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The Third Step to Transformational Leadership
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 21 hours, 32 minutes ago.
[This is the 3rd post of a 4-part series on the steps to becoming a transformational leader.]
So far in this series we’ve learned that leadership transformation is build upon character and lived through competence. Although strong character combined with strong competence is a powerful combination, it is not enough to be a truly transformational leader. Without taking the next step, reaching your leadership potential will be at best sporadic and most likely wasted.
Unfortunately, I’ve too often worked under or watched leaders with both strong character and competence come up drastically short in the very situations where strong leadership was crucial to success.
Here is the third step to becoming a transformational leader.
The Third Step to Transformational Leadership
The third step to transformational leadership is courage.
If the virtue of character is the heart of a transformational leader, and the virtue of competence is her hands, the virtue of courage is her backbone!
Courage is defined as the williness to act upon your convictions. Convictions, as defiend by a leader’s character, are the soul-deep belief and values upon which a leader will not bend or break. Courage is the leader’s moral line-in-the-sand, a line she will no cross…that is, if she grows courage.
Transformational leaders realize that courage does not mean being without fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather, the realization that something the leader holds dear is more important than the potential consequences of not acting.
As Hollywood legend, John Wayne, once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but you saddle up anyway.”
3 Components of Transformational Leadership Courage
The three essential elements of leadership courage are confidence, composure, and boldness.
- Confidence is positive belief in your own abilities. This belief stems from step two, competence. Competence therefore leads to confidence!
- Composure is possessing calmness regardless of your surroundings. With strong character and competence, and the growing confidence in your ability to handle tough situations, your composure grows.
- Boldness is the readiness to take risks. With a foundation of character and competence combined with confidence and composure, you are now poised take the bold (courageous) actions transformational leaders must take regardless of the situation.
Transformational leadership is therefore built upon character, lived through competence, and tested through courage.
A PARABLE ON TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
You only have a few more days for the FREE download of my new book, The Impacter: A Parable on transformational Leadership.
So do you agree or disagree: the third step toward transformational leadership is courage. Leave your insights below. Thanks!
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The Second Step to Transformational Leadership
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 1 week, 19 hours, 31 minutes ago.
[This is the 2nd post of a 4-part series on the steps to becoming a transformational leader.]
Over my three+ decades in business, from managing union mechanics shops to corporate staffs, I’ve learned some painful lessons and made my share of mistakes in recruiting and training leaders. Especially in my role as the Corporate Employment & Training Manager for a Denver-based $250M regional homebuilder, home manufacturer, and mortgage banking firm, I experienced the pain of starting my search for and training of great leaders in the wrong place. I did not realize it at the time, but after a few failed hires and promotions, I began to realize the mistake of ignoring step one (character) and automatically jumping into step two. This mistake can be a serious – if not potentially fatal – to a company and a career.
Leadership transformation starts with the leader’s character. Here is the second step to becoming a transformational leader.
The Second Step to Transformational Leadership
The second step to becoming a transformational leader is competence.
No one would argue that great leaders must be competent, having the knowledge, skill, and abilities necessary to be a leader others will follow. But here, I warn you that if you ignore the person’s character and automatically jump into the person’s competence, you could be hiring or promoting a highly competent jerk! I have dedicated most of my academic and profession life to understanding and teaching on how to become a better leader. Now that I have you convinced (at least got you thinking) about the proper order (character first), here are the three critical components of leadership competence.
3 COMPONENTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCE
The three essential elements of competence are the abilities to Envision, Engage, and Execute.
- Envision answers the question, ‘What’s Next?” It mandates that a leader can think clearly, strategize, assess the external and internal environments surround the decisions, and determine the next nest move…all about the strategy.
- Engage answers the “Who” – who needs to be involved, their roles, how to connect everyone…all about the people.
- Execute answers the “How” and ‘When” – from the launch plan, timing, materials, progress measures, impsections and redirections, celebrations…all about the results.
