Category: Making a Difference

Collective Challenge Day 2

Posted on by Carl Weber

A few books I am reading

This morning I realized that I had to change my routine in order to adhere to our collective challenge.  Typically I wake up, get coffee, and go online to review various news sites.  I found myself a little stuck on what to actually do instead.  I decided to check out a few blogs instead, drink that coffee, then go read a few books.

In case you are looking for a few suggestions of what to do instead of the news, I am offering a few suggestions.

http://wordpress.com/#!/topics/  This is the topic section of WordPress and you can find some great blogs by clicking on the topic.

http://talinorfali.wordpress.com/  A writer from Canada who somehow found my blog. Her tagline says it all.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/  Seth Godin’s blog.  Some great stuff in here.

As for the books, I have a habit of reading more than one book at a time.  In the current queue are Tribes, by Seth Godin, Magnificent Mind at Any Age, by Dr. Daniel Amen, and IMC – The Next Generation by Don and Heidi Schultz.  The first two are for pleasure, the last is for a class I am taking.

I hope this helps, I had to take down the news sites from my Chrome home page, but I am feeling better already.  One thing I realized was the more I read about crime in my own community, the more my opinion of where I live became negative.

Thanks for participating.  I am looking forward to how this 30 days plays out.  You can do it, and 2012 will be great!

A New Year, a New Challenge

Posted on by Carl Weber

Wow, another year has passed.  Another year is before us.  How strange is it that we as a species track time the way we do.  The last time I checked, the squirrel in my yard may have a concept of seasonal changes, but there was no day-timer sticking out of his back pocket.  I cannot remember a time when a giraffe was wearing a wrist watch.  Do they even have wrists?

Tracking time gives us an interesting opportunity.  The calendar resets each year and as the prior year fades away, we can challenge ourselves to achieve something, do something, or be something different.

Beyond goal setting or finding your sentence, how about a different challenge?  A challenge we can all try together and see what we can collectively do to make this world a better place.

The 2012 Collective Challenge

1.  Try not to watch, listen to, or read the news for the next 30 days.  The news cycle is interesting.  In order to entice us to keep reading, it portrays events in catastrophic and negative terms (the world, economy, life, society, or whatever is horrible, on the brink of disaster, the worst in a generation…) and tends to criticize everyone and everything along the way.  Being happy and having a positive outlook on life for the upcoming year becomes hard if you constantly hear how bad things are out there.

2.  Randomly help someone who is outside of your circle in a generous way. Why not surprise someone in this world with an act of kindness or generosity that helps restore their view of the world as well.  Outside of your circle means either a stranger or someone who you don’t regularly connect with.  It is easy to help someone close to you, because they may help you back, but helping strangers is much more selfless.  A few ideas: You could pay for someone’s gas at the pump, pay for some groceries, or send 40 bucks to a random address.

3.  Dream Big.  What is that thing, that idea, that amazing thing that is brewing inside you?  Write that sucker down!  Leave the fear back in 2011, it doesn’t belong in this new year.   “The only thing we have to fear…is fear itself” may help you, but I have a better one.

“The only thing to fear is snakes.  If it is not a snake ignore it!”

If you want to participate, let me know.  Leave a comment, and encourage everyone here to try this.  Post comments as the month progresses.  Let us know about how you feel without the negativity of the news cycle, the creative way you helped someone else, and the progress towards your dream for this year.

Thanks for being part of this community, and together we can change the world.

Reluctant Leadership

Posted on by Carl Weber

Working with people can be a lot of fun.  Either in groups, or one on one, being able to help people discover themselves and their style is very rewarding.  The reward comes from knowing that their personal, professional or leadership journey is progressing and moving forward.  In some small way, you were there providing advice, suggesting a course of action, or just offering the encouragement they needed to do what they know needed to be done long before you arrived.

Lately there has been a notable trend: Reluctant Leadership.

Granted, some behavioral styles and inner motivations are more “natural” leaders.  Other styles are more prone to support others or take the second or third chair.  But this pattern of reluctance lately has even included people who would normally be wired to lead, and lead well.  Where is this reluctance coming from?

Not wanting to lead appears to go deeper than just behavioral style and opportunity.  This reluctance is a murky swamp of reasons more profound that I originally realized.  When talking with some of these individuals, the list has included guilt, shame, fear, doubt and the list goes on and on.  You can hear their Narrators shouting when you interact with them, providing the reasons not to lead.  It is almost as if someone or something knew the need for leadership and preemptively attacked them so they would not, or could not lead.

Are some leaders bad?  Yes.  Have you tried to lead and were unsuccessful? Maybe. Should you stop trying?  NO!  Leading others is messy, hard, tiring, and amazing at the same time.  People need you.  They need you to step up and lead despite your fears, doubt or whatever that reason is that keeps you on the bench and out of the game.

The more I read epic stories (the kind that last for generations) most have a reluctant leader who transforms into the Hero, despite their self-limiting perspective and doubt.  We all identify with that reluctance and fear, and the corresponding hope that they will be successful in the end.  Maybe those authors over the ages have been trying to remind us of something: the best heroes are those who led despite reluctance.

