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Assemble future fliers for face time
I did not play soccer or football in my
younger days. I played rugby. I liked it
because whenever I touched the ball, I
had fourteen muscled guys backing me up.
If I fumbled a pass or missed a tackle,
they stepped in.
Those fourteen guys made it easier for
me to take the gaps that could win the
game. They gave me the confidence to
take the necessary risks to succeed. (I
have not heard of a rugby player having
a heart attack during a game, but it
does seem to happen in golf. In a game
like golf, you're on your own - the
stress is yours alone. Nobody shares it.
Nobody backs you up.)
My point? Don't try to create success on
your own. Going it alone increases your
stress and decreases your tolerance for
creative risk taking. Be sensible, get
some help - assemble a team of
experienced players who will push you to
your limit. Then pick their brains.
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Time to be a time traveler
Are you a time traveler? If not, then
you are not a leader. And don't even
think of being a CEO.
A time traveler is someone who can
project her mind into the future . . .
and so be able to imagine and describe a
probable future. More important, you
must be able to imagine your preferred
future and then be able to determine
what you should do today to make that
desired future a reality.
Why does this matter? When we look to
the future, we tend to see obstacles.
But when you 'stand' in the future and
look back in time, you tend to see the
path to that future. Describing that
path to others is the role of a leader.
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If this were a plane, would you fly it?
I seem to be flying backwards into
nostalgia. When I consider how things
seem to be falling apart - products,
services, infrastructure, you name it -
I find myself thinking, 'now when I was
younger. . . . '
Hey, I'm not being sentimentally
forgetful. I don't selectively believe
that back then things were better; just
that attitudes were better.
Why do I feel this way? For a short
period in my early career I wrote
computer software. This was eons ago,
before the PC was born. In those ancient
days we had a simple quality test for
our software: if this were a plane,
would I fly it?
Oh, how I wish that more people would
apply this simple test.
Don't get me wrong. I know we cannot
afford everything to be of such high
quality, but I'm talking about the
attitude that goes into a product or
service. Surely that's still free.
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Face up to face time
Do you have free time for Facebook but
not for face time, time for
screen-to-screen typing but not for
face-to-face chatting?
I have finally figured out why so many
people are so easily conned into
believing that they have made so many
friends in so little time. Blame those
fake trophies you were given for simply
showing up. Now anyone who is bored
enough to show up in your inbox expects
to be a friend.
Like our economy, our social
interactions are measured in quantity,
not quality.
As my so-called on-line 'friend', Robert
Carsia, once explained via keyboard, "In
this world of individual isolation, it
is good to know that I can reach out in
this virtual space and 'talk' to just
about anyone who will listen. On the
other hand, if I could actually find a
neighbor to sit and talk with over a cup
of coffee, I would. But I can't, so I
won't."
Want to chat over coffee (not over
keyboard)?
Knock here.
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