Art’s Weekly Leadership Message: Always Go Beyond the Bare Minimum
“With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”
Unless you’ve been cut-off from all forms of media for the past few days, those were the words offered by former Penn State Coach, Joe Paterno, as he reflected on his actions a few years ago in response to learning that a former assistant coach had been allegedly viewed in the act of child abuse.
We all face moments of truth…hard calls that define our lives and showcase our character. Paterno faced the toughest one of his career, and this iconic builder of leaders and promoter of character-based leadership failed at just the wrong moment. Or, at least he failed to provide the response appropriate for the transgression. Seriously, can you think of anything that is more valuable in any organization than the life and innocence of a child?
I don’t mean to pile on to Joe Pa. He’s got enough troubles. For the rest of us, recognize that the most difficult points in our leadership lives are profound moments of truth that define us going forward. We either face them, embrace them and grow stronger from them, or we let them beat us.
A half-measure in the face of a profound moral or ethical call is a failure of the highest order.
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Want More? Check out Art Petty’s latest book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. Created for fast-moving and highly motivated professionals and leaders, Leadership Caffeine offers more than 80 short, idea-packed essays for the critical leadership and professional development situations in your life.
Join the many groups and management teams and meeting/conference organizers who have adopted Leadership Caffeine as a discussion and development tool. The collection makes a great gift for the newly promoted leader or for your team during the holidays.
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About Art Petty:
Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach and Strategy Consultant, helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement or to inquire about being a guest on The Leadership Caffeine podcast.
Leadership Caffeine-Character Forged in Defeat
Filed under: "To Do" List, Career, Crisis Leadership, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Professional Growth
Everyone loves a winner. As a society, we like watching and reading about winners. We worship our sports heroes and we study and celebrate the great victories of history.
Hundreds of millions of people around the globe watch the Super Bowl every year, but only 5 or so can name the losers for the past 5 years. We remember the winners that grab the headlines and the losers are relegated to the fine print of the box scores and answers in trivia games.
Winning is great. It’s often the culmination of years of hard work, a relentless focus on condition and outstanding execution. What high school or college football coach hasn’t hung a poster in the locker or training room with Vince Lombardi’s inspirational quote:
“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious”
It’s easy to lose track of the reality that most victories are forged in the emotional blast furnace of prior losses.
It’s the losses and outright failures in life and business that either beat you down or fuel your competitive fires to grow and improve and compete and eventually lie on Lombardi’s metaphorical field exhausted and victorious.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not in favor of going out and seeking losses if you don’t have to. However, unless you are one of the rare ones that leads a charmed existence, chances are that you will suffer setbacks both large and small.
Your response to those setbacks is the measure of your character.
Projects will flounder and fail. What did you learn?
People that you invest in will fail or worse yet, seize the knife. Et tu Brute.
The life of a leader is filled with character building opportunities. Our scoreboards and performance measures and quarterlies tell part of the story, but victory as a leader takes place over a much longer time than we are accustomed to measuring.
Hey, I love great short-term numbers. I love the thrill of hitting and exceeding targets and the nice payday is good. But those victories are hollow compared to winning the real game.
Your victory as a leader will be reported years from now, perhaps long after you’ve walked off the field. Take a glance back and see what you’ve left behind.
If you’ve left a trail of people…professionals and leaders that are succeeding and successful and happily serving others, then you’ve won. Don’t worry about the failures. They made you stronger, they taught you how to succeed and they fueled the fire that ultimately forged your leadership character.
Today’s challenges might seem overwhelming. They’re truly nothing more than a momentarily obstacle or a misstep on a long road.
Take the time to face up to failure, reflect upon the lessons learned and then begin moving forward towards your next victory.
Regular readers know that I cannot resist looking to history for inspiration.
Lincoln faced defeat after defeat and a string of failed generals that left him the loneliest man in a divided America. He eventually got it right.
Washington might just have the worst Win-Loss record in the annals of military generals. We all know the outcome.
Failure can beat you down and break you if you let it. True leaders grimace, feel the burn in their bellies and then laugh and move forward.
Laugh today and keep moving forward.
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