In a phrase, leadership competence is leading from strategy through people to achieve transformational results.
A PARABLE ON TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Many of you may have already downloaded my new leadership parable (free for a few more days) on how one man built his company on the four virtues of transformational leadership. If you know someone who might enjoy the book, please forward this post to them and encourage them to get the book download “The Impacter” here…before it goes to AMAZON for $9.95 and to hardback fo $16.95.
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The First Step to Transformational Leadership
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 1 week, 6 days, 19 hours, 57 minutes ago.
[This is the 1st of a 4-post series on the steps to becoming a transformational leader.]
trans-form n. to change the inner nature; to change the character of
trans-for-ma-tion n. the process of being transformed
Today’s business literature is awash with the concept of leadership. With 6,330,000 results on a Google search, the concept of transformational leadership is among the most often discussed in business today. But be not dismayed at this enormous buffet of options. Leadership transformation is not as daunting as many suggest, and is in fact a process of following four sequential steps.
Here is your first step.
Where Transformational Leadership Begins
It begins with your character.
Aristotle said that “character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.” The US Air Force Academy states that character is “the sum of those qualities of moral excellence that stimulates a person to do the right thing, which is manifested through right and proper actions despite internal or external pressure to the contrary.”
Character, therefore, is the depth of your moral convictions. It is not whether someone has character, for everyone has some character. It is much more a question how deeply ingrained the qualities of character are within the heart and soul of the leader. It is frightening to witness how quickly a once mighty, profitable, and progressive organization can be brought to their knees by leaders of shallow character.
World-renowned management thinker Peter Drucker said, “You can forgive a person for bad decisions or poor execution, but you can not forgive them for a lack of character.” Further, General Norman Schwarzkopf said, “Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.”
3 Components of Transformational Leadership Character
So what exactly constitutes character? The three essential elements of character are wisdom, integrity, and self discipline.
- Wisdom means knowing the right thing to do. As a leader, you must clarify your internal anchors – those personal convictions, morals, values, and standards upon which they will lead.
- Integrity is doing the right thing. It is walking your talk. This is where transformational leadership is first seen by other?
- Self-discipline is doing what is right even when it’s tough.
When all three are aligned and in action, you will boldly climbing up the first step toward being a transformational leader!
A Parable on Transformational Leadership
If you love stories and would like to read a real-world leadership parable, I encourage you to download my new book “The Impacter” here (free for a limited time) to learn how one leader transforms his employees, his customers, and his community — and it all starts with his character!
So do you agree or disagree: the first step toward transformational leadership is your character. If not character, where? Leave your insights in a comment below. Thanks!
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Interruptions, A Productivity Killer
By Mark Woods Posted 3 weeks, 21 hours, 9 minutes ago.
On a typical day, you can expect to get caught in the crossfire of interruptions, the unexpected will bubble up, and demands will fall out of the sky at inconvenient times. Flexicuting will be required.
Yes, we invented the word flexicuting because we can’t think of a better way to describe this skill. Events are so fluid in today’s work environment that we have to change, adapt, and shift our focus all day long.
Flexicuting involves the ability to:
Be as willing to leave your activity list when priorities shift as you are willing to stick with it.
Be able to turn on a dime in the middle of the day when an opportunity presents itself.
Develop the habit of reserving some time every day to deal with the expected/unexpected.
Be wired 24/7 without letting it be a source of distractions and frustration.
Would you like to become better at flexicuting? Here’s how! Recognize it’s a survival skill by changing your mindset and practice the forgoing flexicuting skills daily. It can be quite fun.
Flexicuting involves the skill of both multi-tasking activities and alternate-tasking activities. It also requires the wisdom to know when to use and when to avoid either of these approaches.
We’ll talk about multi-tasking first. In our society, the term multi-tasking is overused. Even worse, the skill has been elevated to the pinnacle of desirable abilities and we often find ourselves abused—and sometimes abusing—in the execution of multi-tasking because there are some guidelines to multi-tasking that most people aren’t aware of.
