Easy To Say

No one is going to give you everything you need. No one is going to push you as hard as you will push yourself. No one is going to show you the way. No one is going to give you permission to lead or create or make art or do important things or be happy or make your life the life you want. No one is going to make you do what you know you need to do.

Take control. Figure out what you need. Start working. Create something amazing. Start again.
(So easy to say, but so very hard to do.)

Lead or Manage?

As I was reading last night, this passage really struck a chord:

"Management is almost diametrically opposed to leadership. Management is about generating yesterday's results, but a little faster or a little more cheaply. We know how to manage the world-we relentlessly seek to cut costs and to limit variation, while we exalt obedience.

Leadership, though, is a whole other game. Leadership puts the leader on the line. No manual, no rule book, no überleader to point the finger at when things go wrong. If you ask someone for the rule book on how to lead, you're secretly wishing to be a manger."
                                                             -Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception

Maybe I have been in middle-management for too long, but these paragraphs made me pause. I bet I reread them ten times last night and as I am writing this, I've reread them another three. I don't think most people look at leading and management this way. I've always thought of them being similar and even going hand in hand, but they don't. They aren't even dissimilar, but diametrically opposed.

When I first read this, I didn't understand what Seth Godin was trying to say. Honestly, I was a little confused. The more I thought about leadership and management though, the more this made sense. Leadership is not only more, but is also different than management. Even though many people utilize the terms as synonyms, they are not. I have been in meetings where we have bounced between talking about managing people and leading them, sometimes in the same breath. The problem arises when we try to manage people while thinking we are leading them.

You can't manage and lead at the same time. Too often, our leaders become trapped in the idea of managing people (or the world around them) and by doing so, stop leading. There are also a lot of people who call themselves leaders, but do nothing more than manage. We have enough managers in the world, but we are very short on leaders. Leading is more difficult and a hell of a lot scarier, but it does so much more. Look at yourself...when you think you have been leading, have you really? I know I haven't.

What can we do differently to lead instead of manage? (Hint: this is going to be different for each and every one of us. You have to figure out what you can do differently and I have to figure out what I can do differently.)

Do What Needs To Be Done

This is one of those times when the pictures says it all. Don't wait for someone else to do what you can do. Get out there and do what needs to be done.

Stop waiting for the right time or the right place or the right people or the right anything. The right time is now. You are in the right place. You are the right person. Do the work and make your world exactly what you want it to be. 

Live the life you want to live and build the things you want to see. It's not always going to be easy, but with hard work and belief in yourself, you can do anything.

Do Not Go Where The Path May Lead

We must stop living someone else's idea of what our life should look like. This is our life. If we don't like any of the paths laid down in front of us, we need to blaze our own. We don't have to do things because we think they are expected. We have the right to find our own light and to chase it to the ends of the earth.

We have to search for what makes us feel alive. If you haven't found it yet, don't stop looking. Blazing our own path in life is difficult, but is worth it. What do you want to do? Where do you want to be? What do you see yourself doing in five years? When you look at your daily life, how does it make you feel? These are all questions we need to be asking ourselves and each other, but we rarely do. When we do get asked them (often in job interviews), we have stock answers, but not honest ones.

We are often stuck, not being entirely happy, but not entirely unhappy, either. We are afraid to make changes as we aren't sure what will happen or if our choices will move the needle closer to happy or unhappy. Because of this, we don't do anything. I am here to tell you that this is no way to go through life. We all have to stop freezing with fear and spend more time taking that first step. Once we start moving, we have a better chance of continuing to move.

Discovering your meaning in life is tough. Many people never do, but this is because they constantly search for their meaning along someone else's path. They are convinced they have to do certain things or act in certain ways because of what they have been told. They never summon the courage to follow their own path. We have the ability and the duty to live a life that matters to us. No excuses. No apologies. Blaze a path other people will want to follow. You only get one shot at this life, isn't time to start making it count?

Lead or Manage

Leader---A leader moves forward, showing others the way. They don't take charge; others follow because they have faith the leader knows where they should go. This is a big picture person, they see things others don't or can't see. A leader is not afraid to take risks and chances because they know this is the only way to continue to move forward. They may motivate and encourage others, but their main goal is movement towards their desired outcome. The day to day operations don't matter as much to them as long as these activities aren't holding them back.

Manager---A manager focuses on the day to day activities and makes sure the people are doing what they should. Managers schedule and grade and are more concerned with what is happening now. Good managers will also coach and motivate, but see this as a way to get the work of today done in a better way. Managers focus on making sure things are running as smoothly as possible and will often be the ones tapped to make tweaks and changes to the operations in hopes to improve them. People don't follow managers, but in many cases, will respect them as the authority in their day to day interactions.

In almost all situations, it isn't possible to be both a leader and a manger at the same time. Yes, both of these positions are important, but they take different mindsets to accomplish. Great companies have both, but the world is full of managers, while leaders are much more scarce. All of us are capable of doing either...both take work, but leading is much more difficult than managing. Leading takes more time, a lot more courage and the ability to focus on where we should go. The world needs more leaders...where do you want to take us?

Honesty

Since when did honesty become so overrated?

I have never understood telling a person one thing and then saying something different when they are not around. I have never understood lying about intentions or thoughts to try to turn two people against each other. I have never understood how using deception as means of control works to keep people in charge.

In my view, a leader needs to be honest about intentions, thoughts and beliefs. The quickest way to lose followers is to tell them one thing and do another. It's not possible to build a strong following based upon deception and lies. This may seem like it is working for a while, but sooner or later, it will all come crashing down. Once the lying becomes public, the leader becomes nothing more than a bad joke in the minds of the followers and they lose all credibility they may have once had.

Take responsibility for your actions. Be honest and live your life by example. Followers need to believe their leaders practice what they preach. If the leader doesn't do this, the followers will quickly find someone new to follow. We may not see a lot of honesty in the "leaders" of today, but you'd be surprised at how many people are yearning to find an honest leader. Be it in companies, politics or anything else, we are going to get further and do more good in this world if the people leading the charge are honest.

The little adage we have heard for years is correct, honesty really is the best policy. Isn't it about time we started acting like it?      

Just Do It

We all have the ability to be great. We just have to move past the fear and the doubt and do what needs to be done. We have to be great leaders if we want to have people follow. We have to take chances and risk failure because without it, we will never challenge ourselves to be great. Without the challenge, we will never produce amazing art.

It's time to quit talking and start doing.