Action is not leadership; solutions are leadership.

We often see leaders as people who take action, and that is certainly part of leadership. But, action in and of itself is not leadership.

Anyone can take action at any time. People often act out of a need to do something, anything. This is just reflexive action, something done without much thought. Reflexive action is done out of frustration. It is done without a solution behind it.

Here, I am struck that this has been a large part of Donald Trump’s approach to how he manages. To be clear here, I do not like Trump, his policies or his approach to running the government or leading this country. However, with that said, as someone who does focus on leadership, I can step away from my feelings and focus on the leadership elements at play here.

In a real crisis or emergency, we all act reflexively, sometimes doing the very first thing that comes into our head, perhaps even the very thing we should not do.

In the case of Donald Trump, people have always acknowledged that he can act impulsively, even impetuously. He responds with his gut feeling. But, that is not leadership. The president has to be the leader 24/7. He cannot be the nation’s id.

There are two situations that highlight how these reflexive actions by Donald Trump shows the lack of a solution behind them. The first was his decision of end the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. The second was the recent Zero Tolerance policy which erupted into bad optics about crying children being held away from their families. I don’t want to focus on the politics of the two situations, but on the process. In both cases, Trump took the action and then tossed the issue over to Congress to solve. He presented no solution beforehand, no outline of what would be acceptable to him as a solution.

On DACA, there was great confusion on what he would accept. On one day, he said one thing, which he later reversed. He created a problem, using the DACA children as a bargaining chip, to force Congress to come up with a solution he could accept. A year later, there is still no solution to the DACA dilemma. Trump offered no solution. He waited for Congress to come offering solutions in the form of proposed laws. Nothing substantial came of it.

On the Zero Tolerance policy, he did something similar. He ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to implement the Zero Tolerance policy. By doing so, he wanted to put pressure on Congress come up with a solution to the immigration problem. As of today, there is no solution on the horizon. The proposed legislation, according to all sides, has no chance to pass Congress. And, the Trump White House has offered no detailed legislation or even an outline of what would be acceptable.

Those who support Trump applaud that he takes decisive action. Yes, both were decisive actions. You can see it in many of the things he has done. He ended the administration’s support for health care subsidies. He pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the UN Human Rights Council. In the case of the TPP, no other agreement was presented in its place that would keep the United States plugged into trade with the Pacific nations. Perhaps he is still waiting for those countries to come back with a trade deal, but nothing has really happened so far on that. In the meantime, China has take advantage of the vacuum.

As a leadership example, however, they are empty action. None of those came with solutions attached to them. Perhaps it is part of Trump’s history of how he operates where he takes an action and then waits for someone to solve the problem he creates or for the other party to come up with an acceptable solution. He just transferred that behavior to the Presidency.

While we want and expect action from our leaders, we really need solutions. That is the hard part of leadership, crafting a solution. But, it is a necessary element of leadership.

I learned, from my wife, one principal’s approach to addressing problems. Her principal told her, “I don’t mind you bringing me problems, but I expect you to come with a solution for me to consider. Don’t just being me problems.”

Anyone can take action and create other problems in the process. No real thought is required. But solutions demand hard thought and work. Still, that is what we really need from our leaders.

Everest Isn’t The Only Mountain To Climb

As some of my readers pointed out after my recent post about Mt. Everest, we all have more than one challenge to undertake. And, just because we manage to climb or start to climb our own Everest, that doesn’t mean that we stop climbing. I have other mountains to climb. I have an endless list of projects I want to finish before the end comes. I likely will not finish that list, but I’m going to do my best.

Reading about mountain climbing, it is clear that there are more challenging mountains than Everest. K2, the second tallest mountain in the Himalayas, is thought to be more difficult to climb. Across the world, others present different kinds of challenges: the sheer steepness, the unpredictable weather, the remoteness of the mountain, the severely rugged terrain, and so on.

More than likely, you’ve already climbed a few hills and maybe even moved up to some small mountains. You’ve scraped your hands and skinned your knees. You’ve probably taken a tumble or two or even faced a bear. You learned from all of that. You’re ready for a higher mountain, a more challenging mountain.