All styles can lead.  All styles can lead well.  In some cases, we have over-glorified the strong dominant leadership style making others feel as if they cannot lead.  Some of the best leaders are those who encourage others, mend prior wounds, and help others become great.

Ironically, in most of the classic stories, the reluctant leaders are the “good guys” and those who we typically would associated with type A commanding leadership styles are the “bad guys.”  Maybe those authors were trying to tell us something.

Be More Helpful Than a Handout

Posted on by Carl Weber

One of the best parts of presenting and teaching is reading the evaluations.  If you listen to what is said, the insight and suggestions from the participants can help refine both the content and the style.  It is not always positive, but learning from feedback can help you become great.

The other day, I read the best comment ever.

“Carl is more helpful than handouts.” 

Maybe that should always be our goal.  If we are not “more helpful” why are we even there?  Wouldn’t the handouts be enough?

Here are a few tips:

1.  Be Authentic: Be yourself.  You are not perfect and that is okay.  Admit the areas that you are still wrestling with.  If you are talking about leadership, describe a time you made a mistake, what you learned, and how you recovered.

2.  Use Stories:  Facts, data, and bullets on slides are one thing, but linking the information together through a story engages the listener to apply the information in a real world situation.  Stories move us, inspire us, and motivate us.

3.  Be More Helpful Than a Handout:  Don’t read your PowerPoint or other materials.  Know your stuff, engage your audience, and leave them better informed, better able to address the issues at hand, and perhaps even a little inspired.

Good luck out there, you can do it.

Work

Posted on by Carl Weber

Work.  Sometimes it can feel as if life is passing you as each day blends into the next.  I was talking about this a lot with a friend when two events happened.

1.  We got to participate in a creative event where people are encouraged to use their creativity.

2.  An invitation came to do a talk on work life balance.

The enclosed video was the result.  I hope you enjoy it.

Credits:  

Photos (all the good ones):  Iain Young

Song:  Work, by Jars of Clay

Three Lessons I Learned in the Navy

Posted on by Carl Weber

Today is Veteran’s Day.  At school this week, the kids were asked to bring in some photos and information on a veteran.  They picked me.  I believe proximity and availability of photos strongly influenced their decision.

I don’t think about my time in the Navy a lot, but their curiosity caused a little reflection.  Twenty years ago seems so far away, and such a different time that even looking at the photos is a strange experience for me.  I do get a kick out of how my daughters’ eyes light up when they see pictures of me doing crazy things.

“Is that really you jumping out of that helicopter Daddy?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

This went on for quite sometime.

As I reflected on that time, there were three lessons that I learned that are worth sharing.

Lesson 1:  The World is a Big Place

I grew up in New Hampshire in a small town and spent most of my childhood here. Spending more than half of my four years out at sea I witnessed the enormity of this planet.  When you steam across the ocean for days and there is no land in sight it puts things into perspective.

Seeing the Pyramids, the Colosseum, the Holy Land combined with visits to most of the European countries that border the Mediterranean Sea provided additional reinforcement.  A friend of mine once said that every place you go, every person you meet changes you in a small way.  Standing at the base of pyramid blocks that are larger than your car has a way of reminding you how large this world really is.

Lesson 2:  Education is Important

The funny thing is, I don’t think the Navy intended to teach this lesson…but they did.  I enlisted right out of high school, just a few days after graduation.  After training you are assigned to a ship, and one thing you notice right away is that you are wearing blue (kinda goofy) uniforms that consist of bell-bottom jeans and white hats.  Officers (those with an education) are in khaki uniforms that are almost “business casual” in appearance.

Early on in your ship-board experience all enlisted people have to spend three months working in the galley.  So essentially you get to experience first hand the behind the scenes way you feed 360 people everyday, four times per day, with the amazing honor of cleaning the dishes, pots and pans for 16 to 18 hours per day.

If you are good, you get picked for more honorable assignments.  After a week, I got to work in the officer’s galley.  Not only were their meals better, they ate in a dining room with cloth napkins and real silverware.  They also lived in staterooms (about the size of my current walk in closet) and not in summer camp like beds stacked three high.

It didn’t take a genius (thankfully) to learn this valuable lesson: if you have an education, the odds are you will live in a better place, wear better clothes, and eat better food.

Despite graduating in the top 10 percent of the bottom 1/4th of my high school class, I headed right to college after my four years of service and it was great.

Lesson 3:  Don’t Be So Afraid

Not being afraid seems harder to keep putting into practice, especially as the years pass. While looking at some of the photos, I realized that fear was not a large part of what drove me.  Yes, I was much younger, but the mission or the work seemed important enough to allow me to put that fear aside.

I used to jump out of helicopters…really.  Now I get nervous when standing on a ladder that is a few stories in the air.  What happened?  Age and time I guess, but for other less risky activities there are times that fear appears bent on halting my pursuits.  There are days that even this blog becomes fear’s next target.

The motto of rescue swimmers is this:

So Others May Live

That mission was enough to move me beyond fear and leap out of a perfectly good helicopter.  Today I encourage you to find your motto, your mission, your purpose, and remember that when the fear creeps in to try to stop you.  Remembering the larger purpose and reasons why will help you move past fear and take that first step.  (The rest was easy, gravity did all of the actual work.)  

And to the Navy, thanks for the lessons.