Report from the Field

Last week I learned something important at a much deeper level. I attended Otto Scharmer’s Leading Profound Innovation training in Toronto, and flew directly into the mix at the company where I now work. What a juxtaposition. From the safe warm confines of working with 50 other folks who where all dedicated to the concept of developing group consciousness in the world of business to the harsh reality of working within an unconscious group.

This isn’t going to go where you think it might. It is awfully popular to rail against the machine, to blame the system and to be indignant about “the man.” That I won’t do. That wasn’t the learning, anyway. The problem is not the company I work for, not the unconscious behavior, and not the people who are acting unconsciously. That isn’t a problem. That’s just the situation.

There are four people at the top–the CEO, the President (CEO’s right hand guy), and to other senior execs. Each one, a good, likeable man. Each one quite skilled and successful. The problem? They won’t have the tough conversations required at that level. They keep things just squiggly enough between them that each can jiggle enough to do whatever they want. But that show isn’t going to work any longer. They’ve grown too big, too fast and the current business opportunities and challenges are simply too great.

When I was simply consulting, I tried to help them work on that dynamic. But, do you want to know something? With the best of intentions, I actually ended up supporting the continuation of the craziness. When problems bubbled up from this dysfunction, I’d help them “solve” the issues. Solve the face value of the issues we did, but the root kept going deeper and deeper. The tree kept growing higher and higher. And here I am. Me and my tree.

So there I was, a little jet-lagged and tired, sitting in my first meeting at the company down south after learning about leading profound innovation up north, and I think to my self, “Oh, shit.” At first, I didn’t know why I thought that. Then, I had to check to make certain I didn’t actually say it out loud. (Good news, I hadn’t.) It was not “oh, shit” in terms of “why in the world did I commit to this company and this craziness,” but the kind of “oh, shit” that comes up with you see the writing on the wall regarding your own behavior and culpability.

Mind you, I’ve had family, friends and mentors who love to rail against the system. And I’ve joined them. But that is an old, worn-out record isn’t it? It is for me. So there I sat, with a very sinking feeling. My ego, very much wanting to see myself as being separate from the system, merely a witness to the insanity, possessing such high emotional intelligence that I could be there in it and not have it stick to me. But then, the one, crystaline “bing” rings into consciousness. 

I am not separate from this system: I must change.

Listen. Like you, I’ve read the whole Gandhi “be the change you want to see in the world” quotation. Yes, I got that intellectually. Yes, I’ve quoted it. But you can wax mentally on that notion all you want, but just wait until it nails you between the eyes. When the intellectual delight turns into your fingers going cold.

It is not whether the system changes as a result of me changing, either. If my motive is to change the system through changing myself, I will get whacked sixteen ways to Sunday. I took on this responsibility to learn about myself, to become a leader.

It is about me becoming the very best Otis I can be. If I do that, the system may change, the system may no longer affect me, the system may cough me up and spit me out, or I may become clear that I’ve taken all from it I can and it is time to go. But it comes down to this, I guess.

It is just as impossible to become a leader by subrogating to the system as it is to rail against it. So there lies the middle way. To simply become the best Otis I can be, to become the leader I know in my heart I am capable of becoming, and to accept the consequences–”good” or “bad”–of doing so. It is a fool’s game to see myself as outside of the system. It is a fool’s game to lose myself in the political games within it. It is a fool’s game to assume that if I do it well, then my reward is I’ll get my way.

So here I am. The System. And Not The System. And I am getting a feeling for what that means. I am getting a feeling for the way forward. I find that a very exciting possibility. Now. To do. Me and my tree.

Writing the Manifesto

I have added a post to The Fires of the Forge blog about writing a manifesto regarding where I see leadership is at, and what I believe leaders must now do in order to become leaders-on-the-vanguard. The post is the introduction to the manifesto, and the manifesto is a work in process. You can read the introduction by clicking here.

In case you are wondering why I am not posting it here, it is for two reasons. One is the some folks subscribe to both blogs and I don’t want to be redundant. The second and more important reason is that this blog is about my personal experience of becoming a leader and The Fires of the Forge is focused on sharing my expertise regarding emotional intelligence and leadership. In this blog, you will read about my very personal journey. In the other blog, it is more about process and less about my experience. That may change over time, but that is how I am using the blogs right now.

An Update

I have posted an update regarding the past week to my other blog, The Fires of the Forge. Because I have subscribers who subscribe to both blogs, I will not repost that blog entry here. If you want to see read that post, you can click here.

Changing Perception about Strengths and Weaknesses–Part 2

Step 2: Reflection

The second step in the process involves some reflection.