The best advice we can give people is to BEWARE OF MULTI-TASKING! Here’s why. When you are executing multiple activities at the same time, none of these activities has your complete focus. If you must multi-task, it should be done only when you combine simple, mindless tasks such as opening your mail and watching the news.
TIP: Never, never, never multi-task while carrying on a conversation with another person.
Multi-tasking, when abused, leads to time contamination. An example of time contamination would be taking your child out for pizza so you can have some quality one-on-one time together, and then taking a cell phone call for fifteen minutes while your child stares into space. Time contamination is also working on your laptop while supposedly watching your child’s soccer game.
Alternate-tasking is the natural result of being wired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365). Living under these conditions, it makes sense to alternate our work and personal life activities in a way that we can fully experience both. While multi-tasking can contaminate time, alternate-tasking does not.
Alternate-tasking is being 100% where you are. Be 100% in the pizza shop with your child and then place the call after the pizza outing. Alternate-tasking permits us to fully engage all activities without dilution or contamination of the experience.
Alternate-tasking can help you get more done in less time than multi-tasking because, when you are fully engaged, you are more efficient and productive.
TIP: Alternate-tasking requires FOCUS. Begin with tasks that you can get done in 15 minutes or less until and free yourself from interruptions by shutting your door, closing out email, and don’t take calls etc.
By guest contributor, Mark Woods
AttackYourDay.com
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Are You a Catalytic Leader?
By Michael Hyatt Posted 4 weeks, 20 hours, 17 minutes ago.
I’ve known Brad Lomenick for over a decade and have participated in his Catalyst leadership events for almost as long. Helping leaders grow is their stated desire, and it’s one that I fully support. Our growth as leaders is central to our success. It’s also increasingly urgent.
The tools of influence are more accessible today that ever before. When barriers come down, participation goes up. That means a growing number of people are flooding into leadership roles, many of them unprepared. Instead of waiting decades trudging through the traditional leadership track in business, nonprofits, and churches, young people are seeing the needs and opportunities around them and stepping up to make a difference today.
This is a good thing—except when it isn’t. I can’t tell you the number of leaders I’ve personally seen blow up and burn out. Some good can come out these moments, particularly if we’re teachable. But we can shortcut a lot of those difficult learning experiences if we apply the learning of others.
That’s why I’m excited to tell you about Brad’s new book The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker. From his ten years of training leaders at Catalyst Brad distills eight essentials to help leaders not only lead now, but also lead well:
The tools of influence are more accessible today that ever before. When barriers come down, participation goes up. That means a growing number of people are flooding into leadership roles, many of them unprepared.
Instead of waiting decades trudging through the traditional leadership track in business, nonprofits, and churches, young people are seeing the needs and opportunities around them and stepping up to make a difference today.
This is a good thing—except when it isn’t. I can’t tell you the number of leaders I’ve personally seen blow up and burn out. Some good can come out these moments, particularly if we’re teachable. But we can shortcut a lot of those difficult learning experiences if we apply the learning of others.
That’s why I’m excited to tell you about Brad’s new book The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker.
From his ten years of training leaders at Catalyst Brad distills eight essentials to help leaders not only lead now, but also lead well:
- Calling
- Authenticity
- Passion
- Capability
- Courage
- Principle
- Hope
- Collaboration
Brad breaks down these traits and shows how they work on the ground through a ton of personal examples, insights from Catalyst speakers, and original statistical research of contemporary leaders by the Barna Group.
One thing I appreciate is Brad’s willingness to talk about when and how he falls short. Life’s too brief for bluffing, and Brad’s not even interested. Instead he shows where he went wrong and how others can avoid the same setbacks.
I also appreciate the way he stresses the importance of the leader’s heart, something I try to underscore whenever I can.
“Too many [modern leaders] build up their heads without minding their hearts,” he says, adding, “spiritual ardor is integral, rather than accessory, to leading well.”
