The Basics

 “It’s your basic suck, squeeze, bang and blow.”

I was admiring a pristine Rolls Royce helicopter engine at an air show in my former career as I heard these descriptive words. Following an internal “Excuse me?...”, my jaw was positioned awkwardly on the ground – and not because the engine was so amazing.

I later learned that this is common terminology for the workings of an engine; though I am not sure the salesman’s intro comment was without ulterior inferences. In any case, the experience has stuck with me and provided me with a good amount of mental fodder to chew on. At a very high level, air is taken in to the engine where it is compressed, combustion occurs and then the air is expelled in the form of exhaust. There are more details, of course but, at the end of the day, it’s your basic suck squeeze, bang and blow…just like leadership.

1.)  Suck

How is your air supply? Engines, like leadership, are present to propel something forward. 

…To create movement.

…To facilitate progress.

With no air, there is no subsequent squeezing, banging or blowing. You must have an air supply, it must be reliable and it must be constant. In addition to engine examination, I also do yoga. Yoga is ALL ABOUT THE BREATH. My teacher is constantly reminding the class to breathe. Physiologically, your brain dies without oxygen. Your whole body depends on effective air supply. The health of your organization, your family and your business depend on you ensuring that fresh resource flows freely into it. Resource takes many forms. Find out what kind of resource(s) your business needs and then suck it in.

2.)  Squeeze

This is where all the necessary components for an explosion get smashed together. This is the chaos that precedes progress. It IS NECESSARY FOR MOTION. Don’t’ be afraid of it. It’s not supposed to be comfortable. It’s supposed to feel mildly out of control. Learn to love the squeeze – or at least to accept it as a necessary part of the whole process.

3.)  Bang

The bang is the fun part. That’s true in many things. This is where you start to feel like you’re getting somewhere and things are actually happening. Momentum gathers and you realize that the all the squeezing was for a reason and a purpose – and something is building. This is the exciting part that means things are running.

4.)  Blow

Without getting rid of the exhaust, the engine dies. It must take in fresh air and get rid of used up air. This is the same as everything in life. If we want the process to work as it should, we need to let go of the stale, used up air and not try to continue breathing it. If you breathe exhaust, you die. If you refuse to get rid of what is already used up, you will stall. The engine can’t run on old air and neither can the things you lead. Stay fresh. Don’t cling to things that need to be blown out the tailpipe of your organization.

Here’s the killer. This process is repeated by your car’s engine thousands of times between your garage and the grocery store. Seriously. There is not one revolution through this cycle; there are millions over the lifetime of the engine. There will be millions over the lifetime of your organization. GET COMFORTABLE WITH IT. It will happen over and over and over again – sometimes in the same day. The trick is to recognize where you’re at in the process and have a realistic set of expectations around that phase. If you’re ready to roll, don’t make it complicated.

It’s your basic suck, squeeze, bang and blow.

Lean forward,

Bekka

Give It Up

Leadership involves sacrifice.

Every.

Time. 

If you aren't interested in learning to appreciate and participate in sacrifice, don't expect anyone to follow you. In fact, don't expect to get anywhere you'd like to be. 

You cannot successfully lead yourself, your family, or your business to a destination that matters unless you are willing to give up things you WANT to be doing in favor of things you NEED to be doing. This is true of any personal goal that matters, any challenge that requires us to personally stretch, any process that pulls on our sense of preference in order to move us from where we ARE to where we WANT TO BE. This is not a breakthrough discovery. I think we all know and acknowledge the need to put our wants and desires in the back seat often in order to lead others toward a destination that benefits everyone in the car.

I believe there is a fundamental difference between those brilliant leaders that people are drawn toward and motivated to follow and those who others follow because they find themselves in a position where they HAVE to follow. Coming in on time to work for a boss because he is your boss is a far different story than coming in with your team an hour early and working two hours late because you are so motivated by the leader of that team and their vision to succeed on the project.

One is obligatory; the other is voluntary.

One is expected; the other is over-and-above.

One earns a paycheck; the other earns a place in a great success story.

One is what most have; the other is what most want.

I believe that fundamental difference is the way that leader speaks about their own sacrifices. How we communicate about our own sacrifices is just as important as how we communicate about any other aspect of our leadership.

1.) We should speak of it as necessary and expected

We shouldn’t downplay and spin our sacrifices as rosy or minimal. We don’t need to speak of them as desirable – just that they are necessary. When our leadership lacks sacrifice, it will only ever be about us. When we grasp the power of sacrificial leadership, the lens zooms out and it becomes about something so much bigger. Our conversation around the sacrifices we make should reflect this truth. When we focus our vision through this lens, we can communicate to those we lead that sacrifice is a natural and expected step on the leadership journey. Knowing this, we can present sacrifice as ultimately positive, even though the experience of sacrifice is negative by definition.

2.) We should speak of it as purposeful

When your life exists for the sole purpose of impacting others, you will be an effective leader. You can’t have the first without the inevitable result. The other amazing thing that happens when you lay yourself aside for a purpose larger than yourself is that you participate in a great story. No sane person sacrifices something they want for an ambiguous or vague cause. We should always, constantly, intimately know our purpose. That purpose contextualizes our sacrifices and gives them worth that they would otherwise lack apart from direct articulation to the ultimate goal.

3.) We should speak of it as the temporary means to a beautiful end

The idea of cost is intricately woven through the concept of value. The things that cost us more are those we value more highly and, in turn treat with much more care. The end for which we are sacrificing MUST be in accurate relation to the level of our sacrifice. No one would pay $100 for a PB&J. Neither would one expect to pay $5k for a new car. The cost doesn’t reflect the value of the result. Think about your end result. Is it truly beautiful? Does it reflect the value of the things you’re sacrificing now? If not, perhaps you should recalibrate what you’re giving up.

If it is, speak about the end…often.

Remind those you are leading of the destination…often.

Draw attention to how beautiful the end is and not toward how uncomfortable the means are. Speak about sacrifice in a way that inspires those you are leading THROUGH the temporary and propels them TOWARD the joy of what lies ahead. 

Lean forward, 

Bekka

Watch Your Mouth

 How do you speak about yourself? 

Your family? 

Your business? 

Is your conversation characterized with hope, vision, gratefulness, momentum, a smile? 

Or is your conversation circular, depressed, filled with lack and stagnant?

Let’s find some direction, find some vision and then wrap our conversation around these goals. Our words are powerful. Let’s start aiming them in the direction we WANT TO MOVE instead of letting them terminate at the undesirable position we may find ourselves. Change your conversation and see if your goals and aspirations don’t get a lot closer. 

Lean forward, 

Bekka

The Power of Vulnerability

Brene's TED talk, and her subsequent book Daring Greatly, are influencing every leadership thought I'm having at the moment. I will share more of that in coming weeks but, for now, I will just link that video here and then we can go from there :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Lean forward,

Bekka