First, consider the following questions:

1. Which of the two lists do you have the strongest feelings about right now as you read over them–your strengths or your weaknesses?
2. What words would you use to describe your sense of enjoyment or appreciation of such introspective exercises as this, where you are asked to examine your strengths and weaknesses? Is it a pleasure? A pain? Neutral?

Second, go back to your two lists now and place a check mark by as many as five of the chararacterisics on your list you would most like to see changed over the next 12 months.

My Strengths and Weaknesses

Here’s what I came up with regarding my own six strengths and six weaknesses.

My Six Most Bothersome Weaknesses

1. Distractability: Continually shifting focus and therefore not bringing things to completion
2. Diminishment: Not valuing what I have completed and therefore not utilizing what I’ve created to its full potential
3. “Helping”: Wanting to “help” others and therefore interfering with their lives, process and timing
4. Intensity: Using intensity to go after and to try to get what I want and therefore causing hurt and harm
5. Activity: Pushing my self too hard and therefore depleting and imbalancing myself (and sometimes the people and environment around me)
6. Insensitivity: Not listening to life, to others and to my higher self, and therefore not being able to collaborate and cooperate to my fullest potential

My Six Greatest Strengths

1. Self Reflection: My capacity, skills and willingness to look at my own self and to change my behavior… and therefore continually increase my sense of freedom and enjoyment of life
2. Clarity: My ability to “see” past the face value of things… and therefore my ability to respond more intelligently
3. Versatility: The broad array of skills I have… and therefore my ability to do most anything I wish and capacity to vision, plan and problem solve
4. Communication: My verbal and written communication skills… and therefore my ability to connect, relate and influence
5. Love of Life: I care–about life and people… and therefore what I do has ever increasing meaning and therefore purpose for me
6. Perspective: I’ve seen beyond the form-side of life… and therefore I can work with life, life situations and people differently than I could before.

Changing Perception about Strengths and Weaknesses–Part 1

Now I’m going to give you the steps I am working with from Chapter 4 of Breaking the Rules. The chapter is called Changing Perceptions, and it is primarily about developing a strengths-based mindset.

Step 1: Define Your Strengths and Weaknesses

The first step in working with strengths and weaknesses is to define them. It is pretty simple:

1. Grab a piece of paper and something to write with
2. Draw a line down the middle of the page
3. Title one column Six Greatest Strengths and the other Six Most Bothersome Weaknesses
4. Write the six strengths and weaknesses

It is very important to notice how you feel while writing the list. Notice how you feel as you write each one. You will need to remember these feelings to complete the remaining steps.

Book Summary: Breaking the Rules

I have found I’m pretty good at taking information, distilling it down and adding some context that makes it more understandable to most folks. I enjoy doing that, and wish I had more time to do it! I once thought of making a business out of reading books, distilling them, adding context and designing what the authors almost always leave out–how to take action on the information.

Anyway, I’ve outlined the first three chapters of Breaking the Rules, the book I mentioned in my last post. I am going to try an experiment of selling the outline on my web site to see if people might like to start buying my summaries. I call them Otis Notes.

I’m looking for some feedback on them. So if you are willing to provide me with some feedback regarding how I’m doing this, I will send you my outline of the first three chapters free. Just email me privately at otis@leadershipforge.com with a subject line that says “Three Free.” You don’t even need to write a note, nor will I use your email address for any other reason other than to send you the free notes that describe how to ask right questions.

Working with Strengths and Weaknesses

I’ve just outlined the first three chapters of a book called Breaking the Rules by Kurt Wright. I’m enjoying the book, though I’m only 50 pages through it.

His basic premise is that effortless, high level performance is predicated on developing a few simple capacities. Two of them are: One, seeing how limiting our perceptions are. Two, specifically looking at the perceptions we have about what we believe are our weaknesses. His belief is that we need to focus on our strengths, when in fact most of us are obsessed with our weaknesses (trying the hide them, wallowing around in them, or swinging between both). That, and learn how to ask questions that (1) engage your intuition as opposed to your mind and (2) help you shift your perception into a state of receptivity.

Now, I am not buying the focus-on-your-positives “thing” hook, line and sinker. (More on that later.) I mainly don’t buy the “positive thinking” thing because “focusing on the positive” often means avoiding or denying the negatives. He kind of tippy-toes around this, and it is a slippery slope to see your weaknesses without indulging in them, so I am suspending judgment until I’ve completed the book. Perhaps he addresses this later in the book.

But I do believe that it is very important to be able to see my positives clearly, and to see with fresh eyes how my focus on the my negatives / weaknesses holds me back. I do know that I do focus on my negatives too much. Often through defensiveness. And sometimes by avoiding stepping up to things that have the potential to draw my negatives to the fore where they can be seen. And I know that keeps me “playing small.”

