Leadership as a Muscle

The Quote:

“Strive For Progress, Not Perfection” Unknown

The Action:

I am sure most of you have heard the expression “Are leaders born or are they made”? It is a debate that has been going back and forth for a very long time. Still not sure if there is a resolution, perhaps only opinions, conjecture and differences.

 I am going to propose that leaders, in fact all of us, are born with what I am going to call a leadership muscle, and very much like any muscle in our body, it needs to be developed. Or, perhaps the first step is that you discover this muscle within yourself – we all have it. Some of us use it more than others and discover it at different moments in our lives. And like any muscle if we don’t use it, it becomes smaller, weak, and eventually ineffectual over time.

 I have been teaching leadership, and aspiring leaders for over thirty years. These lessons have been in the classroom, on the ocean, in the mountains and pretty much any outdoor environment that you can define, sand, snow, water, rain, wind, intense heat, benign, outrageous, and everything in between.

 For years I ran outer coast trips and courses. Meaning that I took people in kayaks to the west side of Islands exposed to the full brunt of the Pacific Ocean. Why I did this was because this is where the energy was, the connection to the source, the lessons to be learned, and the wisest and harshest of teachers. Excuses, lack of preparedness and lateness – insignificant in the course taught by Source. Only the prepared, the humble and perhaps the appropriate mantra and prayer scattered here and there, carried any value or weight.

 I was often terrified, frequently humiliated, sometimes I would cry, so scared of what I had gotten myself, and others into. Other times I would smile, at what I was learning, the simplicity and the complexity of the lessons combined into a powerful elixir of self-discovery and insight.  

 This was powerful life changing stuff, and It was having a tremendous impact on who and what I was as a human being. It changed me, shaped me and in some ways lost me, in the cauldron of energy and intensity of direct experience, and the hades of transformation.

 I was learning about myself, profoundly, deeply and jarringly every minute. I was learning about other people and why they did what they did, and continually surprised by this in both pleasant and also distasteful experiences. I was learning, experiencing and acting in a super charged intense growth environment, with small margins for error, indecision or hesitation.

Other lessons were about the environment, and that it did not care about who I was, or what I knew, I was insignificant and inconsequential. I loved this feeling, as it made me realize that I was part of something bigger than who I was, and my agenda. It was incredibly humbling, and very sobering. There was no “good, bad” or duality, there was only what was - life, in all of its complexity, beauty and harshness. There was no sugar coating, no distortion of truths, only hard-earned lessons, failures and victories. Mostly over myself.

I also realized two other things. I hardly ever saw any other groups out where we were. No one else was out here doing what we were doing, most likely as it was incredibly scary and risky, and also, I think, because it made one feel really small in the context of life. Important though insignificant, like you were a part of something but also separate – replaceable and irrelevant to the heartbeat of the environment.

I most certainly made every mistake in the so-called leadership book. I had capsizes, and injuries. I had aborted trips, either due to weather and storms, or human dynamics, not always helped by myself or the situations that I got us into. I had sea sickness due to bad decisions and stretching people too thin with my expectations, and what I thought the group should and could do. I had situations where I looked back over my shoulder to see my group, and all I saw was a dark cloud of snow that had rushed down the mountain, and now there was nothing but avalanche debris, and tracks in the snow, where there should have been the others.

But through all of this I learned. I learned deeply and richly. I began to be able to read the signs and the situations, and most importantly I began to learn about myself, who I was, what I was, and what I was capable of. Some of my worst trips were my best trips. They were raw, messy and sometimes quite terrifying, though also incredibly rich, complex and gratifying on a soul level.

I learned and I grew, because I was using my leadership muscle every day, and every minute. There was no off button, because life continued even as I was tired, hungry, or overwhelmed. The weather did not care, the situation did not care, and it seemed at times incredibly overwhelming and also achingly beautiful in the complexity and rawness of these moments.

I choose intentionally to be the one making the decisions, to be the one bearing the responsibility, as I was also learning where there is pressure, accountability and responsibility, there is growth, learning and intensity of feedback, both for a job well done, and also when things do not go as planned. I cherished the exquisiteness and perfection of these moments., and at times feeling numb, unable to absorb, assimilate, process and decide all in the moment, for the moment.

At times in a situation, there was a pause, and I thought to myself “finally”, only to realise a second later, that it was not finally, it was simply intensity released once again. More decisions, more actions and more consequences when I thought this can’t be. But it was.

Fortunately, even though the lessons were hard, they hurt, and at times repeated time after time until they seeped into my pores and became a part of my DNA, my philosophy and my way. They were also kind, gentle, and forgiving, in that the outcomes were fear, growth and learning, and not death, or fear to the point of not wanting to return again, to that place of insight and illumination.

Leadership as a muscle starts with a choice. A choice to engage that muscle on a daily basis so that it becomes supple, strong, and familiar with the cycles of repetitions, and the knowledge gained over time, experience and discipline to the process of growth and failure. To continually engage, reach and grow. To not quit. To not give in. To stay open to anything and everything as teacher and student.

Ultimately the growth of the leadership muscle comes down to a decision that we all have to make at some point in our lives – “Is this who I am, or is there more…”?

The Book:

The Checklist Manifesto - How To Get Things Right Atul Gawande

This book was recommended to me by someone on a course, I was teaching to a group of physicians. It is about medicine, being a doctor and the medical industry. It is also much more than this. It is a book about the birth of the checklist, and all of the uses and places for the checklist to be applied, not only in medicine, but in life.

Gawande is an excellent writer. He is engaging, tells a great story all at the same time as demonstrating in practical real life situations, mostly his own, the value and dependability of the checklist. Hard to imagine reading about what would appear so mundane as a checklist could be a page turner, but it was for myself. I was so motivated and inspired by this book that I went on a Gawande spree and read three of his other books back to back. 5/5