Tag Archive for: #leadershipezra

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 you don’t always see the significance of your impact.

One of the items on my wife’s bucket list was to see the stars. I don’t mean the stars that you see when you step outside on your back patio and look up at the sky, maybe see the Big Dipper, the North Star, and a few of the other stars in the sky. What I mean is that she wanted to go someplace where you could stand outside at night where there are no other lights, and look up and see hundreds of thousands of stars all across the expanse of the sky. One of the places that we knew was known for that was Big Bend National Park in West Texas, so I was thrilled when we were recently able to take a trip there, so that she would have an opportunity to see the night sky (“The stars at night are big and bright, . . . deep in the heart of Texas!”).

The first two nights that we were there, we couldn’t see anything. The skies were cloudy and overcast both day and night, and as much as we wanted to see the stars, cloud cover kept it from happening. But then the third afternoon, the weather cleared and the clouds moved on. We waited until well after dark, then went outside into the dark night, looked up at the sky, and stared in awe. The expanse of stars across the heavens was absolutely incredible! We could see constellations, planets, and known stars (yes, I was using an app on my phone to help me identify those things), as well as tens of thousands of other dots of light in the sky. Amazingly, we could see the Milky Way. We couldn’t begin to capture the majesty of it in pictures, even though we tried.

One of the things that I realized, besides the awesome magnificence of the Creator of the heavens and earth, was that those same stars had been there the previous two nights; I just had not been able to see them. But just because I couldn’t see them didn’t mean that they were not there. Once the clouds had cleared, I was finally able to see what had been there all along. And that same idea is true of the work you do. You don’t always see the outcome or the impact of what you are doing, but that doesn’t mean something isn’t happening

I can clearly remember the day I received a particular phone call. I was walking my dog outside, and my cell phone rang with a number that I did not recognize, so I answered it (which I don’t normally do). When I said hello, the voice on the other end identified himself as a student I had taught 15 years earlier. He proceeded to recount for me an experience in my class that later led to a conversation I had with him, which he said had changed the trajectory of his life. We had a great conversation, and in the process, I learned that I had made an impact years earlier that I did not even know I had made.

I share this just to be an encouragement to you. If the work that you are doing is the calling that God has placed on your life, and it is work that you are doing to serve others and honor God, and if you are doing it well, you are making an impact. You may not see it in the moment. In fact, you might not see it until years down the road, if at all. I hope that somewhere, sometime, someone lets you know about the impact you have had, just like that student did in his phone call to me, but even if they don’t, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from seeing the stars come out from behind the clouds. Your life and your leadership are making a difference. You are having an influence on others. Right now, you may not know the difference you are making, but like the stars behind the clouds, just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

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 teaches us that doing the same thing doesn’t always guarantee the same result.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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’s about lessons on leadership I learned by losing 50 pounds.

For over twenty years, I had stayed in the same 20-pound weight range. I had tried a variety of diets and exercise regimens, but nothing ever moved me out of that range, nor had any of them ever become a long-term lifestyle. I convinced myself that I simply had a stocky build, and even had a sense of pride about my larger size. And I believed that I was much healthier than I actually was. But then I was confronted with the realization that I was very overweight, out of shape, and unhealthy. My doctor had to prescribe medications to treat the effects of my poor health, and a family member confronted me about my overeating. I realized that I was endangering not only my own life, but also the care and well-being of my family.

It was then that I embarked on a journey that (literally) changed me into a different person. I changed some of my eating behaviors, incorporated several tools to help me maintain a daily awareness, and gradually implemented moderate exercise. The results shocked me – I consistently lost several pounds a week, losing a total of 50 pounds in just under four months to reach my goal weight. My greatest moment of joy came when I was able to once again wear the leather bomber jacket that my wife had given me at our wedding 26 years ago. As I traveled along this journey, I began to identify reasons why I was succeeding this time, when I had tried so many times before without the same results. What I saw was that there were certain specific behaviors important to my success, behaviors that kept me going and produced consistent results. After I reached my goal and reflected back on those behaviors, I realized that not only did they help me accomplish that weight-loss goal, but they also represented some very valuable and practical lessons on leadership. So, here are five lessons on leadership I learned by losing 50 pounds:

• Everyone wants to know your secret. After it started becoming noticeable that I was losing weight, people would ask me what are doing to lose weight, typically for one of two reasons: 1) they were looking for a trick, something easy and simple that they could do to also lose weight but without a lot of effort; or 2) they wanted to know what I had done so that they could do exactly the same thing and get the same results. The same thing happens in leadership. People will read books or attend seminars so they can copy someone else’s pattern or uncover the secret. But there is no secret, and if you try to be someone else, you are not being authentic and genuine.
• There are only a few core behaviors. It should not be a surprise that my weight loss and fitness really boiled down to diet, exercise, and a handful of core behaviors. It started with making better food choices and exercising in moderation. I found and added a couple of other accountability behaviors that worked for me, and the result was consistent, noticeable weight loss. Again, the same is true for leadership. There are lots of principles, theories, and ideas on leadership; far too many for any one person to use. But there are certain core principles and behaviors that show up in leadership research over and over. You need to learn, understand, and apply those core behaviors, and to use them in a way that matches who you are.
• It requires discipline and effort. There was no simple trick to my weight loss and fitness change. It took hard work, and one of the most important things I did was to keep moving forward, exercising when I didn’t feel like it, and resisting the urge to eat what I shouldn’t. Likewise, leadership is not easy. It requires discipline and effort, and there are times when you want to quit, but you must steel yourself to keep going, to not give in to those pressures. Keep doing what needs to be done. Keep leading, and keep leading in the right way.
• Moderation is essential. I knew that if I had jumped right into an intensive workout routine, it wouldn’t last. So I started with a little bit and made incremental increases. By the time I reached my goal weight, I had very gradually worked up to a moderate but consistent level. It worked because I didn’t overcommit at the beginning, and I made incremental, manageable improvements. Effective leadership understands that moderation is a key to success. If you overcommit your energy and resources before you’ve built up stamina and strength, you will run out of gas. Be balanced in your approach.
• It needs to be enjoyable. I eliminated unhealthy and artificial products, but I also ate food that tasted good and treated myself with some things that I thoroughly enjoy, but I ate them in moderation (see point 4, above). While eating healthy and natural, I also ate food that I could enjoy eating, and allowed myself rewards and treats because I knew that denying them completely would likely result in overindulgence if, or when, I gave in. In the same way, the work of leadership needs to be enjoyable. That doesn’t mean that it will easy, but you should be getting a sense of satisfaction from the work you are doing. So you need to find enjoyment in it, and you need to provide rewards along the way.

There’s one other lesson I learned, a bonus lesson, but it’s not actually a separate lesson; rather, it is a lesson that is woven through the other five. The bonus lesson is this: It has to be sustainable. All the work I had done would have been fruitless if, six months later, it was not something I could have maintained. Your leadership style and practice need to match who you are while focusing on core behaviors with incremental improvement, and it needs to bring you joy. Therefore, these five lessons, and the ideas they represent, have to be applied in a way that makes them sustainable. Don’t try to do things in a way that you can’t keep up, because you won’t.

I am in a much healthier place in my life now. In the process of getting there, but along the way, I also found some principles that transfer to a healthy approach to leadership. Ultimately, this change in my life that made me better also made me a better leader. There is no secret. Start with key core behaviors of good leadership, work hard, be balanced, and find joy. Do these things, and you will cultivate healthy and sustainable leadership.