Whether I agree with Wright wholeheartedly or not, I’m learning some things I can integrate in to my approach to becoming a leader. What I am doing while reading his book is looking at my own bias against “focus on the positive” thinking while also looking at how I overamplify and therefore attempt to suppress my weaknesses and avoid playing a bigger game where they may come out in spades.

The first three chapters provided the context for his work and his framework for “asking the right questions.” That was what encouraged me to read the book in the first place–I love the power of asking “right questions.” And I tend to be too directive when I ask questions of others, like I know what they should know. So I use questions to guide them to what I think I know on their behalf, rather than asking questions that support them in finding their own answers in their own timing.

Chapter 4 is about learning to work with perception, and most specifically the perceptions we have about our strengths and weaknesses. This is what I will be sharing with you. The five steps I just worked through on the airplane on the way here to Toronto. I’ll give you the steps, what I came up with, the insights I reached, and the actions I’ll be taking as a result of the insights. In short, I’ll share how I am applying what I’ve learned from the book as I learn what it is to become a leader.

Busted

I talked with my wife today, and she busted me. She said, “Otis, I read your blog post. Would you like some feedback?”

“Of course!,” I said. Actually, it was a little more hesitant than that, LOL!

She reminded me that on this new blog, I was going to focus on becoming a leader and sharing that journey. Not on being an evangelist, LOL! So, since it is all about learning, I am going to do what is technically called a “do-over.”

Therefore, let it be known for the record that I just did my first “face plant” on my own blog, LOL! I’m a snow skier. When you go straight over the tips of your skis and smack into the snow, that’s a face plant. Face plants happen so fast you don’t have a chance to finish a full sentence like ‘Oh, s___!” You’re lucky to get to the comma on that sentence before impact.

A really bad accident, where you basically tumble like a raggedly Andy doll on PCP, jettisoning every piece of equipment off your bod… well that’s called a “yard sale.” And in that slow-unfolding type of wipe out, you’ve got some time to think about the impact. This was definitely a face plant. It happened so fast I wasn’t even aware that I was about to eat snow.

So I’m wiping the snow out of my googles, looking around casually to see who noticed, and I’m going to do a do-over. I am going to leave that prior post and not delete it, but now I am going to post again. Sharing my experience of the exercise I am going through without encouraging you to do it for yourself.

I love you, Sara. You cannot believe how much I feel your support on my journey to becoming a leader. So, in the words of a Kiwi ski instructor who ‘pushed’ me off the ledge at the top of my first double diamond,

“Let’s give it a go, shall we?”

Start from Where You Are

If you are going to be a leader, that implies you are gonna lead (even if the only thing you are leading is your own life). If you are are going to lead, you’ve got to know where. Where is always relative to where you are. Therefore, if you are leading somewhere, or if you are trying to map out where you are headed, getting clear about where you are is a very good place to start. Lots of folks overlook that. They think they know where they are.

So Where Are You? Where Am I? Right now I am working through a process myself that is interesting. I’d like to share it with you. I thought maybe we could go through it together.

Want to put this process of finding out where you are so you can get a better sense for where you want to head–and how to get there–through the paces? This is particularly appropriate if, like me, you’ve been playing a bit too small, hamstrung by some limiting beliefs. Want to give it a go? If you can think of someone who might want to play along side of you, by all means. Pass this along.

Fetch your self a sheet of paper, a writing stick and 10-15 minutes.

1. Draw a line down the middle of the page
2. Title the columns “My Six Greatest Weaknesses and “My Six Greatest Strengths”
3. Fill out the page with six of each.

Important! As you complete the process notice how you feel as you write each strength and weakness down. It is just as important that you notice how you are feeling in the exercise as it is what you write down in the exercise.

Got it? Good. It’s as simple as that. So what’s next?

If you want to know what you can then do with those six strengths and weaknesses, press the “No Comments” link above this post and just ask what to do next. If someone has already commented, the link will say “Comments”. But, go ahead. Push the button. Sound off. Tell me you’re ready. Because you know what? I’m not posting more about this process if you aren’t interested. What’s the point?

But if you do ask, you’ll get two things. First, another post suggesting the next step in the process, and, second, I will share my answers with you and encourage you to do the same.

OK. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking other people will sound off, you can watch the steps that unfold, then you can decide whether you are going to go through the five steps or so this will take. Hey, that’s an approach. And in the words of Dr. Phil, “How’s that approach workin’ for ya?”

Why read mindlessly or hold back timidly when you can engage? Hey, leadership isn’t about sitting on the sidelines. Leadership is about leaving it all on the field! I am going to hang it all out, right here, right now. I didn’t make up these steps. I am reading the steps. I am stopping. I am answering. And I am posting. Each step along the way. If you got da fever, jump in. The water’s fine. And if no one takes the bait, I’ll just get on with posting about other matters. Like how to be a good unicorn in a balloon factory.