Ok, I’m retrospected out. So I thought I’ll finish this month with some perspective posts too.
I recently met up with Chris Li. He was in town to deliver his Advanced training for CSP-SM with Scrum Alliance. I had the pleasure of crashing his last hour of class on day 2 and then heading out to dinner to catch up. We talked for hours and most of it would be nothing interest to others. However, there was one thing he said that I’ve found has stuck with me as we start 2020. (Ok, lots of things he said were valuable, I’m just focusing in on this one thing).
“I’m dying on the battlefield”.
I didn’t know what he meant by this. So he elaborated. Basically, he doesn’t teach the next wave of leaders with the belief that he will fully experience a world with this type of leaderships/operation. He teaches for the next generation. He teaches for the future.
Right there he summed up something I couldn’t put into words. I’ve been lucky to experience wonderful work environments many many times. I’ve been lucky to experience amazing leaders throughout my career. Yet, I know that this is not the norm. I know that this is why I teach the Leading Amazing teams course, training courses, facilitation courses, etc. I want to help leaders experience what is possible – what I believe is the future of work and workplaces. I know that people are setup to fail often as leaders and that this is an uphill battle. What I never really thought about was the timeline.
Am I ok dying on the battlefield of creating leaders? I think I am. I know I could go work as a practitioner and experience what I hope everyone does but I’m training/coaching to help spread this for the long game. As Bob Hartman asked me once “do I want to change the world one company at a time or by helping many people?”. The answer was always people. The answer was always the long game even if I don’t see the end.
This has been a surprisingly freeing thought. I sometimes feel pressure to help each and every person immediately fix their situations but the reality is I can’t. I can inspire. I can teach. I can support. I can help instigate the change and honestly, that’s enough. I’m ok dying on the battlefield – as long amazing leadership wins.
What does this perspective generate for you?
