Lead Where You Are

My oldest daughter just passed her latest belt test at American karate. This picture is of her, her instructor, and her two black belt brothers. The bigger one is my oldest son, whom I wrote about earlier. There are 4 levels of students at this studio:

• Beginning students – white suits
• Intermediate students – black suits
• Advanced students – red suits
• Black belts

My oldest daughter was at the first belt of the black suits. She was testing for her “stripe.” However, when it came time to do the forms (kata), the instructor put her front and center. He had her demonstrate each form before the others attempted it, even though there were higher belts also testing. Why her? The instructor knew she knew every form and that her technique was proper for each one, well above her current belt level. Needless to say, she performed marvelously.

If the instructor had gone purely on belts, she would never have been called on. This isn’t the first time she has been called up to demonstrate for students above her belt rank. It is a regular thing with her. She knows how to do what is needed. She can lead others in those things. Her movements are sharp and precise and her voice is loud and clear. Even though she is young, she has developed the skills to lead her peers, even if she doesn’t have the highest belt. Quite simply, she doesn’t need a title to lead.

Neither do you. If you have to have a title in order to lead, that isn’t leadership. Leadership is setting the example, being disciplined, understanding the needs, finding a way to get those needs met, and accomplishing what needs to be done. None of this requires a title.

That is what my daughter does at karate. She is quite advanced for her belt. She only has two forms left to know based on what is on the black belt test. She had already begun learning the fighting combinations she must master for her black belt. It will be years before she has the experience and maturity to earn a shot at that black belt, but that doesn’t stop her now. She has an advantage. She lives under the same roof as two black belts. She makes use of that advantage. She had prepared herself to be out front. Her brothers actively help her as she needs it, but she is still the one that takes the initiative.

You have advantages, too. There are things that set you apart from others. The key is to find out how to use those advantages to help yourself, your team, and your organization. Also, you have the ability to gain experience and skills to lead others. Some of your advantages may open the doors for that, just like they do for my daughter. Real leaders (those who actually lead) are invaluable. It does require more of you. It likely will cause you discomfort. My daughter was put on the spot in front of every student testing along with their parents and friends. She didnt let the discomfort stop her. Neither should you.

One last thing: leading is helping people move in the correct direction. It isn’t abusing them. It isn’t doing all the work. And it certainly isn’t flaunting anything. The point of leadership is to motivate people to get things done. Therefore, don’t overstep things and don’t get arrogant and cocky. If you do things right, people will follow you because they trust you. That’s what you are looking for. However, you have to earn that trust by treating others right. That is an integral part of leadership, too.

Better Define Your Goals

Ambiguous goals are useless. An example of an ambiguous goal is “I want to lose weight.” What does that mean? The problem with a goal like this is if I step on the scale first thing in the morning after skipping a couple of glasses of water the night before (meaning I’m slightly dehydrated), I’ve accomplished the goal. The water weight alone should mean I weigh less. But did that really complete what you were trying to do? Probably not.

This is one of the biggest issues I’ve encountered in my own goals. I’ll initially write a goal but then realize it’s too ambiguous. Either I can’t measure it or I can’t define when I’ve accomplished it. If I look at a goal and I see those issues, I know I need to work to redefine my goal better. There’s that old management mantra:

“What gets measured gets managed.” – Peter Drucker

If I can’t measure progress, if I can only see an ending point, then unless it’s a simple goal (get email off to buddy about vacation, for instance) it is easy to get discouraged. For instance, if my goal is “look good in a suit,” then until I get there, I only know that I’m not done. And if I’m working out and eating right and it’s been 6 months but I still don’t “look good in a suit,” at that point doubt starts to set in. Will I ever look good in a suit? How much longer will it take? How will I know when I’m really done?

A better goal would be, “Lose 20 pounds of body weight.” Or another goal might be “Lose 4 inches in the waist.” Those are tangible. Those are measurable. Progress can be tracked. Losing weight isn’t usually a straight line down. Some measurements you gain. It could be you have more water in your system. Or it could be you’re putting on muscle, which is denser than fat, so although you feel and look slimmer (and can measure yourself to be), you weigh a bit more because of the muscle gain. However, by measuring and recording, you could frame the situation correctly like so, “I did what I was supposed to last week, and though I’m a pound up from the last weigh in, I’m still net 7 down. I’m still okay.” That’s the point of making them measurable.

In a nutshell goals should:

• Be measurable.
• Have a clear completion point.
• Have a defined first step.

The first two I talked about with the example, but what about that defined first step? What if I don’t know what I need to do? Researching how to accomplish the goal is a valid first step. For instance, a friend of mine wants to swim with sharks. That’s a five year personal goal he has. His words were, “Plenty of people want to swim with dolphins. That’s boring. I want to swim with sharks.” We both know folks do this. Neither of us know where. So his first step is to do research. He needs to find where he needs to go in order to be able to swim with sharks. That will determine his next step.

