Empowering Leadership and Music Articles
Each article uses our empower framework that we also use for our leadership coaching services.
wonder… Cleaning Up
You have today. While always true, particularly today is the day to Clean Up anything you need to put a â2021â on. For me, it is ordering supplies and other expenses that I can accelerate into the rearview mirror, and then downloading fiscal records (stop laughing – I do actually keep them – mostly). It is one of those business practices that I used as a game each year that I continued to play in this new path. The wonder is I still do that mentally – stuck thinking eventually someone will figure out that I need to get a âreal jobâ…
Cleaning Up observation
âSo – he comes in here, throws papers in the air, plays some guitar, and then does it again?â Yes – yes, of course. My nephew was visiting, and his observation was spot on – my office’s normal state is a disaster. My Daughter on seeing my Cleaned Up version one time remarked more politely, âMy, there are a LOT of things to observe!â. Up comes easy – Cleaning, not so muchâŚ
partners to Clean Up
Music is the cornerstone of my work now. U2 was formed by people who were, like me, actually not great musicians. Larry played the drums âwrongâ and The Edge was at best a rhythm guitar player when they started, to say nothing of Adam who only learned the Bass because they needed one. Even Bono wasnât that sure of his own voice – both writing and singing. Can we learn something about partners and Cleaning Up – only from the music?
Cleaning Up management
I didnât even bring blank paper with me. Thinking about leaving behind the only reality I had known as a working manager for nearly 40 years, I knew I needed to get some clarity. Offsites were by now second nature, mostly done poorly, and frankly one of the things I found myself Cleaning Up for other teams. And here I was sitting in our recently purchased Mountain House, a little dizzy from the altitude, and more from what the heck was I thinking?
engage Cleaning Up
Happy Boxing Day! Sorta Christmas Lite for the poor and the working-class across the British Empire, it is now a holiday that has turned into something much more American – a huge post-Christmas Sale đ So In both contexts, it is bringing home âboxesâ of goodies that you may not have gotten last week. One year this week between Christmas and New Yearâs, our hot water heater went out, requiring us to Clean Up the whole back basement area ⌠and sparked another way to think about BoxingâŚ
renewing Belief
My early church experience includes another basic Belief that many find somewhat hard to believe: Fun. For example, on New Year Eve we would always have a party – at the Church. We would have dinner together late as Church family, watch a cheesy family movie (16 mm projectedâŚ), and then at Midnight, an old man would walk through the door one way, and another man+ would come back – dressed up as a baby đ A bad visual, but characteristic of that group of people that formed my Belief that Fun is needed to renew us…
executing with Belief
Before your day gets off to a roaring start of execution, let me say Merry Christmas!! Filled with lots of traditions that come from Beliefs modeled around you, hopefully, yours are as fun as mine are. Our home had a completely separate living room that was divided from the house with a solid sliding door. Thus access was âlimitedâ until we had gotten completely dressed, had a full breakfast, and then Dad would go in and prepare for our entry – with his light bar of Four Thousand wattsâŚ
wonder of Beliefs
âYou are really odd!â. That was the greeting from a fellow coach standing outside of the conference room at Darden Business School. You might think that was a bit harsh, but the wonder is that is a compliment to me. Literally raised to be âdifferentâ for as long as I can remember, it is ironic that now I am known as a great connector of people and friends. And the real wonder is that without the early Churchâs most radical stance, you wouldnât be reading thisâŚ
Belief in observing
Looking back, it is no wonder I have such different Beliefs. Having moved to Tyler in my teen years, we again found a Church home that had a lot of things going on. The big âdowntownâ church had a gym/roller rink, a large almost Cathedral building, and a very active Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) group. Mirroring The College Kids we have been discussing, Sunday evenings were started with Vespers, and then dinner and fellowship, with some light lessons to think about. And in the mid 70âs they decided to offer Sex Education – at churchâŚ
managing Beliefs
Integral to forming and managing my Beliefs was sailing together with The College Kids. Dadâs engineering background, of course, brought him to sailing – one of the most technically challenging sports around, and yet, also the most simple. Can you as a Team organize yourselves and the boat to take advantage of the wind and events to be first across the line. Simple – not easy, as with most discussions of Beliefs. The model we use to talk about it is also from sailing – an IcebergâŚ
Belief management
Born only a few years after the Staple Singers started, my home was a constant hub of activity from our Church. I have never asked why, but my parents managed the College Kids group at First United Methodist Church of Richardson, Texas. So many of my basic Beliefs came from this season, it is hard to even remember where things started. Certainly, I have always thought of Church as a fun place – we had big parties both at the house and at Church, and as my Dad would always add, without the need of alcohol to have fun đ
engage your Beliefs
âWhat do you Believe?â It was a very direct question, from a very direct woman. My wifeâs âgreat auntâ asked me … just as we were leaving from her small apartment. I had been helping her write her memoirs, which turned out to be much more coaching than either of us had anticipated. As she would tell her stories, I would simply listen and try to write as fast I could to record these stories that were amazing, raw, and very engaging. And a question that you should always be ready to engage – actually, what DO you Believe?
