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Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.

Once upon hearing a person tell me that he had worked continuously for four years with no vacation, I stopped to think about how unsuccessful that person appeared to be to me. Now, I fully realize that to some people who enjoy their work, this might be a desired result – work all the time because that’s what makes you feel good.

I prefer to think of life like a musical composition. It’s full of variety – tempo changes, dynamic variations, rests, fermatas, and more.

With a variety in like the Transformational Leader is equipped to think clearly and respond to the challenges of leadership with a fresh perspective.

TIP: If you plan to create variety in your life, the change of pace with empower you for challenges ahead for your leadership. Do not lag behind the curve, be prepared to lead the charge by being rested and focused.

I got this title from a blog post by Seth Godin who uses an amazing economy of words in expressing complex concepts. Leaders use too many words and confuse people who want to understand their intent and deliver the desired results.

If you lead people and aren’t getting the results from them that you have expected, then it’s time to improve your communications.

Enough said.

Read Seth’s blog post HERE

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Do you want to be famous? For what?

Thomas Edison was the most prolific inventor in history. His style of leadership was to work all the time. Edison was known for not sleeping. Yes, that’s true. He basically never slept. He would only take short naps and get right back to work.

There is a difference in being driven and being called as a leader. Edison was productive because he never gave up, in fact, he continued to work to invent the incandescent light bulb through multiple failures. On his 10,000 try he succeeded! Are you willing to work this hard to prove your idea? Edison did not recognize failure. He stated that he found 9,999 ways that did not work.

The Transformational Leader creates balance in life in order to have personal and work lives and not just a work life. It was important to Edison to realize his many brilliant ideas into working, living projects – the light bulb, the dry cell battery, electricity that could be transported over distance, and the telephone (he invented the phone, but got the the patent office after Bell – he was however the person that made the phone work in a practical manner).

Edison made a choice – be the best inventor. He was famous for that. Do you think he was happy? I wonder….

TIP: Plan to be successful in life, not just your work life.

- Nadia Boulanger

In his post, The Art of Balance, the Art of Leadership, Don Frederiksen commented, “I have always thought that my music background brought creativity, dimension and balance to my thinking and work.” Wow, that really resonates with me having been a musical conductor for over 40 years. I realize daily how important the leadership skills that a conductor knows are really valuable to leaders in other fields.

Art is sometimes as giving attention to detail. Striving for balance does not only mean that we keep the trumpets from covering up the rest of the orchestra. It also means that we give attention to the details to be faithful in implementation of our vision as the leader. Balance does not mean making everything equal. Balance means creating consistency and quality in all systems, relationships, and in the culture itself.

Listening is a skill musicians bring to leadership. As a business coach, I have discovered that listening is the key skill in order to know what is really happening.

Remember your past. I gain much from remembering my musical skills and experience. It give me perspective for creating value in the lives of others.

- Lily Tomlin

How bad does it need to get before you do something about it (“IT” is the processes and systems in your organization)

In reading a post by Guy Kawasaki on the American Express OPEN Forum site, I found this comment, “Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.” It made me think about checking on systems that I have implemented. Are the system going as I perceive, or are they just appearing to be effective? Hmmm… Now I an wondering how I can really check. This comment really gave me a paradigm shift. It’s time to play the part of a customer or church member and look at the systems in my organization from their point of view. What a great idea!

So, develop feedback system that are authentic and consistent. Don’t check once and think that it’s done. Develop a balanced scorecard to constantly evaluate your systems. This is not a reflection on you, the leader personally. It’s not a sign of failure. It’s simply a process check. Authenticity in leadership (an important Transformational Leadership trait) means that you eliminate the “elephant in the room” where everybody knows something is wrong, but nobody talks about it.

To be effective as a leader, you must establish systems to evaluate your systems.

By the way, be sure to develop strategies for changing the things that need changing and monitoring the change.

