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 about doing the right thing, even when we don’t want to.
Here is the link to the podcast.
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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 about doing the right thing, even when we don’t want to.
Recently, my granddaughter did something that I had seen her brother do, and that I had seen both of my kids do when they were the same age – she picked up something that she knew she was not supposed to touch. The reason why I knew that she knew she was not supposed to pick it up was because she looked me square in the eyes as she picked it up and then turned around and ran as fast as she could before I could say or do anything. I caught her, of course, and took it away because it was not something good for her to have, which caused her to have a meltdown. I had to take it away, in spite of her tears, because I am the adult and I generally know whether or not something is good for her to have or to do, even if she doesn’t know it (and even if she doesn’t agree with it!).
Sometimes that’s what we do to God. We insist on making our own way even when we know it’s not what we should be doing, and then we get upset when the outcome is not what we wanted. Just like my granddaughter did in this instance, we decide that we want something, or that we want something our way, and we act on it. In doing that, we often think that we know better than God, or that God doesn’t really understand, and so we disregard God and do our own thing. But in our situation, God as our Creator really does know what is best for us, and has reasons for the boundaries that He sets.
Ezekiel 20:11 communicates this truth when it says, “And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, which, if a man does, he shall live by them.” What this verse is teaching is that God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, gave us guidelines by which we should live because He knew that living by those would result in the best life possible. But sometimes we think we know better, and choose to do something different, and then we pay the consequences for it.
There are two valuable truths we can take away as leadership lessons from this little thing in life, from this illustration of my granddaughter doing something that she knew she was not supposed to do. First, we need to do the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing. Second, we need to trust God’s wisdom and purpose, even if it doesn’t make sense to us. The willingness to do these two things will benefit us in the long run, and will save us from what would likely be painful consequences.
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 about helping people have the right frame of mind.
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 teaches us about helping people have the right frame of mind.
My grandson seemed to not be in a good mood, and was not being very cooperative or kind. At the time that he was struggling with his attitude, he decided that he wanted something and demanded it. His mom, my daughter, told him he needed to ask nicely and say please, to which he informed her (in all seriousness) that he had used up all of his pleases, so he couldn’t do that.
What I watched my daughter do next was brilliant. Without reacting to him, she asked him a completely different question. She asked him if he wanted to help her make some coffee. He loves to help do things – in fact, recently he told me that his favorite thing to do was to be my helper – so he immediately jumped up and said that he wanted to help. He then helped to make coffee for everyone, and his attitude completely turned around. He became joyful and kind, asked nicely for things, and “found his pleases.”
For whatever reason, he had been in the wrong frame of mind. It could’ve been because he was bored, hungry, upset about something else, or a number of other reasons. But, regardless, his attitude was out of sorts, and it was affecting his perspective on everything. The response that my daughter took did two things: it redirected his focus to something positive that was meaningful to him, and it gave him something to do that affirmed his value.
That’s a tremendous lesson that we can apply to our leadership activities and relationships. Sometimes people are not in the right frame of mind, and it affects their emotions, their behavior, and their performance. We may or may not know what those reasons are, but there is still something that we can do. We can redirect their focus and their responsibilities so that they can do something that is meaningful to them and affirms their value. When that happens, it gets them out of the cycle or pattern that is keeping them in a negative frame of mind, and lets them redirect or refocus themselves. What you have really done is given them purpose and value, which will likely, in turn, affect how they feel and behave.
So the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, this story of my grandson running out of pleases, is that there may very well be something you can do to help change someone’s attitude and frame of mind. You won’t do it by reacting or belittling. But if you can refocus their attention and their efforts to an opportunity that provides meaning and value, you may just help someone completely change their day.
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 the necessity of setting the stage for success.
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 teaches us the neccessity of setting the stage for success.
I was playing with my granddaughter in her room, and as we played, she would pick a toy to play with, bring it to me, and we would play with it for a while. After a little bit of time, she would go back to her closet and pick out another toy to bring to me. At one point in that process, she brought out a little toy car dashboard, with a steering wheel that turns, a horn that honks, a blinker switch, and other noises that it would make. Before she could play with it, however, it needed to be turned on, so she handed it to me so that I could do that for her because she couldn’t do it by herself. Once I had turned it on, she sat down with this toy and played with it for quite a while. This simple act of handing it to me to turn it on before she could play with it reminded me of a great leadership lesson.
