A few years ago during a hot Chicago summer, I set a goal to ride my bicycle 1,000 miles. While modest for many hardcore riders, this was a non-trivial challenge for me given time pressures and many other family obligations. Oh yeah, and age and my relative level of fitness may have added just a bit of drama to this personal goal.
As the miles crept closer to the magical number, I motivated myself by imagining the exhilaration of riding the last mile of this personal fitness milestone. It’s possible as I struggled with oxygen deprivation and sweat blurring my eyesight that visions of cheering neighbors hoisting champagne glasses during my last mile may have entered my mind.
The reality was that I goaded my wife and younger son into riding the last mile with me and then we went home and got on with our Saturday. No cheering neighbors. No darned champagne. Nothing but the solid satisfaction of a goal achieved. Priceless.
Imagine my surprise a few months ago when I noticed the blog counter here at Management Excellence ticking closer to the number 1,000. Again, nothing magical about this number in the world of blogging, and in this case, the post count has never been a goal. The focus of my work here has been and always will be to explore the challenges of managing and leading effectively and to offer ideas, guidance and a bit of inspiration to strengthen personal and organizational performance.
And like any craft that you labor at for an appreciable amount of time, you’re bound to learn a few things along the way. Here are a few of my lessons learned in writing 1,000 posts on management and leadership.
At Least 8 Lessons Learned While Writing 1,000 Management and Leadership Posts:
1. I discovered that I’m not as good of a writer as I thought I was. Ouch! I work hard to presentable to the world in this medium. Oh, and I suck at proofreading. For all of the typos, please accept my sincere apology!
2. My interest in effective leadership and competent management has evolved over time into a burning passion for the pursuit of great leadership and remarkable management. It’s hard to explain, but I love this stuff! (My sixth grade teacher would punish us mercilessly if we ever used the word “stuff.” I trot it out every chance I get!)
3. There’s a reason I called it Management Excellence and not Leadership Excellence. While the pursuit of and practice of great leadership is all too rare in our world and leadership is always an issue or even the issue, it’s the promise of the tools of management to create that keeps my fingers glued to the keyboard and my brain in overdrive. From developing high performance project and management teams to developing and driving great strategies to teaching teams, individuals and organizations to learn how to make better decisions, I’m convinced that we’ve barely scratched the surface of this topic of management…a topic that Gary Hamel calls, “the technology of human achievement.” (I agree with Gary.)
4. I write to help. I’m grateful for the many of you who have reached back to let me know that something here prompted an idea that helped you in your own cause. There are over 1 million words here at Management Excellence, and every one of them is offered up as help.
5. The work of writing this blog has changed the way I learn and create. Every post is an exploration prompted by something in the business environment. The kernel of an idea remains just that until I put fingers to keyboard and think and write. I’m practically helpless without the keyboard or a really big whiteboard.
6. The people I’ve met through this work are truly remarkable. A number of you I hold dear as friends. Thank you for your friendship!
7. This work of writing has transformed me as a professional. Yeah, that sounds corny, but it’s true. This has been the single most powerful, sustained personal professional development activity of my lifetime. I love it. I highly recommend that you try it. With apologies to the original author of this quote, writing is simple, all you do is stare at a blank page (screen) until drops of blood form on your forehead.
8. I’ve learned that I’m long winded and I need to work harder at getting to the point and then tying things off. Therefore…
The Bottom-Line for Now:
That’s enough time reflecting. There’s work to be done in the world of management. Thanks for being here and I’ll see you during the next 1,000.
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