ARE WE THERE YET?

Tweak, tweak, tweak... As most of you now know Coach Kathy Wilson is going through some major changes; revamped site, new services and solutions, and new learning opportunities. But as much as I think this is it - this may not be it. I feel like I have tweaked everything from my website content to the way I distribute information approximately 50 times over the last few months, always striving to get "there"; the place where everything was perfect and I could then just move on to the business at hand. But what I am coming to realize, very quickly, is that there is no "there".

As you consider what changes you can make to improve the way you live and lead, depending on how big the changes are that you are looking to make, it is nearly impossible not to get a tad overwhelmed by the task at hand. And it is also difficult not get overly excited about what your life, or your team, or your organization will be like once you get "there. But allowing yourself to become overwhelmed, and/or creating the fantastical "there", can have an adverse effect on your progress.

When you think the path to your goal, whatever it is, should be easier or the journey should happen faster than is realistic you set yourself up for disappointment, and disappointment can cause you to quit prematurely. When you create a static picture of what success looks like you close yourself off to different, and conceivably better, possibilities, or the idea that the steps may have to be tweaked several times before you hit your stride.

For personal reasons, it was tough to watch the legacy of Joe Paterno get flushed down the proverbial toilet due to the controversy surrounding the doings, and non-doings, of one indescribably troubled man and the people surrounding him that, as we now know, did not do what was in the best interest of the real people that needed protecting. All of those supposed leaders and not a one of them seemed to be able to do everything the situation required. Like a political discussion the fate of Penn State University, and inevitably Joe Paterno, is split between people who are vitriolically outraged and those who are empathetically (or sympathetically) torn. But here again, we see how challenging the position of leadership truly is, as well as how harshly and varyingly outsiders judge it.

It is a natural occurrence for people not in the specific leadership positions to judge leadership. It is the commentator or writer who has never played sports judging the coach of the struggling team, it is the person who has never been a CEO - let alone in any organizational leadership position - solving a company's problems from their couch, it is the millions upon millions of employees whose sentences start with, "if they (leadership) would just fill-in-the-blank, things would be so much better". People not actually involved in the situation often see the situation as "so simple". Why? Because they have the benefit of hindsight; of seeing at the end of the situation that whatever was chosen did not work out, and offering a new and "better" solution - the "right" solution. And they have the benefit of no risk; being able to dole out solutions and criticism without the burden of any responsibility or having to bear any of the consequences. But there is another reason people feel free to become harsh critics of the choices and decisions - or lack thereof - of leadership, epitomized by this saying::      

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