For readers to get the most out of The Catalyst Leader, I think there are three ways to best approach it:
- As a mirror. The Catalyst Leader is a great self-evaluation tool. It shows us our defects and identifies areas of improvement with proven ways of doing so.
- As a map. The Catalyst Leader also gives us a guide to danger zones and pitfalls of contemporary leadership. Following the path laid out here greatly improves our chance of finishing the journey well.
- As a mentor. The Catalyst Leader offers insight from many of the most influential leaders on the scene today. It gives us the chance to learn from their stories and how to apply the best learning to our own organizations.
I’m honored to work with Brad, and this book is an example of why. Well-written, relevant, and directed at the needs of contemporary influencers, The Catalyst Leader shortcuts a lot of hard lessons and can help leaders at any level become more effective today.
By guest contributor, Michael Hyatt
www.michaelhyatt.com
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Visionary Leadership: Take Stock of Your Situation
By Patrick Ropella Posted 1 month, 5 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes ago.
Wherever you look, you see problems. You see trends and events that can have significant impacts on your business. You see risks…and you’re not the only one seeing these things, so are all the people in your organization. Now it’s up to you to keep your head on straight and provide the vision and leadership your organization needs to manage the risks, deal with the uncertainty, and continue to prosper for years to come. Here are a few suggestions to help you:
Take Stock of Your Situation
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” But left unchecked, fear leads to disasterous consequences. In the absence of information, people will invent data. It often starts around the water cooler (or these days on e-mail). One person suggests his ideas about how the company will react to some issue (and as human beings we tend to take very pessimistic guesses). These suppositions quickly become rumors. The rumors become unspoken truths, and suddenly people in your organization are basing their decisions and actions on false data. And if the data is negative enough, attrition of your top talent is likely to occur. So how do you combat fear?
Step 1: Articulate worst-case scenarios. Perhaps you fear the pharmaceutical industry can’t overcome the threat China poses, or that rising R&D costs mean your firm won’t remain competitive. Or maybe your fears are more localized, relating to specific problems in your department or the threat of layoffs coming down from corporate. Clearly state (to yourself) what you fear. Make a list of your worst-case scenarios…because most likely, people in your organization are fearing the same things.
Step 2: Assess your strengths. Now that you’ve unmasked your fears, it’s time to make a realistic assessment of the tools you can use to address them. Start by making a list of anything you consider to be an asset or resource. These can be specific people, technologies, industry knowledge or any other competencies your organization has and can use to gain advantage in the marketplace. They can also be intangible qualities such as the way you react to stress or how willing you are to adapt to new challenges.
Step 3: Develop contingencies. For each of the fears on your worst-case scenario list brainstorm a list of contingencies. Ask yourself the question “what would we do if this situation became reality?” Review your resources and strengths. Which resources could you put to use to address your fears?
To develop contingency plans, you can also look at the past challenges your organization has faced and how they were addressed. What went well that you would repeat? And what changes would you make the next time? You can also look outside the pharmaceutical and biotech industries at other businesses that have faced similar challenges. What did the successful firms do to overcome their challenges? What strategies can you emulate?
Excerpted from Patrick Ropella’s white paper, “Visionary Leadership,” available at www.Ropella.com under the “Toolbox” tab.
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Got Purpose?
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes ago.
A popular advertising campaign has celebrities and sports stars smiling into the camera with a wide, white mustache on their upper lips with the heading, “Got milk?” The same question can be asked of corporate purpose – have you got purpose? Two questions need to be addressed: what is a corporate purpose, and why is clarifying your corporate purpose so vital?
Here is how I answer these two critical questions as excerpted from my book, “Corporate Excellence.”
What is Corporate Purpose?
A corporate purpose, in its essence, is the compelling reason your organization exists. It need not be a world changing, Nobel Peace Prize winning reason to exist. Frankly, most great organizational purposes are simple yet eloquent, powerful yet doable, profound yet basic.
For example, the purpose of ServiceMaster (taken from the first of their four-part credo) is “To honor God in all we do.” Regardless of what it is they do, ServiceMaster’s great purpose is to honor God.
