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Podcast Season 3, Episode 4: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life (Eating an Elephant)

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it is a lesson that came from difficulty.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Eating an Elephant

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply.

I said previously that learning happens all the time and that opportunities to learn are all around us. One of the implications of that is that those lessons come from both everyday experiences and from life’s challenges. Life is full of wonderful, normal, and difficult experiences and events, and all of them bring lessons from which we can learn. This is one of those lessons that came from difficulty.

My wife and I had lived in our home for almost 10 years, but this home was different than others that we had lived in because we believed it would be our last home. Over those 10 years, we had done a lot to make it our dream home. But then God changed the direction of our life, and we had to list our home for sale and move. Part of me resisted this change because I didn’t want to leave this home. Part of me struggled with the uncertainty that it brought because, although God had stretched my faith with experiences of uncertainty in the past, in our years in that home, I had grown complacent in my faith, so this experience caused me to struggle much more than the challenging experiences that had affected me in the past.

Because of those things, I began to struggle with feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed. I had to pack up our home, but I kept putting it off. Of course, that only increased the anxiety, because it caused me to get further behind and have more to do, even as I was resisting. I had started moving some things out of the house and a storage unit, but I kept looking at what I still had left to do, and the time I had left to do it, and was finding it difficult to move forward. In that moment, I had to make a decision to force myself to act in spite of my feelings, and take the next step anyway. And then I had to keep doing that over and over again, one step at a time. In the end, after everything was packed and stored, and we were on to our next adventure, I could see God’s presence in the whole process, and knew that He was moving us for a purpose and was teaching me along the way.

So, what is the little lesson to learn from this life experience? Among other things, it is a reminder that when you are called to do something, it takes effort, self-discipline, and commitment to move forward with what you have to do, especially when you are battling against yourself. Like the old proverb that pointed out that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, when you are faced with a task and your emotions and anxieties are making it difficult, you only need to do the next step. Then, keep doing the next step after that. What matters is that you keep going. It’s the idea of “facts over feelings,” of exercising the discipline of doing what you have to do even when you don’t feel like it. It’s taking responsibility for what needs to be done and doing it.

The leadership lesson from this little thing in life is simply to do the task you have to do even when you don’t feel like it. It’s a necessary part of your responsibility as a leader (and as an adult!), and eventually your feelings will follow (meaning, you will feel good about getting it done once it is over). Eat that elephant one bite at a time.

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Quote Your Dad

“20 years from now, you will be the same person you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Zig Zigler

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Podcast Season 3, Episode 3: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life (Learning Happens All the Time)

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it reminds us that opportunities to learn are everywhere.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Learning Happens All the Time

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it reminds us that opportunities to learn are everywhere.

Sometimes the little lessons are right in front of us are but not necessarily always in something that we are doing or something that happens. Sometimes those lessons are simply in something we read or hear. One of those for me came from reading the Bible.

My wife and I are in the habit of reading a chapter in the Bible together every night. When we were in Deuteronomy and got to chapter 6, I read a passage that I was very familiar with, one that I had used often in an educational context. That passage was Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 through 9, which says:

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In a classroom setting, and in the application of biblical truth to teaching and learning, I always used this passage to point out integration, modeling, and both formal and informal instruction as essential to good teaching. Integration is the idea that biblical truth ought to be woven into everything. Modeling is the idea that the application and content of learning should be lived out and demonstrated. Including both formal and informal instruction is the idea that teaching and learning is planned and structured, but also spontaneous and relevant.

However, as I was reading this passage with my wife, what struck me this time was a life application lesson. The lesson was this: you are always learning. Or, at least, opportunities to learn are always in front of you. It’s your choice whether or not you learn from them, but they are always there. It might be in something you’re reading (which often happens with me). It might be in something you’re listening to or watching. It might be someone who is a mentor or model for you, a public figure that you admire, or even someone who is being a bad example. It might be something that you were experiencing in your own life, whether big or small. But the opportunities to learn are always there.

When I was in college and did a summer sales experience, Zig Zigler led a workshop in one of the training activities, and I remember him saying, “20 years from now, you will be the same person you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.“ The truth is, you will be changed as you walk through life and experiences, but you get to decide if that change is for your good or not. If you choose to learn from what you experience every day, you will grow throughout your life. So the lesson on leadership from a little thing in life that I learned by just reading a chapter in my Bible is the reminder that I always have the opportunity to learn and grow if I choose to see it and take it, because opportunities to learn happen all day long and are everywhere around you.

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Quote Your Dad

“He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” Proverbs 18:13

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Podcast Season 3, Episode 2: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life (First, Get the Whole Story)

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it reminds us of the importance of getting the whole story.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: First, Get the Whole Story

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories.

It was a normal day and I was driving in normal traffic. The light turned red up ahead, so I stopped and was waiting at the stoplight behind a long line of cars. There wasn’t any kind of urgency on my part, and I wasn’t trying to get somewhere by a particular time, but when the light turned green and nobody seemed to be going, I started to get a little frustrated. I started having those thoughts in my head like, “Oh come on, why isn’t anyone going, get moving people!“ But then I saw and heard an emergency vehicle approaching the intersection, one that I had not been able to see and hear from where I was in the line of cars. There was a reason why no one was moving, but because of my vantage point, I was not initially aware of that reason, and I allowed it to affect my attitude and my response. Immediately, I realized that the lack of movement was justified, and the problem was simply that I did not have all the information.

The next thing that came to my mind was the recognition that this was a tremendous example for life and leadership. God always has a plan and a purpose, but we don’t always see what he is doing, nor do we see the end intended down the road. We can be quick to react and jump to conclusions without knowing the whole story, and when that happens, it can affect our mood and our behavior, and can cause damage or lead to poor decision-making.

It made me think of Proverbs 18:13, which says, “He who answers the matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” I first wrote this verse down to keep on my desk when I was doing marriage and family counseling years ago, as a reminder to listen to both sides of the story and to try to get the whole picture before preparing a plan. Then I used the same verse for years in my roles in education with student issues, parent issues, and employee issues, again to remind me to try to hear the whole story before jumping to conclusions and making a decision. I have been guilty of responding too quickly before I knew the information that I needed to know, and it has never gone well. Just like sitting at that traffic light, jumping to a conclusion in my own mind about what was happening before I knew all the information caused me to have the wrong conclusion, which in turn affected my response and behavior.

So, the lesson on leadership that was illustrated in this little life event is the importance of pausing to get the whole story before jumping to a conclusion. First, find out what happened (and if it involves people, be sure to hear all sides) and then determine what your next steps need to be. And always be humble enough to allow for the fact that God may be doing something for a reason, and He just wants you to trust Him without getting ahead of His plan. The lesson on leadership from this little thing in life? First, get the whole story.

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Quote Your Dad

“You learn most things by experience, but it’s usually less painful for you if it’s someone else’s experience.”

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Podcast Season 3, Episode 1: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life (An Introduction)

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. Today we begin with this introduction to the series.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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