadership development. Preparation finds its identity in practice. Practice it’s perfection in repetition. Patience and practice have a way of weeding people out.  Coach Keeling with an astounding combined college and high school coaching record of 368-144-11, used to always say “Those who stay will be champions!” He meant if you lose sight of the goal and get impatient, then you will never achieve what you started out after. He meant patience is the key to success.

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“Those who stay will be champions!” 

Former Hardin-Simmons Head Football Coach and one of my Heroes,

Jimmie Keeling

Leadership is Perfected in Practice 

Leadership is not a game. It is a continual, commitment that requires and demands practice. Leadership is perfected in and only in practice. Great players didn’t come out of the womb great. They came out gifted. It’s the combination of practice and patience that fostered greatness.

An impatient leader is a poor leader. Zeal and enthusiasm are important in leadership, but single-handedly they cannot produce growth. But, they can sure produce a lot of frustration. Impatient leaders don’t produce good followers, more leaders or greater inlfluence. Impatient leaders produce the fruits of frustration and exhaustion. The reality is impatient leaders produce anxiety, accelerate stress and create a climate of more impatience.  Impatience is water running downhill. It erodes and the quicker it moves the faster it erodes.

Patience is not a barrier. Barriers are concrete objects that prevent progress. Barriers have to smashed. Leaders do little smashing and lots of chiseling. Patience is a boundary. Boundaries can be rescinded or extended. A boundary gives you space to operate in and grow in.

Patience Means Sometimes You Walk Away

Wise leaders establish boundaries, organize the work and walk away. This is not the walking away of irresponsibility, but the walking away of patience. Your followers will never grow if you don’t give them room. But this is room inside the boundaries. There is a time where mature leaders must walk away and allow their immature, developing  leaders the opportunity to learn patience. Even among millennial leaders (who demand constant feedback), I intentionally give them more space than they are comfortable with. Now, a wise leader walks away to an elevated position of observation, but not so far away they are unable to engage in a moment of need.

The Lesson of the Lifeguard

Like the lifeguard stationed at the deep end of a pool, take up a position that allows you to observe the confidence, competence and judgment of the leader you just let loose.

When they start to overexert themselves, let them sink a little. This requires patience on their part and your part. Sometimes,  they thrash violently, but then regain equilibrium. Leave them alone at this point. But, when their sinking is causing others to go under or everyone starts getting out of the pool, then decisively, directly and without discussion dive in the pool and rescue them. It takes patience to sit and watch a young leader struggle, but they will not grow without patience, both their own and yours.

The half-drowned swimmer looks at the lifeguard and says, “You almost let me drown. Why did you wait so long!?“

The lifeguard smiles and replies softly, “Are you sill breathing? Now, get back in there and do it again.”

(c) Alex Vann, 2017.

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Millennial Leadership Lesson #1- Execution trumps Examination

Leadership Lesson #1 :  Execution trumps Examination

(Implementation over Intentions & Inspection)

If all you do is identify solutions to the problem, but never implement steps to solve the problem, then you are part of the problem.

Every organization, every team and every set of relationship is going to have problems. The questions is not “Do we have problems?” But, rather, “How do we solve this particular problem in a way that we don’t have to repeat it?” The key is execution over examination. Examination is needed, but it’s easy.

Execution is the hard thing and hard things need hard hats! (Well get to that analogy in a moment).

The challenge in many of our organizations is that we have given the millennial generation new titles, new responsibilities, new salaries and new authorities, but we haven’t taught them how to solve old problems. We’ve created a culture of constant feedback, which devolves into a bunch of solutions with little to no implementation. A bunch of discussion never solved a problem, but a bunch of people might. Thus, it is critical to bring your people into a progression that leads to more implementation, not more discussion. Solutions are only solutions if they lead to results, otherwise, you’ve created more examination without execution. Don’t miss this, there is a time for a examination, but examination never solved a problem. Identification is not execution. Be careful in your leadership that you don’t mistake assessing the problem as correcting the problem.

A solution without implementation only creates more frustration.

Organizations have learned that Millennials need feedback like no other generation before. This has contributed to more meetings, more discussion with fewer results. Healthy organizations avoid round-and-round discussions that don’t lead to implementation. Unhealthy organizations, teams and groups come up with constant solutions from frequent discussions that lead to action but no traction.  This is more than coming up with a list of action items at your next meeting. Implementation requires a problem, a priority, a plan and implementation. You can have action without implementation.

What is Implementation?

Implementation is traction. Implementation is execution. Implementation is not an idea. Implementation is the process by which a plan is executed. Implementation requires intentional and definitive steps. These steps lead to points of no return. Until a leader, an organization and a team determines that collectively “they will not go back,” then implementation is not a reality.

Implementation is a serious commitment by those involved in the direction, activation and accountability of the organization to address a problem and execute a plan to correct the issue.

Inspectors vs. Hard Hats

Leaders are not inspectors, they are hard hats. A hard hat is someone on a construction site who has a tool belt, tools and the knowledge to “go to work.” Hard hats wear their hat every day, because they are going to place themselves in a potentially dangerous place to make progress and execute the building plans. Hard hats see the difficulty and address the solutions in reality that produces a stable outcome.

Leadership is hard work, thus it requires a hard hat.

Inspectors are around the work, but not in the work. Inspectors like to walk around job-sites to examine how things are going to be done. Remember, implementation is not examination, it is execution!

A good construction supervisor or general contractor will do such an efficient and effective job on his job that the inspector has little to see or do. Inspectors don’t get dirty, they simply identify problems, address what code is unmet, and then, talk about solutions. It is up to the hard hats to go to work and get it done. Leadership meets and exceeds the standard. Leadership is more than talking about solutions, it is getting results. This is the same mentality that leaders in any organization must take in order to implement real solutions to real problems. Inspectors love to diagnosis problems and dream up solutions. Hard hats love digging in and getting dirty to solve the problem. Only math problems are solved on paper, every other kind of problem is solved by real people who actually implement a solution.

Many organizations correctly diagnosis a problem and identify a solution, but then fail to actually implement that solution to completion. A construction project is not finished until the “punch list” has been checked off and the job completed. Too many leaders leave unfinished work for someone else to come along and try to solve. Leaders who fail to implement their solutions are immature, weak or lazy. None of which inspire confidence in their followers.

Leaders who fail to follow through will ultimately fail to keep followers.

If you read this article and you realize that you don’t have as much trust from senior leadership in your organization or no one ever implements your solutions, then most likely you are largely ineffective as a leader. You are carrying the clipboard of an inspector, instead of strapping on your tool belt of a hard hat and getting the job d0ne.  A leader, by definition, has influence and can influence others toward a goal or result. If you are constantly frustrated by the lack of others’ willingness to embrace your ideas and solutions, then you probably need a healthy dose of self-examination.

 

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

Peter Drucker

 

 

(c) Alex Vann. 2017.