The purpose for Rosenbluth International, the renowned multi-billion dollar travel management company, is to always put the employee first. CEO Hal Rosenbluth has just revised and republished his best selling book entitled “The Customer Comes Second.”
The compelling reason Starbucks exists is to “leave no one behind.” They so deeply believe in this purpose that new hires receive 24 hours of top quality training, full health care benefits (even for part-timers), enrollment in their “Bean Stock” program offering employee up to 14% of gross pay in company stock, and a stock investment plan at a premium discount. As a leader in health care and pharmaceuticals, Merck’s purpose is well summarized in their belief that “medicine is for people – not for profits.” They are internationally renowned in donating millions of dollars of medicines to people around the world simply to help the patient’s condition, not to generate more bottom-line dollars.
Purpose Trumps Values/Mission/Vision
Clients often ask me in my coaching sessions where or how values, mission, and vision align with purpose. Values are the social principles, goals, or standards upon which you base your entire operation. These are the things your organization stands for and desires to be know for by your employees, customers, vendors, and all associated with your enterprise.
Mission is a statement that describes the nature of your business, your core products, services, and core customers. It serves as a guidebook for how your operation works and for whom.
Vision represents what you believe to be the future should be for your organization. It is your best, quick summary (usually 3-5 sentences) of your future destination, be it market position, image, financial status, reputation, service, etc. Great vision is the result of both your insight into your current and/or potential industries, and your intuition of the future based upon previous experience and current data.
Purpose transcends values, mission, and vision. Often I encounter good companies without a clear purpose earning reasonable profits, growing new customers, and managing to stay afloat. Many of these good companies even have a values/mission/vision statement (though the executives are typically unable to repeat or recite any of the very statements they created)…and that is exactly the point.
A clear purpose intentionally forces employees, shareholders, vendors, and even customers to look beyond the quarterly returns and measure the performance of the organization on more than short-term financial benchmarks. It changes the playing field, pushing all involved into asking a critically important question: are we merely making money, or are we making a difference?
Good leaders have a corporate vision. Great leaders have a corporate purpose! What’s your company’s purpose?
Would love to hear from you on this critical leadership issue.
*Excerpt from my book Corporate Excellence available for purchase at www.drjimharris.com.
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Now What?
By Harry LeBoeuf Posted 2 months, 2 days, 6 hours, 16 minutes ago.
We all know too well what the recent world-wide economic conditions have done to our businesses. During this unprecedented economical downturn we have had to make some really tough decisions, like firing our valued employees, eliminating our marketing budgets, and slashing our overhead expenses to the point where they hardly exist anymore. Our natural instincts were to just hunker down and try to ride this crisis out and hopefully come out the other end intact. You have done all this, and thankfully you have so far survived. But now what?
Thankfully, there are many economic and government indicators that the world is slowly coming out of recession, and hopes are high we will be able to regain some of our losses. While many companies have not, those companies who have managed to survive this slowdown may actually come out stronger! You are probably asking yourself, how is this possible? Any company who consolidated its market share, and focused on long-term goals and objectives during this slowdown, actually took steps moving forward rather than actually cutting back. So what do you need to do so your business also recovers with the improving market conditions?
Leadership and Teambuilding: It is very important you keep your suppliers and vendors in business. You also want to keep your front-line leadership engaged, and you don’t want your employees to lose motivation during these difficult times. You will need them if you want to gain momentum when your market turns around. How will you handle the culture shock between Gen X, Gen Y, Tradionalists, and now the Facebook generation?
Strategic Planning: Do you know where your company is today, and where it needs to be tomorrow? If your organization is not moving forward, it will quickly begin falling behind. To take your organization to the next level requires a realistic assessment of where you are today, an understanding and knowledge of individual strengths and weaknesses, and a plan for the future. You need a review of your business functions, and analysis to fill holes created by your cost cutting efforts.