So, even, as in my case, when you’ve started on your Everest, keep pushing on those other summits. You may get to the top of those before you conquer Everest, and it will help you get to the summit at Everest. All knowledge and experience adds to our final success.

A Simple Morning Hack

Actually, this is a night-before hack.

I get all of my clothes ready the night before. I select my pants, shirt, tie, socks, underwear, and shoes and pull them out. I put my change, wallet and belt in the pants. I put my watch right next to my phone. My keys – this is extremely important – are also in my pants pocket. If nothing else, my keys are in my pants pocket. There is nothing more aggravating than not being able to find your keys in the morning. You can leave without socks or a tie, but not without the keys.

All of this, done sometime the evening before, takes maybe 5-10 minutes, but it’s done in a very unrushed way. I get a few minutes to think about what I’m doing the next day. That determines how I will dress. Will I be doing a presentation, spending time outside, sitting in an auditorium, touring some facility, driving around town a lot?

The same goes for my computer bag. The laptop is loaded, files, power chord, mouse, notes, pens, ear phones and computer glasses. I check it. Each item has its own place in the bag. I can see quickly if I’ve forgotten anything. My to-do list is right where it needs to be. I avoid, as I have sometimes, packing the TV remote instead of the mouse or having to leave work early because I forgot my laptop charger at home (I swear it was not on purpose!). Even if I’m working on the computer late at night, I still do this. I can’t wait for the morning. Anything that can be put in the car is loaded up the night before. Of course, the coffee pot is programmed the night before. I hate waiting for coffee early in the morning. And, make sure you don’t have to put gas in your car early in the morning. I don’t care how late it is, or how cold the weather, gas up the night before if you’re running low. When you need to fill up the most is when everyone else wants to do the same thing.

I don’t really dress more quickly, but I can if I need to because everything is right there wating for me. What it avoids is the sense of rush and chaos that happens sometimes when you’re trying to do multiple things at once when you’re still somewhat asleep. One less thing to worry about in the morning.

The less chaos, the clearer your mind is early in the day.

So, come Sunday night, start this one simple hack. Make it a habit and your mornings will be just a little easier to deal with. You can probably cut your make-ready time in half. You can add that back to a later wake-up time or a little longer drinking that cup of coffee.

You can apply this principle to many other things. Leave things ready for the next day or time you need something.

You could get to work early, but the doors are probably still locked. Or if you do, you could always say to the boss, “You just getting in?” But, I wouldn’t recommend it.

What are you FOR?

The continuing polarization of the social/political environment seems to have turned around how we perceive each other and how we voice those things. We have slowly moved to the point where people are more focused on what they are against: anti-gun, anti-hate speech, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, anti-government, anti-nuclear power, anti-war, anti-tax, anti-vaccine, and so on.

It is easy to go anti-whatever. It is just a phrasing of what you don’t like.

Sam Harrison  (@zingzone) talks about this in more eloquent terms: “What we are for can empower us. What we’re againt — and what we try to force — can weaken us. Mother Teresa intuitively knew this when asked years ago if she would march against the Vietnam War. ‘I don’t participate in anti-war rallies,’ she replied, ‘but if you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.’

Think about what you tell people. How much of what you say is couched in terms of what you are against and what you are for? Work to eliminate all those anti-positions. Focus more on the pro-things. The first thing you need to listen to is what you are saying to people. Work to rephrase your anti- statements into for statements.

 

I just started my climb of Mt. Everest

No, not that Mt. Everest. My personal Mt. Everest.

You climb Mt. Everest in stages. It can’t be done in one straight, continuous climb in one day or two. Of course, before you even begin the climb, you have to prepare, train and get all your equipment ready because it is a difficult climb. Then you start on the first stage, rest, refocus; then you go on to the second stage, repeat and move on. There are at least four stages. In all, it takes more than a month from when you first arrive at the base of the mountain.