She was at an age when a lot of development and learning was happening, but she still needed help. There were things she had learned to do (and was continuing to learn), but there were also things with which she needed help doing. That’s a normal part of the growth process. That’s also why there are things that children are not able to do until they reach a certain age and/or stage of development (like driving an actual car, not just playing with a toy car dashboard!). So I had to “set the stage” for her learning and growth. I had to do something that she was not yet able to do by herself, because her little fingers couldn’t open the latch to get to the on/off switch. After I had done that, she was able to take full advantage of the toy.
This is a great illustration of something that happens between you and the people you lead. If you are a good leader, you already know that learning and growth is a continual, lifelong process. Part of your responsibility is to help facilitate that growth. But because it is a process, most people likely don’t already know everything they need to know; and if they are inexperienced and early in that growth process, they definitely don’t know everything they need to know. Therefore, for you to help facilitate their growth, you often need to set the stage for their learning and success.
That might look like equipping them with resources; providing boundaries, limitations, and guidance; putting some things in place ahead of time; modeling or demonstrating what needs to be done; or pointing them to examples that they can follow. Regardless of how it happens, you need to ensure the same underlying idea: that you are setting them up for their best opportunity for learning, growth, and success.
That’s the leadership lesson you can take from this little thing in life, from this story of my granddaughter needing me to turn on a toy for her before she could play with it. Do you want to help your people succeed (and by extension, help yourself succeed)? Then prepare the way. Instead of being an obstacle or inhibitor to their learning, be a facilitator. Do things that you can do to set them up for success, not for failure. In other words, you need to set the stage.
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 some things that we can learn from making messes.
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 teaches us some things that we can learn from making messes.
When my granddaughter was a year and a half old, she would make messes everywhere. Specifically, she would dump all of her toys out on the floor. For example, she would point to the Duplo building blocks because she wanted to play with them, and when I would hand her the bag, she would immediately dump it upside down. Duplos everywhere! Then she would try to start putting them together to build something, and would get frustrated because they weren’t going together the way that she wanted them to, and then she would hand some to me, asking me to help put them together. I would let her struggle a little bit, and then I would step in and help build something for her, and she would get all excited. It wouldn’t take very long before she would lose interest in what she was playing with and would want to go play with something else, leaving behind a mess that needed to be cleaned up. But everything that she was doing with those toys was part of her learning and development.
The same is true for all people, so I see in this illustration at least four things that are important for the growth and development of people around us. You may find more lessons that are valuable for you, but these four jump out to me pretty quickly.
- When people are learning something new, they will inevitably make messes. Yes, there will be things that you can do to mitigate how much of a mess is made, but just the fact that it is new, and that they have limited experience and knowledge about it (that’s what makes it new!), will result in messes being made as part of the learning process. Make it safe for those messes to happen.
- There will be struggle, and the struggle is also an important part of the learning process. It is in the struggle that they will gain experience, learn what works and what doesn’t work, build their strength, and learn valuable lessons, like perseverance.
- They will probably need help somewhere along the way. However, you have the power to make it safe for them to ask questions, ask for help, and learn from the experience. If you shut them down, or make them feel stupid or like a failure, or react with only negative consequences, they will not ask for help, and will likely not learn what you need them to learn.
- Finally, there will likely be some cleanup that you will have to do. That comes with making messes. Of course you want people to learn how to clean up their own messes, but because they are just learning, the mess can be overwhelming to them, and they need your help. So teach them what to do to clean up or make things right again, but also help them do it.
People are flawed, learning is a necessary and natural process, and messes will be made. The lessons we can learn for leadership from a little thing in life, like my granddaughter dumping toys all over the floor, are valuable for your leadership. Understand and accept that people will mess up when they are learning. Remember that struggle is necessary for growth. Make it safe for people to ask for help, and encourage them to do so. And be prepared to do some cleanup. Basic lessons from a simple experience, yet incredibly important!
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.
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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