Category Archives: Humility

Warning… A Disaster Waiting To Happen!

29 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in Actions, Change, Character, Decisions, Humility, Power, Sacrifice, Servant, Teachers

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We have all heard this saying, “That is a disaster waiting to happen.”

 

A disastrous situation usually depends on what the situation is and who is involved; more or less – relative. Now let’s look at it from our dealings with those in leadership positions. What determines disastrous leadership? Do you believe a leader can be disastrous? Are they disastrous by nature or only with their actions and decisions? Better yet, let’s just say that some leaders can be disastrous causing.

Every day we are around leaders. We work with them, see them on TV, hear them on the radio, etc… What is it about them that misses the mark on being extraordinary as opposed to disastrous? Here are a few random thoughts that have been on my mind lately…

Disastrous leaders do these too often…

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Create turmoil…
Talk about stirring the pot; they are only happy when they are happy.

Easily frustrated…
At the drop of a handkerchief, I would say.

Unable to make mistakes…
It is not because they cannot or do not make mistakes, but because they are always right.

Do not want to see beyond the now…
They only change when they are forced to or if a change makes them look good.

The higher they climb, the more arrogant they become…
It is almost as if they have an “air” about them; however, they are only breathing in the smell of themselves.

For our leadership to be effective, we must be able to identify what is and what causes disastrous leadership. Knowing these characteristics and avoiding them enables you, your leadership, and others around you the opportunity to be the leader others need.

Yes, some things are a disaster waiting to happen. Yes, there is bad leadership out there, and often we feel the effects of it in our lives. However, we cannot live in a bubble. It is up to each of us, to find a way that enables and empowers others not to be a part of or create a disastrous environment.

©2019 J Clay Norton

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“Plastic-Leather” Leadership

22 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by in Actions, Freedom, Heart, Humility, Leader, Leadership, Pride

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PRIDE… It had “I” right in the middle of spelling for us as a reminder. Pride is a funny thing, and you can have it either way, good or bad in your life. To answer the “pride” question, you really have to look deep within yourself and be able to answer the hard questions.

I believe there is a vast difference between being a prideful leader and a leader who has pride. Both are everywhere but one of the two wants and needs an audience more than the other and does almost anything to obtain it.

Prideful leaders crave accolades, applause, and recognition. They live their lives drawing attention and will give it to themselves if they cannot receive it from anywhere else. Their presence of pride is lived on public identity. Listen for words of “me” and “I” in their speech.

Vinyl-cracking-1024x768I like to use the word “pleather” here as a definition for an analogy – prideful leaders are nothing more than “plastic-leather,” a sham and a fake. Eventually it will show what it truly is.

They rub enough elbows and pat enough backs to get where they want to be. Most of all, a prideful leader’s heart is hard, blocked and clogged from being able to let humility flow with the struggle of each beat. Their whole body becomes stiff, leaving them unable to bend in humility with and for others.

Here is what leaders who have pride do… THE OPPOSITE of everything above. Easy to say, right? Yes. How do you know? It shows in their actions instead of their speech. They help others without making other lives miserable. They teach and educate, not browbeat. They give confidence to others. Their pride is in the fact that they want others to succeed. Their freedom of being prideful is in their humbleness of putting others first — no “pleather” with them.

It matters not where you work or what position you are in; pride is always there. Let it be the right kind of pride in your life. Everyone around will be better for it.

I would be remiss if I did not close with this Scripture reference: “… Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'” – I Peter 5:5 (ESV).

©2019 J Clay Norton

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Leadership Pitfalls

25 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in Actions, Humility, Leader, Leadership, Passive-Agressive, Perception, Pitfalls, Pride, Value

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Who remembers, back in the day, Activision’s “Pitfall!?” For those of you who are young and read this blog, “Pitfall!” was played on the original Atari. I remember the day we purchased the cartridge. It was in the fall of 1982, and I was ten. As soon as I got home, we started playing it. I remember two things very vividly about “Pitfall!”. One, after we went to bed on a school night, my dad came into my room, woke me up, and asked if I wanted to play a quick game. The other memory is when I scored over thirty thousand points. The cool thing was to take a picture (with a real camera) of the TV screen showing your score, mail it in, and Activision would send you an official “Pitfall!” patch. Yes, I was pumped.

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Not to go into the whole idea of the game, but “Pitfall!” was about a jungle explorer, named Harry, who had to avoid the pitfalls of water, sand, alligators, scorpions, etc. You get the picture. Harry had to run, jump, and swing from vines, to find the treasure.  It was a classic.