We all have a Mt. Everest in our lives. We don’t actually have to climb it, but we really do. It lingers there sometimes. Sometimes we try and climb it as soon as we think of it. If you’re lucky, you make it on your first attempt. Or at least you start on it immediately.

For most of us, it is such a major endeavor or challenge that we keep putting it off because we’re just not quite ready to start the climb. At least, it is for me. Without getting into great detail, my Mt. Everest is a series of short stories I had wanted to write. I don’t have to do it, but I really do have to do it. I have the general idea and focus but not the details. It has been rattling around in my head for years. I ruminate on the stories. Small details would pop up or materialize, but not the entire thing. One story in particular had not quite gelled. It was elusive.

Then, the story came together two days ago. In one day, I wrote the entire story. While had had some of the elements, new ones just seemed to come into my mind and connected seamlessly. That was the first stage of my Mt. Everest. I’m starting the second stage today.

What is your Mt. Everest? A business, a marriage, a family, a degree, a move, a break, travel? Only you know. When will you start on it? How do you need to prepare to start on the first stage? Launch now.

Finding ideas is easy; crafting solutions from them is hard, part 2

Who invented the light bulb? Thomas Alva Edison! Right? Well, he invented one type of light bulb.

From bulbs.com: “In 1802, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery (but not the first one). When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. His invention was known as the Electric Arc lamp. And while it produced light, it didn’t produce it for long and was much too bright for practical use.”

Continuing from bulbs.com: Over the next almost eighty years, others created “light bulbs,” but those did not prove to be commercially viable. Finding the right filament and perfecting the vacuum were the big stumbling blocks. The technology had not caught up with the concept. It wasn’t until 1978 that Edison began working on the light bulb. Later that year, he wrote a patent for “Improvement In Electric Lights”. He wasn’t claiming that he invented the light bulb, just that he was improving it. I remember in my junior high history classes that Edison and his team tested more than 1,000 (?) types of materials for the filament until they found the right combination of carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1200 hours. The commercial production of his light bulb started in 1880. Although Edison had known that tungsten was the best choice for the filaments, it wasn’t until 1906 that the technology progressed to allow the proper production of tungsten wire in the appropriate thickness needed.

Here’s a story of another idea that took several decades to develop into a solution.

The lesson to learned is that ideas in and of themselves are not solutions. We can sit down and come up with ideas all day long. The hard part that most leaders have is that it often takes hard work to develop real world solutions from those ideas. And, because it does take time and effort, some leaders often pull away from that and move to easier-to-implement ideas, often lesser ideas. Understand also that ideas and solutions often build on the work of multiple sources. They are not just moments of grand inspiration.

Leaders look for inspiration for great ideas; more importantly, they work hard on great solutions.

Coming up with ideas is easy; crafting them into solutions is hard

It happens in most businesses and organizations at some point. Something is going wrong! Call a brainstorming session! Everyone gathers round the dry erase board and they take turns shouting out ideas. After a few minutes, they rank the ideas and pick what seems like the best one – and off they go. Problem solved! All in the time it takes to get your car’s oil changed.

Not quite.

I draw the analogy of the architect and the engineers. The architect is responsible for creating a beautiful vision for a new building. Once that’s done, the engineers take over. They have to take that vision and work out all the details. While the design may look beautiful, it may well be flawed as far as the purpose of the building. If so, the engineers and other workers will struggle to make the building work.

Of course, a good architect works with the engineers as they are coming up with the design to make sure it works. The architect may likely have several different designs or variations on one design to work with, testing each one in turn, working with a team of engineers and others to see how it might work. Along the way, the design changes, maybe in small ways, perhaps in big ways. At some point, the idea and the solution become one.

Ideally (and it isn’t always the case), you would take that brainstorming session, parcel out the best ideas to different teams, and charge them to start working out some of the details of their idea. This should reveal some of the merits and challenges of each idea. Sprinkle the teams with people who may be antagonistic to the idea to serve as doubters to provoke questions and push the group to thoroughly vet the idea. Then, the group comes back and picks the best, final idea.

Yes, it takes time and effort, but you will come up with a working solution. Which is what you wanted in the first place.