In previous posts, I have encouraged you to plan your day by planning your work. In order to accomplish the most, it is important to put everything into logical order, however, do not get so focused on the order of your day that you don’t notice the big experiences that come into your life. There are two Greek words for time that apply here:

Chronos (Χρόνος) – Chronological or sequential time; and

Kairos (καιρός) - The right or opportune moment.

Imagine that a good friend has come to visit you. Your friend says that he or she would like to fix you gourmet meal, but before preparing the dinner, a trip to the grocery store is in order. So, you get in the car and go to the store. Once you arrive at the store you go to the produce area to get a bell pepper. Next, you go to the dairy section for some heavy cream. Then, you realize that there are some additional vegitables that are needed, so you go back to the produce area – at the far side of the store! Next, you remember that you need orange juice for the next morning. The next item is beef for the dinner – a totally new section of the store. Finally, you go to the center of the store to get rice and spices.

In this process, you have visited every section of the store multiple times! Since there was no order to your shopping, you have spent far too much time and energy shopping for the necessary items. If you had taken a few minutes to make a list and group the items by sections of the store, you could have saved a lot of time and possibly a lot of frustration.

Does this remind you of an unorganized day at work? Do you know people who live like this every day and plan each workday this way? How much more effective could you be if you just spent a small amount of time planning your schedule and grouping similar activities? A small investment in planning nets big results in effectiveness! This is an example of chronos – chronological time. Planning activities in sequence and in chronological order. Very important.

However, you can focus so much on being efficient in your use of time and other resources, that you are not aware of how God brings opportunities into your day. This reminds me of the old saying about a person in the church – “He (she) is so heavenly minded that he (she) is no earthly good!” Meaning that an idealistic view of life sometimes interferes with the spontaneous.

God brings us unmerited favor with opportunities and options that we lease expect. Be open to these surprises in your life. If we are so busy in God’s work, we sometimes are not award of God working in our life.

Be efficient in planning the best use of your time. Be attentive to God’s work in your day

Plan your work, and then work your plan. It might be a commonly repeated statement. It’s repeated because it is true.

Plan your work. Plan your planning and study time. Plan your recreation time. Plan ahead.

TIP: Plan tomorrow’s activities today. If you wait until tomorrow – the planning time will escape more times than not.

Your foundation is first your values, then your goals. Goals are crucial to success. Goals in your mind are not goals, but only dreams.

Write your goal. Print out the goal. Punch the goal sheet. Put it into your planning notebook. Read your goal daily.

Develop a positive affirmation that will focus on the BENEFIT of accomplishing your goal.

TIP: The specificity of your goal is important. Write your goal describing the future accomplishment in present tense.

Patience is the companion of wisdom. – Saint Augustine

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. 

 – Ovid

The hurrier I go, 
the behinder I get. – Anonymous

Compare you life to a musical composition. See if you can remember a piece of music with points where rests are very critical. I know that rests are important in every piece of music, however, many times they are viewed a non-musical or as “nothings” that are an absence of sound. The rests give value to what has just preceded it and give energy to what comes next. Rests are punctuation. Rests have value in themselves.

Build your schedule with intentionality and you will create balance in your life. Is the trite saying is true, “Ask a busy person to do something and you will have it done.” Well, it’s true – sometimes. EFFECTIVE, busy people know how to budget their time and get things done. DRIVEN, busy people work until everything is done – no matter how long it takes. Don’t be driven, be intentional and balanced.

Being balanced provides time for work, time for rest, time for recreation, time for reflection, and time for planning. All of these are elements for success. If you leave out one element, you can easily get out of balance.

This puts the responsibility on you to set boundaries and plan your life. When you plan, you get to define what you will do and what you are not going to do. It’s defining what you are not going to do, that will set you apart from the frantic and weary leader that is driven. Planning takes time – initially because you are not used to planning in detail. In the long-term, planning saves time, money, and energy. You save energy and time for the creative, essential tasks that will define your leadership and your legacy as leader.

Know where to put rests in your life. Use them and value them. Protect your time and your energy. It’s up to you.