Sinkholes and Leadership… It’s a Foundational Problem

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by The Book Chamber in Authentic, Foundation, Leader, Leadership, Passive-Agressive, Sinkholes

Sinkholes – You never know they are there… until the last moment when you step into one. A mirage on the surface, a bottomless abyss under… Indeed, a foundation problem, and we only see the results of them after time.

Over time, in either case, underlying “shifting” goes on. The same can be said for leadership in society and, in some cases, within ourselves.

Think about it in these terms… a sinkhole is an area of ground where water drains no other way than down and stays right there—all that water, all the junk; nowhere to go. Somewhere, something is going on underneath the surface. Sinkholes “just don’t happen.” Slowly, small incremental changes over time, and… wow, there it is. And that is when we ask ourselves, “How did that get there?”

I offer this analogy as to what we see in many areas of leadership today. What happened with leadership where it is no longer loyal, servant-based, others first? One could argue that some leaders are just a sinkhole, to begin with; yes, that is probably true. But what about leaders who start out with a great foundation? No one sees the eroding, wasting away.

Trust in authentic leadership is quickly dissolving in our society, but it has gradually happened, and we have allowed it. Somewhere, we have compromised here and there. While others have taken a hard-line stance, others just agree to disagree and move closer to their thinking. Through said compromise and our own passiveness, we are the ones who are helping create sinkholes. Instead of filling them up and hardening the foundation to stand, we will still allow it to be watered down, knowing that the water has no place to go beyond staying in that sinkhole.

I always end my classes with this, “Society needs good people, go forth and prosper.” We know what good leadership should be and what it should look like. However, we must also affirm that. When we/others start leading with self-based interests, no loyalty, passive-aggressiveness, you name it… the leadership foundation disappears. Unseen to the eye, until we have stepped into it or the crack is so big, no amount of repair can help.

We had a sinkhole in our yard a good time back, maybe ten years or so. It was big. I asked that same question as stated above, “How did that get there?” That sinkhole does not exist anymore. I went to HomeDepot and bought a weeping willow sapling for $9.95, end of the year plant sale. That sapling looked bad (think Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree). We planted that tree in that sinkhole with good dirt, staked it to grow upright, and of course… showed it some love. We rebuilt the foundation, the roots took hold, and we now have a huge weeping willow in our yard.

As leaders, let’s do our part to at least try to see areas where sinkholes and foundation problems can occur and be proactive in making sure that we do what we need to do to keep it from falling in. Once it falls, much work has to be done for it to become solid again.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

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Leadership Pitfalls

25 Friday Jan 2019

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

≈ 2 Comments

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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