Project Management: Project management focuses on carefully managing your processes to produce and distribute products and services. You need to know how your company manages and directs your physical and/or technical functions, particularly those relating to development, production, and manufacturing.
Customer Service: You want to give your customers additional value, rather than always discounting the price. This will not only keep them motivated to be loyal, but also help in retaining your margins and increasing your goodwill. Market conditions for you will improve only when your customers’ confidence improves, so discuss these issues with them often.
Innovation: Some amount of resources can be moved to research and innovation. For instance, you may not spend so much on sales and promotion and instead channel some of these resources to develop new capabilities or improve on existing ones.
Costs vs. Efficiency: Most of the focus is obviously on cutting costs, but there is a real danger of losing your competitive edge if you stop or reduce activities your customers really want. Many companies stop marketing completely, and they are at risk of losing to their competition. Your focus should be on improving your marketing efficiency and not on cutting back across the board.
The bottom line is you need to build on the inherent strengths of each team member, grow the organization through proven leadership, and focus on the high-value returns if you want to be ready for the future. These things haven’t changed over time and market situations. Instead these are time-tested values and will continue to carry you through to the next economic conditions. Will you be ready to succeed when the situation improves? Let us help you be prepared.
Ropella has a track record of improving productivity and alignment in firms around the world. We can help you take your organization to a higher level of achievement. Our individually tailored programs are the result of years of research into the best practices in Leadership Transformation, and have been proven successful in a wide range of organizations. We focus heavily on improving accountability, communication, and trust. We improve the core leadership skills inherent in your organization. This increases the creativity, productivity, and alignment of your people, which are the foundations of continued innovation and organizational improvement. Give Ropella a call today, and we will help you grow your great company.
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3 Transformational Leadership Traits
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes ago.
The road to transformational leadership is not as difficult as many suggest. For over 20 years, I have been directly involved in assessing, developing, and coaching leaders. Over the years I have studied, and reviewed literally hundreds of articles, books, and programs that claim to grow transformational leadership traits in the participants. Although some approaches are indeed strong, many (if not the vast majority) are overwhelming complicated, convoluted, overly scholastic and utterly unrealistic in their desired or marketed outcomes.
At the risk of being perceived as boastful (Proverbs 27:2), one of my professional skills is to assess seemingly complicated or complex material and finding simple ways to describe, discuss, and teach them. I’ve done the same with the concept of the traits of transformational leaders.
Every reasonable and realistic approach I have assessed easily fall within my three major traits of transformational leaders. Here is an overview of my approach (model) toward developing transformational leadership traits in business professionals. Each trait has a brief definition, the key question the leader must answer, and a short list of the essential skills associated with each trait.
Transformational Leadership Trait #1: Envision
To envision means to lead from strategy.The key question the transformational leader must answer is: “What’s Next?” To develop the transformational leadership trait of envisioning, a leader must be skilled in:
- crystallizing a compelling vision of the future (visioning)
- demonstrate strong analytic and creative problem solving (strategic thinking)
- embrace innovative and creative approaches to systems improvement (process improving)
- make sound decisions with good judgment (decision making)
Transformational Leadership Trait #2: Engage
To engage means to lead through people (not around or over). The key question the transformation leader must answer is: “Who must be involved?” To develop the transformational trait of engaging, a leader must be skilled in:
- creating clear and powerful bonds with four major groups – Colleagues, Customers, Constituents, and the Community (connecting)
- building strong cross-functional teams (team building)
- modeling excellence in human relations and appropriate leadership behaviors (modeling)
- equipping all employees (colleagues) to reach their potential (talent maximizing)
Transformational Leadership Trait #3: Execute
To execute means to lead for transformational results (those envisioned in trait #1 and lived through trait #2). The key question the transformational leader must answer is: “How will we measure progress?” To develop the transformational trait of executing, a leader must be skilled in:
- effectively redirecting employees efforts (coaching)
- leading transformational change (change managing)
- driving projects to full completion (project managing)
- personal and staff time management (time managing)
What’s Next? You Tell Me
So to practice what I preach, here is what I’ll do. I’ll let YOU determine WHICH of the three transformational leadership traits and/or skills and first expand upon for your edification (that’s a fancy way to say to help and teach you – sometimes my Ph.D. in Communication just bursts out – forgive me!). So which one of these three transformational leadership traits of the skills would you like me first to address in more detail?
