Avoiding the Boulders

If 2020 has taught us anything, we have learned thebedrock value of two more leadership qualities, the last in our matrix of whatit means to lead. Foresight would have been great, since the danger of aworldwide pandemic has hovered on the horizon for many years. And nothing ismore valuable in a scenario of everchanging circumstances than flexibility.The ability to communicate both separates a leader from one of the many voicesdominating our Facebook feeds. In putting all our traits together we talk abouthow to lead in the worst of situations.

Remember our earlier qualities: commitment, acceptingresponsibility, an eye for detail, optimism and enthusiasm. Together theycreate a milieu in which a leader thrives. It’s in putting them all togetherthat we see a leader emerge from obscurity with glimpses of brilliance.Remember that we all lead at times, and we all influence at times, but always,let’s be flexing these leadership muscles or character qualities.

Foresight

As a leader, you must learn to look ahead and anticipate some of the stumbling blocks before you get blindsided by something, and it’s when you get blindsided, it’s always by a boulder, or worse, a boulder field you never anticipated. The little annoyances litter our days. The boulders obliterate our days. There’s a difference, and it’s on the order of magnitude. Avert disaster by minimizing how often you deal with it.

Prevention is planned anticipation. As you grow as aleader, your goal becomes solving problems before they assume humongousproportions. Great leaders learn to recognize a problem in its early stages.

• Intuition—Sense a problem before yousee it. Something doesn’t feel right.
• Curiosity—Look for problems. Askquestions.
• Research—Gather the facts.
• Communication—Share your perceptions.Get a reality check.
• Focus—Define the problem, write itdown.
• Evaluation—Check your resources.
• Leadership—Make the right decision.

Great leaders realize the knock out punch is the one they neversaw coming, so they work on preventing it. Learning to prevent problems is adifficult skill anyone can learn. Life can only be understood looking backward,but it must be lived looking forward. Make a journal your new best friend.Write down your experiences, and you’ll begin to see a common thread. A weakarea comes to your attention. A lesson learned is one you can apply anothertime.

Give each problems thirty seconds of attention. Ask questionslike what are the short and long-term purposes? Have I talked to everyone Ineed to talk to for success? What are the best and worst possible outcomes?Realize that you see fifty or a hundred nuances, expressions, postures,memories, and each one represents an unconscious prompting. Taking the time torecognize these promptings is the basis of exercising foresight. Give eachproblem two minutes of attention, and the probability of avoiding the knock-outpunch is excellent.

As you exercise foresight and if you are perceptive, you’ll seetwo important things begin to happen: First, you are able to plan alternativesbefore you need them. Second, you find the morale of your group remainspositive.

Flexibility

A leader learns to bend with the breeze, not struggle againstit. Leaders learn the one sure way to instill flexibility into their programs.

Invest in people. Like a dairy farmer once said, “The hardestthing about milking cows is that they never stay milked.” Problems never stop,but people stop problems. This is a truism, not a witticism. A successfulleader learns to lay a firm foundation with the bricks thrown at him, and thosebricks, or problems if you will, never stop. You need brick layers!

Make a time commitment to people. If you never devote the timeto developing your followers, you’ll devote every waking minute to solvingtheir problems. Show others how it’s done. Never solve a problem for a person,solve it with the person. That person may be the good soul who solves the nextproblem.

President Eisenhower once said, “No easy problems ever come tothe President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody elsehas solved them.” Begin by defining the problem. A well-stated problem is halfsolved. Ask the right questions. Talk to the right people. Get the facts. Getinvolved in the process. Get help. Collect all the possible solutions.Prioritize. Put the best solution into practice. Be ready to do it all again.

These leadership qualities are not items of clothing we put on eachmorning, but rather, a part of the alchemy of who we are and how we think.Their sum results in others looking for our reactions, following our lead, andlearning to rely on us. The mantle of leadership is a learned matrix ofconsciously choosing to live out certain character qualities that end up beingthe benchmark of success. Lead.