Jim Clemmer's Leader Letter

In this issue....

Traveling with the Wind in Our Hair

Taking My Passion Pulse

Personal Application Ideas for Increasing Passion and Commitment

Thoughts that Make You Go Hmmm...

Top Improvement Points

Helping Staff Losing Their Jobs

A Coach's Playbook for Leaders

How Do You Define Leadership and Motivation?

Introductory Special on New Leadership and Personal Growth Tools

Feedback and Follow-Up

We've all heard it's the journey and not the destination that is most important in life. But whether flying or driving, we're too often so intent on getting to our next destination that we miss the joy of the trip. Then it's a whirlwind of activity until we get back in the plane or car and race on to the next destination. We're so busy rushing toward tomorrow that we aren't living today. Life becomes an ever faster rush of blurry scenery speeding past our window.

Recently I spent a warm, sunny day playing "hooky" with a good friend. I appreciate many things about Carl Hiebert. The day we spent together was fun and relaxing. But most of all it was inspiring and energizing. I wrote about Carl in my book, Growing the Distance, in the chapter on Responsibility for Choices. You can read an excerpt on Carl and other leaders like him who so powerfully control their own destinies at: www.clemmer.net/excerpts/leaders_control.shtml

On this beautiful summer morning in July, we flew in Carl's new ultralight aircraft. It is an open-cockpit, fair weather flying machine, made up of welded metal tubs wrapped in a fiberglass skin. Two seats are squeezed together so tightly that I had to put both legs around Carl's front seat and keep my left leg away from rubbing on the throttle cable that ran through the open cockpit back to the small gasoline powered engine that pushed us along from behind. I had no desire to mess with that cable nor have it rub the skin off my bare legs (I was wearing shorts). No locked doors between passenger and pilot on this flight!

I arrived just after he and an engineer friend had removed the large glass bubble windshield and replaced it with a much smaller one so Carl could get better aerial photos. Carl has produced and sold a number of gorgeous coffee table books based on the tens of thousands of shots he's taken from the seats of the many ultra light planes he's flown (all the way across Canada on two occasions). As we took off from my uncle's farm near Elmira, Ontario where Carl stores his plane, we flew over the very familiar and beautiful rolling rural farmland of Waterloo County. I spent many years of my childhood in this area and have flown over this territory hundreds of times in commercial jets taking off from Toronto's international airport, 90 miles away. But that was flying at hundreds of miles per hour thousands of feet in the air tightly encased in an aluminum tube while I busily prepared for my next destination. The countryside below was an interesting and distant miniature world way down below us.

As the ground mist cleared on this morning, we flew up to a few hundred feet, 50 miles per hour, with the wind billowing through our hair (OK. It billowed through Carl's hair. It just rippled the skin of my ever expanding forehead). We "caught big air" as we circled ever higher in thermals (rising air currents) with majestic hawks playing in these same "magic staircases to heaven." More than once I spread my arms, felt the wind beneath my "wings" and soared with the birds as I yelled out a "yeehaw" or two.

We flew lower and waved to farm boys taking a break fishing in the Conestoga River. We waved to farmers cultivating their fields. We smelled the freshly mowed hay – and the freshly spread manure. As we flew, Carl's keen photographer's eye was constantly noticing colors, patterns in the fields, textures, and lighting. He would circle back around to click a few shots with his camera – showing me how to look at the scene with new eyes; how to appreciate what nature or a farmer had painted on the canvass laid out below us.

At a few hundred feet, we had a bigger perspective on the world. But we were in the picture, not just looking at it. We were flying strictly for the joy of soaring in the air and seeing the world from a new perspective. We had no destination. To some we were wasting time because we weren't getting anywhere. To others we were wandering aimlessly. To me we were living in the moment.

That afternoon, we cruised the same countryside in my new convertible car. We had the top down and the wind in our face. We turned up the music and yelled ourselves hoarse in conversation over the noise. We explored roads we'd never been on before. Roads that we may have noticed from the air, but now we had no idea where they went. So we found out. We discovered beautiful country homes on hilltops or nestled in the woods. We discovered new vistas. We stopped, backed up, and Carl framed and photographed the perfect country scene that I would have just sped by. We visited a few friends for a chat. We bought ice cream. We had no particular place to go. We had no agenda. We had a great time.

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August is the time of year for me to visit our family doctor for my annual check-up. Like a regular physical examination, we need to regularly do a "life check-up." Following is a self-assessment exercise from the Passion and Commitment section of my new Growing the Distance: Personal Implementation Guide.

