Transformational Leadership: Preparation - purposeful versus an accidental life

Living a purposeful life and not an accidental life - accidental doesn’t mean accidental in the sense  that your leadership and life are mere accidents. But what I find with that with nearly every executive and entrepreneur I’ve ever worked with is that the demands of their work are inhibiting them from designing the leadership and life that allows them to flourish. 

The reality is that your transformational leadership journey will be filled with obstacles and barriers you anticipated as well as those you didn’t - let's look at our options....

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi everyone, and welcome back once more. This week, I'd
like to talk to you about the preparation principle, and
it's a bit about living a purposeful life versus an
accidental one. And by accidental, this doesn't mean that your

(00:29):
leadership and life are just simply accidents. What I find
with virtually every executive an entrepreneur that I've worked with
is that the demands of their work are inhibiting and
hipping them from designing the leadership in life that allows

(00:51):
them to flourish. The reality is that your transformational leadership
journey will be filled by obosstacles and barriers that some
that you anticipated and others that you didn't. You've likely
looked to aspects of your leadership as well as your
organization's performance, and realized that a great deal of your

(01:16):
work you're doing needs to be transformed. You may have
seen and looked at your customer experiences and seen where
they need to be transformed. The worker experiences need to
be transformed in order for them to be able to
bring their very best selves to work. By now, you

(01:37):
may be saying to yourself that your needs to be
converted from a long, slow slog and anybody territory with
bullets flag of your health into the highest expression of
what you hope for as a leader. One of the
C Suites executives the work was repeatedly told me of

(01:59):
the eight ten meetings they were in each day and
the two hundred and fifty emails they also received. Wow,
there was no spare, there's no white space to slow
down and think. They lamented. It felt like a human
doing as opposed to a human being. There are, however,

(02:23):
times when it's the nature of the beast to go
from meeting to meeting to meeting and navigate a mountain
of emails. But do that for I would call it
prolonged period of time is to end up convincing in
yourself that you're doing your best work. Ah, I'm doing it,
I'm getting on top of it. So that'd be similar

(02:46):
to thinking that you could run a marathon every week
for fifty two weeks and I expect on the thirteenth
marathon to be as strong as powerful as the first,
or that the fifty second wouldn't all the potential for
a personal best. That's kind of twisted thinking whatever the

(03:07):
transformation you're looking for, you want for your organization alas
starts with you preparing, preparing for an undergoing I would suggest,
with all respect, an individual transformation first, nowhere around it,
and what we're talking about today is the preparation principle.

(03:32):
I would like to help you prepare not only for
the flourishing leadership transformation that's really possible, but more importantly
for the personal transformation that that leave you and those
are important to you to be really successful as well

(03:54):
as tremendously satisfied. Really, in order for you to cut
the time it takes to get greater access, you'll need
to be prepared to dress the realities of transformational leadership.
You need to learn to welcome barriers and obstacles, be

(04:14):
a role model for what you envision. Leave the safe, comfortable, known,
and predictable, prepare for greatness, and learn from a sixteenth
century mark. Let's cover each one of these in detail.
I'm suggesting a that your greatest barriers and obstacles at

(04:39):
the gateway to your greater your greatest successes. These greatest
successes are hidden. I may i suggest your greatest failures
and barriers. Do you believe that? Let me make a case.
Whenever you find yourself stuck hindered from getting accomplished and

(05:03):
what you want. There's a barrier obstacle that's preventing you
from that greater progress, and once addressed, it'll allow you
to exeverate greatly towards greater success. That's an old brainer,
isn't it, Since you'd like to deal with obstacles and

(05:24):
barriers every day. A lad that what hinders you from
your greater or greatest says, is not the obstacle per se,
but ten times the barriers you meet are a mindset,
not a skill set barrier, and in turn, cultivating a

(05:48):
mindset of passion, innovation, and growth for yourself as well
as for those you lead and work with. And this
will be a catalyst for overcome all your obstacles and barriers,
or most of them anyway. This really is a first
area of leadership you really need to be prepared for.

(06:13):
And yet, let's say, preparing yourself to achieve your greatest
successes requires a new frame of reference about barriers and obstacles,
a frame of reference that welcomes barriers. You see them
coming over and hells, get wow. One opportunity because it
provide you with three benefits. Number one, they test you

(06:37):
tiss your metal. Two conturn what you do know and
what you instill need to learn what you don't know.
Three per role model to others for what you hope
will be commonplace the way we do things here this
is it. Let's have a deeper dye than too. Each

(06:58):
of these in more detail Testing your metal. Think about
their rescue AYE a few years ago Paul thirteen in
nineteen seventy, fifty hours into their mission two hundred thousand
miles from Earth, something went terribly wrong. Minutes after mission

(07:21):
control asked the crew to turn on a hydrogen an
oxygen tank, stirring van a sound. There were sentials of
any person's spine was here allowed, and unplanned pine led
to fluctuations and capture power and the firing of the
space craft's thrusters. Problem was the second oxygen tank explosion

(07:47):
following a short circuit. With limited power and life essential
resources running out, the crew had to port their planned
landing in the Moon instead used the Lunar Module is
their lifeline. Engineers were given a mandate to bring the
astronauts home safely. The works around the clock to figure

(08:09):
out how to provide them with oxygen, power and more
importantly really important a plan to return to Earth. Close
to four days after the ominous buying Apoll of thirteen
untold itself around the Moon successfully splashed down on Earth.

