Friday Reflections

Choose the Best

 

POINT TO PONDER

"Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it."

                         - Irving Berlin

 

REFLECTION by Rajiv Shah

We are in the middle of the holiday season and are on the precipice of a brand new year. This a time for reflection and assessment as we look back on 2013 and plan for 2014.

Sometimes we see the progress we've made - a promotion earned, a rise in income, or the growth in our children - but sometimes (and possibly more often) we hear the voice that nags us about the things we didn't do. We look in the mirror and realize we didn't lose that 10 pounds this year. We didn't write that novel gestitating in the back of our minds. And maybe we experienced loss, in the form in someone close to us. These events can sometimes sit on the forefront of our thoughts. There are two sides to every coin and life gives us both in variable doses. It's all in our perspective and atttiude.

I was reminded of this the other day when I met with a friend. My friend asked me what I was looking forward to in 2014. I told him I'm looking forward to finally making my passionate project, a film that has long been in the works. I admitted it was a scary and that I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I finished by saying, "well, you gotta go for it, I mean, what's the worst that can happen, right?" He looked at me, smiled and said, "no man, what's the best that can happen?" 

That's what I'd like to leave with you as you set your sights on 2014. We always have a choice about what we chose to focus on. So tell us:

What's the best that can happen? 

Special Edition: Tribute to Nelson Mandela

POINT TO PONDER

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

                    - Mr. Zuma on Nelson Mandela

 

STORY LINE Nelson Mandela’s Lessons in Leadership - originally printed in Time Magazine

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it. Mandela spent 27 years in prison and stated there were many times he was afraid but he never showed it. He held his head high and gave others strength to survive

2. Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind. As a tactic he would refuse to negotiate and would never waver on that principle. He knew what his mission was and he stuck to that.

3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front. He was known to let others speak their mind first and then give his opinions. He has stated a leader's job is not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus and guide them appropriately, respecting their ideas. "Don’t enter the debate too early," he used to say.

4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport. “As far back as the 1960s, mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner’s worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs.”

5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer. Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies.

6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile. He knew he wasn't the best public speaker, but he knew that everyone was paying attention to his vibrant smile once he took the stage.

7. Nothing is black or white. “Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn’t correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears. Mandela’s calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?”

8. Quitting is leading too. “Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. In many ways, Mandela’s greatest legacy as President of South Africa is the way he chose to leave it. When he was elected in 1994, Mandela probably could have pressed to be President for life — and there were many who felt that in return for his years in prison, that was the least South Africa could do.…. ‘His job was to set the course,’ says Ramaphosa, ‘not to steer the ship.’ He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.”

 

REFLECTION by Analisa Hightower

When I was a little girl I heard about a man named Nelson Mandela, a man who was just freed from prison and was negotiating to end apartheid in South Africa. At the age of 6, I was innocent to how the world worked and it was through learning about Nelson Mandela, I learned more about the workings of the world (as much as I could at that age). I remember wondering why a man, who was just released from prison, would put his freedom on the line again. It scared me as I was in fear they would throw him in jail at any second again and I thought, “If that were me, I’d hide so I wouldn’t get into trouble again."

As I grew older, I learned to respect Mandela instead of live in fear for him. He could have easily hid, never to resurface and live a quiet life without a chance of imprisonment. Instead he lived an honorable life, fighting for causes and other people.

I wanted to repeat my reflection on leadership for Mandela as a tribute to his life. I seek that same courage and leadership he had in myself everyday. The will to keep fighting for what you believe in and push the limits everyday.

Embracing Change

 

POINT TO PONDER

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." 

 

                            - Stephen Hawking

 

 

STORY LINE (Contributed by a Friday Reflection reader that wishes to remain anonymous)

 

I worked for my first manager at my current company for 5 years and it took me about half that time to appreciate how he pushed me to embrace change.  His philosophy was that everyone needs at least one big out of the box project each year to “strengthen” their performance review for the year.  Early on, it was very painful when he came to me with these opportunities; they not only required me to quickly change my thinking about my current goals and deliverables, but they challenged my natural tendency to resist change. He was taking me out of my comfort zone; the projects typically had a high impact potential and high visibility but the project outcomes were not guaranteed.  

 

In the beginning, after the requisite grumbling, I accepted each opportunity and typically completed the projects successfully (based on my inherent “fear of failure”).  After completing a few of these projects, my behavior changed and I began to eagerly anticipate the projects. I began to actively seek out these types of projects for myself and my comfort zone expanded over time.  

 

Another story related to above: In a past job, I was managing someone that was always asking for new opportunities tthough it seemed like every new opportunity was “just not the right one” (does not align to interest, not perceived as high enough impact/visibility, etc.).  Ultimately, I took the approach that I would decide which opportunities were both good for the business and for the individual and “assigned” the project to the individual.  Many of these projects yielded great results; as an example, one resolved a customer high impact defect issue and resulted in an award for the individual.  After about 3-4 years of working for me, the individual decided they wanted to pursue another opportunity and started working on a resume (for internal job opportunities).  The employee came to me a few days later and said “it turns out that all of the high value items in my resume that make me marketable to other groups are the projects that you assigned to me (aka – the projects you forced me to do), thank you…”  I said “okay, what have you learned from that?”

 

 

REFLECTION

 

Whether individuals embrace (or don’t) job rotation opportunities within their company is related to an individual’s perception of and reaction to “change” as much as it is how satisfied they are in their current situation / environment.  Resistance to change is a natural human reaction, “change” being competitive to the human need for “comfort”; resistance to change seems to be part of our natural survival instincts.  As individuals, where we fall within that spectrum of human behavior determines how easy or how difficult it is for us to learn to embrace change versus employing the “run and hide” tactic when it comes to reacting to change. Some people, to the far right of the continuum, actually thrive in rapid change environments and are generally natural “risk takers” and “thrill seekers.”  Although many of these factors are inherent individual traits, I know through personal experience that we can alter our thinking and behave contrary to our natural instincts and “learn” not only to embrace but actually crave change; embracing new challenges and change is “addictive” once an individual has positive change experiences (change is not necessarily as risky and dangerous as we think). Change can be synonymous with opportunity and growth, it is your perspective that makes the difference.