		1 2 3 4 5 Almost Never Sometimes Almost Always
1.		My life is exciting and very enjoyable.	1 2 3 4 5
2.		Most days I am "up" and full of enthusiasm.	1 2 3 4 5
3.		I love my work.	1 2 3 4 5
4.		My laughter index is high.	1 2 3 4 5
5.		I persist until I find a way to get what I want.	1 2 3 4 5
6.		I feel grateful and blessed for all the good in my life.	1 2 3 4 5
7.		I curb my negative impulses and control my bad habits.	1 2 3 4 5
8.		I am surrounded by loving relationships and caring friends.	1 2 3 4 5
9.		I have at least one good friend at work.	1 2 3 4 5
10.		People find my passion infectious.	1 2 3 4 5
11.		I have passionate hobbies or special interests.	1 2 3 4 5
12.		My work is aligned to my strengths and allows me to do what I do best every day.	1 2 3 4 5
13.		Time often flies by because I am so caught up in what I am doing.	1 2 3 4 5
14.		I look forward to continuing the key trends of my life over the next 5 years.	1 2 3 4 5

Add up your scores for each item above, and compare to the following:

• 60 - 75 points – You're clearly on the right path.
  
• 45 - 59 points – You need some course corrections.
  
• 30 - 44 points – You're headed for serious apathy and unhappiness.
  
• 15 - 29 points – You are on the wrong path. Major course corrections are needed.

You can get more information on the Growing the Distance: Personal Implementation Guide (and listen to an archived 45 minute teleconference I gave in June on it) at www.clemmer.net/books/gtdpg.shtml. We are offering a limited time introductory discount on this new personal growth tool as well as Growing the Distance, and The Leader's Digest along with its new Practical Application Planner. See www.clemmer.net/books_main.shtml to explore any of these publications.

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Here are a few of the dozens of "Personal Applications Ideas" from the Passion and Commitment section of Growing the Distance: Personal Implementation Guide that you might want to use in your own life check-up.

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Of the short quotes with links to full articles that were e-mailed out as complimentary Improvement Points last month, the most popular with subscribers were:

"Not all feedback is valid and helpful. Ultimately I have to decide what fits and what doesn't. I have to choose the feedback that rings true to me. According to an ancient story, a man once approached Buddha and began to call him ugly names, Buddha listened quietly until the man ran out of insults and had to pause for breath. "If you offer something to a person and that person refuses it, to whom does it belong?" asked Buddha. "It belongs, I suppose, to the one who offered it," the man said. Then Buddha said, "The abuse and vile names you offer me, I refuse to accept." The man turned and walked away."
- from Feedback to See How Others See Me
www.clemmer.net/excerpts/feedback.shtml

"Like customer service and quality, reward and recognition are highly subjective. Just as they monitor the changing needs of customers, effective leaders constantly try to understand the shifting perceptions and values of everyone in their organization."
- from How To Make Effort Rewarding
www.clemmer.net/excerpts/effort_rewarding.shtml

"Naturalist William Henry Hudson once observed: 'You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.' Most training efforts never get off the ground because the methods don't change behavior or the training is poorly delivered and integrated by the organization."
- from Why Most Training Fails
www.clemmer.net/excerpts/why_most.shtml

Subscribe or view the archives by topic area here:
www.clemmer.net/improvement.shtml.

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Following is a recent exchange I'd appreciate your input on. Send your thoughts to me at [email protected]. I'll publish your comments in an upcoming issue of the Leader Letter.

Hi Jim,

I am currently reading a copy of your book, The Leader's Digest. One of my favorite definitions of leadership (although I cannot recall the source) is:

"...a leader is someone who motivates others to go to places they wouldn't otherwise go themselves."

Thanks.

Joe

---

Hi Joe,

I have heard that and also don't recall who said it. I partially agree with it. Like so many things in life, it's all about balance. The comment could be used to justify manipulating or bullying people to go places they are eventually sorry they did.

On the other hand, strong leaders stretch people beyond what they might have thought possible for themselves, the team, or the organization. But it has to start with a fundamental respect for the individual's values and a leadership quest to align the team or organization destination with the individual's values.

Thanks for your input and getting me thinking on this one further!

Jim

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As an introduction to my new Practical Application Planner and Personal Implementation Guide, you can order copies for your team at 50% off now through the end of September. See details and on-line ordering here: www.clemmer.net/books_main.shtml

I hope you can take advantage of this introductory pricing to try these new tools for your team.

The Leader's Digest and the Practical Application Planner are powerful tools in building stronger leaders and leadership teams. The book and planner are designed and priced for distribution in quantity for leadership development programs, executive retreats, seminars, meetings, management team building, or new promotions.

Growing the Distance and the Personal Implementation Guide are powerful and popular tools in building a "leaderful" organization. They are invaluable personal growth resources for everyone - from senior managers to frontline staff. Personal application ideas, self-assessments, implementation exercises, and suggestions for action planning provide the opportunity to journal thoughts, guide reflective learning, set improvement goals, vision for the future, clarify core values, identify key strengths, check life balance, measure personal growth, plug energy leaks, reframe pessimistic thinking, and make concrete plans to improve personal, career, and family success.

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I am always delighted to hear from readers of the Leader Letter with feedback, reflections, suggestions, or differing points of view. I am also happy to explore customized, in-house adaptations of any of my material for your team or organization. Drop me an e-mail at [email protected].

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