I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
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Leadership Archives
July 23, 2008
The Secular Saint
Filed under: Inspiration
Time's Richard Stengel wrote a great piece on leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela. It helps that Stengel is Mandela's biographer because lessons like this are not pulled from a few interviews and a Google search.
I was particularly inspired by Stengel's eighth lesson: "Quitting is leading too."
In the history of Africa, there have been only a handful of democratically elected leaders who willingly stood down from office. Mandela was determined to set a precedent for all who followed him — not only in South Africa but across the rest of the continent. He would be the anti-Mugabe, the man who gave birth to his country and refused to hold it hostage.
I am surrounded by so many gifted elder leaders that must get this lesson of passing the baton. If they don't, I'm afraid my generation won't. And we'll continue to be doomed by this hostage mentality.
The article ends with a suggestion for how best to understand Mandela. "Ultimately, the key to understanding Mandela is those 27 years in prison," says Stengel. "The man who walked onto Robben Island in 1964 was emotional, headstrong, easily stung. The man who emerged was balanced and disciplined."
According to Stengel, Mandela "is not and never has been introspective." So when Stengel asked Mandela how he was different today than when he entered prison, Mandela responded in exasperation, "I came out mature."
For what it's worth, I was selfishly encouraged to learn that Nelson Mandela is not a great public speaker and that people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. There is hope for me!
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February 3, 2007
Growing to Outgrow
Filed under: Leadership
We said goodbye to a member of our Foursquare Communications team yesterday. Jo Ann Antoine was our art director and had a great five-year run. She was instrumental to so many big things, including the complete re-deign of our flagship publication, Advance magazine. Although Jo Ann will be missed, this is one of those moments I dread and look forward to at the same time.
As a leader, I think part of my job is to make sure the problems my team is solving are staying big and scary enough to have to work together on. This means I influence both the way we approach our problems and the way I create problems.
I also think that if I am not growing each person individually to outgrow their role, I'm being selfish.
Setting temporary sadness aside, seeing a good team member go is a thrill. It means they went as far as they could (at least on my team), and are prepared to tackle what may be next.
It also means the role is wide open for the next person to come along and take us places as a team that we've never been.
Know anybody looking for a job as an art director? Send them my way.
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January 29, 2007
Telling People What They Want to Hear
Filed under: Leadership
I was on a conference call last week when the gentleman on the other end of the phone asked for an update on how many people were registered for a particular event my team is responsible for promoting. Knowing that the numbers would be lower than what he was wanting to hear, my mind began racing for creative ways to communicate the real numbers. I was trying to avoid that downer moment when everyone in the room and on the call would look at me as if I had just taken the bottle away from a starving infant orphan.
Instead, I chose to go for the baby's bottle and reported the real numbers. It was a downer. No one took into consideration that the numbers were actually right on track. They instead suffered from that disease so many of us can relate to that says success isn't measured by reality, it's measured by perception.
When perception dictates our success, reality seems unbearable. I believe at the core of this problem is our driving need for acceptance. We want people to accept us, but we're unwilling to accept ourselves, so we hide behind a perception that is ultimately untrue.
I'm tired of hiding. And trying to see behind your mask is getting a little old too.
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April 16, 2006
Building Teams
Filed under: Leadership
A few thoughts as it pertains to building teams and/or hiring the right people:
- If I can hire a strength, I can manage a weakness.
- Although tempting, I do not want to surround myself with people that affirm my thinking.
A few questions for a potential hire:
- If a book publisher offered you a book deal today, what would the book be about?
- What was your worst failure?
- What has been your greatest success?
These questions are a great glimpse into a person's passions, struggles, and victories, and are great ways to assess competencies.
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