I would LOVE to hear the ones most vital to you and why. Please leave your comments below and share you insights with others.
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What Christian Business Leaders Can Learn from Yoda
By Dr. Jim Harris Posted 2 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 52 minutes ago.
My son and I love the entire Star Wars movie series. From the birth of Luke Skywalker through the final destruction of the Death Star and the liberation of the universe, the longevity of this epic story across multiple generations is indeed unique. And the Star Wars story is not over! So many wonderful characters are now part of our pop culture including C-3P0, R2-D2, Jabba the Hut, Chewbacca, Darth Vadar, and for many the most popular, Yoda. David Dusek and his team at Rough Cut Men posted this picture of Yoda with a fantastic caption.
I intentionally shy away from attempting to bridge Hollywood with Christian business leadership, but this brilliantly simple photo magnificently bridges the gap. So what can a Christian business leader learn from Yoda? Here are four things we can all apply to our leadership from the wisdom of Yoda.
- Wisdom is built from experience. Yoda taught Luke Skywalker from his deep experience. Even he knew that real wisdom is not simply some pithy statement or cute way to twist a new saying. His wisdom was honed through the experiences of failure, tragedy, and triumph. The wisest Christian business leader in history once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I therefore caution all Christian business leaders to approach contemporary business “gurus” through the lens of God’s word. We can learn powerful and morally schrewd ways of conducting business through their advice, but I encourage you to compare it to the wisdom of Solomon, Moses, and Jesus before implementation.
- Wisdom is packaged in sometimes strange ways. Remember when Luke Skywalker first met Yoda? Remember his first impression of this quirky, silly looking creature? Luke was not impressed with the external Yoda. yet when he discovered the wisdom within Yoda, his view radically changed. Luke immediately wanted more! We need to look beyond the outer covering and into the soul of those from whom we seek wisdom. Eliminate any preconceived notions of what a “wise person” looks like, sounds like, or acts like. There are likely many Yoda’s in your path. Seek them out.
- Wisdom speaks across time. I am an avid reader of many great business magazines: Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, INC., Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Build Network, and more. As I read and learn strategies and tactics from so many wonderfully successful secular business leaders, I consistently remind myself to evaluate their “secrets” across years, even decades. Real wisdom is timeless, not time bound. Yoda’s wisdom to Luke Skywalker spanned several centuries. For Luke, Yoda’s wisdom did indeed speak across time yet was applicable to his current fight with the Dark Side. We too must seek timeless wisdom for our daily challenges and not get caught up in the hype surrounding a new management fad.
- Wisdom is a critically important to defeating the Dark Side. Yoda understood the tactics, strategies, and the power of the Dark Side. He did his best to warn Luke of all the insights he had gleaned from centuries of fighting the past Darth Vadar’s in his universe. Sometimes Luke listened – sometimes he did not. Christian business leaders need to be reminded that our battle is not only against our competitors – our battle is indeed against a Dark Side that is dedicated to destroying our companies and our lives. This is not to be taken lightly. For only through the wisdom that surpasses all understanding will we triump in the end.
Long Live Yoda
Although the character Yoda died in the final episode, his wisdom will certainly be passed along to the next generation of Star Wars movie characters and fans. It is a fun diversion for Christian business leaders to consider how his wisdom applies to our business lives and how we can better integrate this wisdom into our daily walk. So, listen to experience, look for wisdom in unique packages, judge what you hear and read across time, and always remember that the wisdom we seek is ultimately tested by a real and relentless Dark Side.
And may the right force be with you!
(Could not resist saying that!)
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