What made me think of that, you ask? Well, I was just having one of my many memory moments and started thinking about the connection that could be made with pitfalls and leadership. With leadership or anything else for that matter, pitfalls can be those unseen holes of missteps that we fall into sometimes. Not so much on purpose, but pitfalls are there nonetheless.

Staying with the letter “p” of “Pitfall!,” here are a few pitfalls that I believe leaders have problems with…

Perception

Is perception reality? I think not, but there are those who believe it to be true. The problem with perception is that it is yours and yours only, and that does not make it right. A majority of the time, we see things only how we want to see them, rose-colored glasses idea. So much of our understanding is tainted by the values we hold dear in our minds and hearts. It is the misconceptions that cause many problems in leadership. Whenever a misconception is made, let’s admit that it could be a wrong conclusion and do everything we can to correct it.

Pride

Pride needs no write-up. We see it every day. There will always be that leader who thinks they have all the answers. This might be the deepest pitfall of them all, actually an abyss. The hard part is sometimes we cannot avoid prideful leaders. Pride… it’s like a bad odor that keeps hanging around, and it stinks. My good friend, Allen Marret says, “Pride causes your perception to miss out on what is real.” That’s a pretty good statement. Be humble enough to know that you do not always have it figured out.

Passive-aggressive

This is the one I despise, being passive-aggressive. Leadership positions are not a utopia. The grind and the struggle are sometimes real, but leaders who lead with pouting, moodiness, and manipulation are demoralizing to others. Yes, occasionally passive-aggressive leaders make hard decisions that need to be made, but it is not until they are backed into a corner of their own doing, and someone else is looked for to blame. Be a leader who is willing to address issues head-on, accept healthy conflict, and realize that everyone is not a “yes-person.”

I hope that after reading the above pitfall list, you can appreciate the really good leaders that are leading for the right reasons — those who make it a purpose of avoiding these common pitfalls. Yes, pitfalls do creep up on us, but to be diligently looking out for them can make all the difference.  Now, go find that treasure of leadership.

Just in case you wanted to know what the patch I received looked like, here it is:

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©2019 J Clay Norton

Remember… THINK LEADERSHIP!

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How Effective Is Your Effectiveness?

16 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Actions, Authentic, Consistency, Effective, Humility, Leader, Leadership, Purpose, Servant

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Do you ever wonder if your leadership is effective? This is not a question of asking if there is a direct correlation between everything, and everyone working correctly and together. I am asking you to think about the effectiveness of your leadership.

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Many times we try to define what effectiveness is, and it remains ambiguous. Does effectiveness equal the successful result or bottom line? Is that where we should immediately look? General society would probably say yes. While both the result and bottom line can give us an answer, does it tell the story of how? The how of the story is the process of your effectiveness, and I believe that is what we must consider in our leadership.

“Effectivelessness” (not sure if that is a word or not, but I like it) leaders fail to be able to define their effectiveness because they have misconceptions of their own making. As long as their status of popularity, power, and the bottom line of results are where they need to be, then the misconception stays true for them.

On the contrast, the effective leader’s effectiveness is seen and felt through the heart they have for others. They do not flaunt, threaten or remind you of their power, for their power is a by-product of their effectiveness. Their understanding of others creates an achievement level (bottom line) rooted in the foundational belief that an effective process equals effective results.

Take a football or basketball play… the result is to score, per se. Everyone has a job to do that contributes to a successful outcome. If the score happens then, the play was effective, and success was achieved. But what about the process and the why of how did it happen? Are the members of the team threatened not to execute properly? Or, do they score because it means something, not so much for them individually but as a group? Yes, both are effective, but over time, one will stay the course, and the other will lose its effectiveness. As a leader do you want to be known for the result only or the process of the results? (This whole idea can be found in Todd Gongwer’s book “Lead For God’s Sake!“)

Effective leaders make an intentional attempt to connect to the process of the journey of all, encouraging to the point that motivation becomes intrinsic, and achievement of the goal equals success for the right reasons.  They understand both the goals, the purpose and most of all the process. Leadership should not be a position where a person does nothing more than satisfying their own actions. The effective leader is for others first and is consistent with their leadership. We may and often do fool ourselves, but we cannot fool others who know how effective our effectiveness really is.

Be an effective leader. Everyone around will be better for it, including you.

©2019 J Clay Norton

Remember… THINK LEADERSHIP!

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