renewing Together
Faith, fundamentally, is belief in something you canât see, but you know is there. As the results of Project One spiraled out over the last year I was there, I knew that it was time to take a leap of faith into something that I had never really contemplated. The dream of owning my own business was never a thing, and yet, that was what was on the horizon. If I really believed in what I was seeing both as a need and my talent, I had to act. On Faith, or In Faith but either way, how?
executing Together
Through daily iterations of a spreadsheet of 1765 engineers around the globe, we were as ready as we could be to launch Project One on January 1. If someone ever suggests you do a massive corporate reorg at the first of the year, just say the sentence that I work with leaders on the most. A complete sentence that, as they say in Charades: 1 word, 2 letters. âNoâ. I would love to tell you we were confident this would be executed well, but honestly, we were really never sure what the real objective was in the first place, so we would hit somethingâŚ
Together… wondering..
Arriving on a late afternoon flight to Mountain View, we had to save our energy for the return flight… in only 5 hours. The Red Eye home was required to keep a meeting with a key customer that could not be moved. And we wondered and worried about this meeting, mysteriously called with only 24 hours’ notice, mandatory, and with an attendee list that was not clear. Luckily the business leader I was scheduled to meet in that customer meeting was on the flight out and back⌠so we would be in whatever this was together. And that made all the differenceâŚ
observing Together
Engineers LOVE problems. Nothing can bring us more joy than a big, complicated problem, with lots of loose ends. And, soon you observe that business people do not like problems. Not in the least â not big ones, not small ones, nothing that resembles them. They like things to run smoothly, with smiles all around. And having just come from a season of EVERYTHING was a problem, which even the business people were in agreement with, I was stepping into a completely different world and observedâŚ
partners Together
What is your intention?â It is such an obvious question once asked, but not one I considered often. In my previous role, our leaderâs âintentionâ to get us a partner Executive Coach to hone our leadership skills was met with shock and disbelief. Really â now? When we canât find time to go to the bathroom? My wife was observing the stress changing even with what detergent she had to use to get my clothes clean. Now â when we were not sure this business would even survive?
Together managing…
đ The view from the new office was great – facing east over a man-made lake, I would be rocking out to Ray and watching the sunrise most mornings. I had negotiated hard for my offer – with the encouragement of my mentor, and was now glowing in the realization that I was well-positioned. A role that was a mix of technology leadership which I knew, and people development which I wanted to focus on now, Together in one place. One morning in the first week I was there, the recruiting manager who I had negotiated with came in, closed the door, and asked âDo you have anything you would like to tell me?â
engaging Together
âOh wow. That is going to really cost youâ. I had just gotten a call from the recruiter for the role that would take my career to the next level. Having made it through most of the interviews, I had won her over, and it was now down to the âfinalâ interview: dinner with my family at the home of my boss and my peer, the CTO – Together with their families. They both had smaller kids – 8 and 6. Having started early (surprising you right ?) my kids were now mostly grown⌠so who would I take with me? And would I be able to pass this âcharmâ interview?
renewing Courage
A well-orchestrated job search, as 100âs of leaders I have worked with over many years say, ends with 2 outside offers, and one inside offer. It then takes Courage to choose between them, and also a lot of faith that you have done the best you can, and look forward with that same Courage. It all sounds very clean and tidy, which might lead you to wonder why I was in the building on a Saturday morning early, loading up most of my âstuffâ with my wife … and slinking out of the garageâŚ