(08:30):
Their return was hailed as one of the world's most
unprecedented engineering achievements and stunned not only the astronauts but
the world at large. This rescue was the ultimate obstacle
as well as the ultimate in testing the engineering metal
of NASA afterwards. This event role modeled what was possible

(08:53):
and allowed, rather than the cancelation of other missions, also
allowed continuation of the Apollo program. Is not to say
that embeddied in every obstacle in barrier is the seed
of your greatest achievement. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple

(09:13):
off a disagreement with co founder Steve was an egg.
Steve Jobs never saw the house coming later said that
getting fired from Apples the best thing that could have
ever happened him. Job sterned this obstacle of being kicked
out of the company and focused on his next in

(09:36):
Pixar project. His focus resulting in him later selling Pixar
to Disney for seven point four billion dollars, and after
he's turned to Apple he was a shepherd. He shepherded
Apple's market capitalization from three billion in nineteen ninety seven

(09:59):
to three hundred fifty billion and twenty luden. He didn't
go quietly in tonight sitting at week corner lament his
lot on life. He threw himself into other projects and
Charild is driving energy purposefully. The NIXT topic is confirm

(10:20):
what you do know and what you still need to learn.
One of the greatest things about obstacles and barriers that
it confirms what we do know and what we don't
and what we need to learn. And the nast example,
imagine a meeting with all engineers when you learn of
the poly thirteen disaster. I envisions are meeting which every

(10:43):
engineer lists out what's known about the situation, don the
adult and trust to preserve physical as well as lunar
module power, and no one need easy to follow instructions
because of the lack of food and energy. That probably
the result to another list of what they did know
and what they need to find out, what do we

(11:06):
not know about how to fix fix now and what
we need to fix first in order to make progress
in bringing these lads home, bringing these astronauts home obstacles
are delightful in this regard. There are things in every
form of adversity that you'll know how to address or fix,

(11:27):
but they'll also be true there's something you don't don't
know how to fix them, and you'll need to learn
something new, expand your knowledge and possibly your ability to
work with theirs groups of people coming up with the
very best solution. Nixt think about being a role model
to others for what you hope will become commonplace. Leaders

(11:53):
like you and me, I guess are continually watching watching
folks with us, especially in times of adversity, take their
cues as to what they should do when their road
to success is blocked. When workers, your leaders respond with courage, confidence, commitment,
the message is senting ways to corporate marketing and human

(12:14):
resources departments cannot send. This is the way we, as
an organization or team respond important insight. But role modeling
is as a role model should welcome being tested because
when you're tested and smack up against a yog covered fan,
you'll learn more and grow more than you ever imagined possible.

(12:38):
You'd become the exemplar for your organization as to what
values beliefs guide your leadership. If you don't have obstacles
of barriers, you never have the refining fire for your
leadership or the opportunity in real time to perfectly communicate
what's important to you. You'd also have no urgency, oh

(12:59):
the desire to get better, stronger. You would be complacent, content,
ah will just remain the same as well. Barriers and
obstacles that you'll find from doing the work that we've
recommended are necessary in order for you to become a

(13:20):
transformational leman. If your mindset is that you want to
avoid barriers and obstacles, your leadership becomes fat, flabby, uninspired,
and quite frankly pedestrian. Throughout our seven principles, the case
that I'm making is when you find and articulate the

(13:44):
one idea, hope, dream or aspiration that's grabbed hold of
you and you won't let it go, it's a game changer.
Changes how you engage it work as well is at home.
It changes how you engage with your workers, customers, and
it changes the performing and results of your teams and
your organization for many For many of you, the idea

(14:08):
of having this rallying cry for your leadership is cloud
to be your experience of the corporate communications department work
on mission, purpose and vision. Once articulated and distributed within
six months, no one what's that? What's that you said?

(14:29):
Can remember discuss it emotionally and compelling terms. It dies
slow and quiet death. However, when you walk through the
purpose principle with earnest commitment, the clap and focus you
need to take the barriers and obstacles to convert them
into opportunities for greatness comes through. It urges with greater frequency.

(14:53):
Until you have this collaborating focuses for your leadership, your
leadership is more intellectual and less more. Yes, intellect is important,
but to overcome big, big obstacles, you and your team
must care deeply about something bigger than yourself, something of
a money, profit market share on on. Yes, they're important,

(15:16):
but transformational leaders in love with something noble, uplifting and meaningful.
You've got the ability to dream, the air and dazzle.
Next week we'll talk about leaving the comfortable confines of
the safe, predictable and known, the safe harbor of the knowing.

(15:37):
Till then, live life with passion. Goodbye,