If you can’t define a first step, it’s not a good goal. You want goals you can act on. If you don’t have a first step, you can’t do anything about the goal. Even crazy sounding goals can be attempted. For instance, I remember a story about a man who wanted to be a professional sumo wrestler. However, he was just a little too short. Though he had been an amateur champion, that didn’t matter. Rules were rules. He succeeded by convincing a doctor to place a silicon implant in his head so he could meet the required height. Granted, that’s a very unique first step, but it was still something actionable to help him accomplish his goal.

Make sure your goals meet these criteria. You want to be able to track and see progress. You should be able to define when the goal is completed. And finally, your goal should have a clear first step, even if it’s to learn more about what you’re trying to do. This will move you towards accomplishing your goals, which should be the point of setting them in the first place.

 

Teach What You Know

The boy in red is my oldest. He and his younger brother achieved one of their major life goals last year when they passed their black belt test in American karate. It was a long journey. We often talk about one and five year goals. They stuck to it past five years because there teacher has subjective qualifications based on maturity, self-discipline, etc., that most begin to reach as teens. It is a reminder to me that if my sons can stick to accomplishing a goal though it takes 7-8 years, then I have no excuse.

But that’s a post for a different day. This post is about teaching what you know. My oldest has always excelled at grappling. When he was 12, they put him up against a 15 year-old during one of his advanced belt tests in order to challenge him. He picks up moves and techniques easily and he remembers the hows and whys for them, too.

As a black belt, he is often expected to help the other students, and part of that is teaching them proper technique. He takes time to explain why a particular move is a good idea or why it is a no-no. For instance when a kid put his “hooks” in by wrapping his feet around from my son’s back, my son immediately stopped him when the kid crossed his feet, hooking them together. My son knows the lock that allows you to break out of “back mount” when an opponent does this. He quickly pointed out to the student that it is possible to break his feet this way and repositioned the student’s feet properly.

By being put in a position to teach, my son is able to reinforce his own knowledge in something he loves. By teaching, he must understand what he knows in a way that he can communicate and share it. It goes beyond proficiency and moves toward mastery.

When you get the opportunity to teach about something you know, seize it. Make sure you have enough time to prepare, if you can, but look for opportunities to share your knowledge. To do it right, you will be forced to go beyond basic understanding. You need to know the subject well enough to be able to find a different way to explain it if your first method doesn’t work. That is the mark of a good teacher. To teach something, your understanding of whatever it is will grow. It is said that the teacher gains more than the student. This is certainly true the first few times you teach on something and seek to do it properly. Therefore, desire to teach, not just to help others but also to improve yourself.

Find a Way to Do a Little Towards Your Goal

Last night I was feeling terrible. I had stayed home due to sinuses but I had on my workout schedule to go run. I really wasn’t feeling up to it, but I knew that if I didn’t go, I would be setting myself back. I needed to do something, at least a little, so when we got back from church I changed into my running clothes, laced up my shoes, and started out on what was supposed to be a 3.1 mile loop.

I learned this lesson back at The Citadel when the Director of Bands, Major Day, brought in an old tuba player he knew. The tuba player either played with the Commandant’s Own or the President’s Own Marine bands, but I don’t remember which. What I do remember is he played my part for Stars and Stripes Forever from memory. And he played it on the tuba. Since my primary instrumentation was flute and piccolo and he played the piccolo part on tuba, I was picking my jaw up off the ground. I couldn’t believe a brass instrumentalist had that kind of embouchure, especially someone who was supposedly retired.

Major Day brought him in for a reason. He wanted to inspire us and to motivate us to work harder. He did so with that gentleman, who also took part in our spring concert. Major Day did ask the man what was his secret for success. The man’s answer wasn’t surprising, as we had heard it before. But after hearing and seeing what he had just done, most of us took it to heart. Here’s what he said, as best I can remember.

“Practice every day, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. If you’re sick, get out of bed and do those 15 minutes. And don’t just practice what you like. Practice what you need to work on. Make those 15 minutes matter. Of course, you should practice longer, but don’t neglect a practice. Don’t ever skip one. “

Running last night was about giving my 15 minutes. I have a goal to be able to run long distance again. Skipping last night would have been detrimental to that goal. So I went. I hurt. I cut it short, only going 1.66 miles, but I went. I’m still not able to run the whole time, but I did run over half the distance. I made progress. Maybe I didn’t make the progress I would have liked, but I still took a step forward.

It’s easy to make excuses. It’s easy to give in to the circumstances. It’s easy to find a “legitimate” reason not to do something. However, if you want to reach your goals, you need to push forward, even when it’s hard. We grow during times of adversity. And if we want to truly accomplish a goal and master something, it’s going to take consistent effort, even when we’re not feeling up to it. Case in point:

Watching this master do a simple bo kata reveals a lot. His moves are precise. They accomplish the purpose for each strike and block. He has more hours practicing this kata than he can probably remember. And likely he practiced it when he was hurting, when he wasn’t feeling well, because it needed to be practiced. It needed to be practiced if he wanted to be at that level of performance.

And that’s a key way to get an edge: to work when others aren’t willing. So when you aren’t feeling well, when you are feeling tired, still look to make some progress, any progress, on your goals. Each time you work when others don’t, you either gain ground if you’re behind, or you extend your lead if you’re not. Also, for skills that require continual practice, you don’t backslide. You at least maintain and maybe even improve. Therefore, even if it’s only 15 minutes, take the time to make progress.

Be Prolific to Be Excellent

I want to produce great work. However, I understand that in order to produce great work, you usually have to produce a lot of work. Not everyone can be a Harper Lee. We’re often not good judges of whether we’ve done great work. For instance, most bloggers will point out that there are blog posts they thought were definite hits that fell flat. Likewise, there were quick posts they just got out there that they didn’t think anyone would read. Only, those are their most popular posts. This just goes to show how wrong we can often be as to what will appeal to people, what will be valuable and useful.

That’s why the advice is to be prolific, to produce a lot. I’ve heard this from Sebastian Marshall (blog | twitter) and Steven Pressfield especially. Pressfield, for instance, in The War of Art talks about how he has a particular routine about writing. Sebastian points this out when he answers the question of how he is able to write so much. Because we aren’t sure what is going to be seen as great, we just need to produce. There are advantages to doing this.

There Is a Greater Body of Work

Even our best stuff may attract someone’s attention. The more that you’ve done, the more you’re likely to attract the attention of others. If you blog a lot, then different posts will resonate with different people and your name will slowly make its way around that way. If you’re a cabinet builder and you do good work and you eventually work with every major contractor in your area and you are always doing good work, then you might get the opportunity that fits best with your skill set and gives you the opportunity to do truly great work. However, you first need the opportunity. The more work you have out there, the more likely you are to get a second look.

If You Are Trying to Improve, Each Production is Practice

If you’re just dumping stuff out there to dump stuff out there, then likely you’re quality level will reach a certain point and never get better. Even the point of doing a task over and over again means you should get to a particular level of proficiency. However, if you’re really trying to improve, if you’re pushing yourself with exercises and techniques appropriate for your level, then that should pay off for you. This is “intentional practice,” a concept coined by Geoff Colvin to explain what separates top performers from everybody else. It’s not innate talent unless that’s being able to grow 7′ tall so you can play center in the NBA. It’s hard work, lots of it, and the right kinds of hard work for your level. That’s the determining factor. So if you’re doing a lot of what you want to do, and you’re trying to get better, then you should be able to with some exceptions (usually physical).

You Don’t Know What Others Will Consider Great

Let’s face it, we don’t always do a good job figuring out what the people we are closest to will like. Ever buy a present for your significant other that you thought would put your name in lights and it was a bomb? Ever do something for your mom or dad that you thought would make their day only to find out it didn’t? So if we’re not so good at determining how the people around us will feel, we’re even worse when we talk about the world at large. Granted, we can do surveys, we can play the odds, etc., and for certain things we definitely should. However, even if we do these things we may not have a real hit. On the other hand, if we’re at it every day, if we’re working at something we’re passionate about, then we increase the likelihood that something will be produced that others will like. Maybe it won’t ever happen, but that brings up an important question: who are we doing it for? When I blog, I blog because I like to share. If folks read what I blog, that’s awesome. If they don’t, well, I still got to write and that’s awesome, too.

So in conclusion…

Be prolific. Do a lot of what you love. Produce as often as you can. Make art. Create. Build. And do so as often as you can. Learn and improve from every attempt. Put aside what others think or how many people even notice. Be prolific for your sake.

What Becoming an MVP Meant to Me

I remember in the mid 2000s when I wanted to do enough to be recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Microsoft SQL Server. At that time I saw it as the “next level.” Folks I really respected were being named MVPs, folks I wanted to follow in the footsteps of, so naturally, I hoped one day to be an MVP as well.

At the time, though, I didn’t hold out much hope. My job as an infrastructure and security architect meant I had very little time for outside work, even writing a few articles here and there. I wasn’t working with SQL Server day in and day out. And while I was knee deep in Active Directory, I never felt like I had a familiarity enough with the community to dive in.

Then, in 2007-2008 I decided I really wanted to focus on SQL Server. I paid out of pocket for some opportunities to speak, reached out to friends in the community for opportunities to write more and do some training videos and commit to what I love to do: sharing about SQL Server and especially about security related to SQL Server. A friend thought I had done enough to warrant a look, nominated me for MVP, and in January 2009 I was awarded the recognition. And that’s when my journey really started.

Started? Yes, absolutely. Sebastian Marshall (blog | twitter) has a post about how he took himself off the list for those his age as far as what they had accomplished. He was in the top 1%. Instead, he put his name on the list of the greatest men of all time. That meant he was now at the very bottom. It is hard to think high and mighty of yourself when you are comparing yourself to Thomas Jefferson and Tokugawa Ieyasu. When I was awarded an MVP, I looked up and saw a bunch of luminaries whose work I’ve followed for years. While I was receiving the same award as they had, I was at the bottom of a new list. I won’t pretend I was at the top 1% of some previous list. Sebastian had something quantifiable to use as a measuring stick.

How do you measure knowledge in SQL Server? I don’t know. I just know that there are a lot of folks who are MVPs who dwarf my knowledge. Folks I still want to be like. Folks who I still look up to. So while I may be a SQL Server MVP, I still consider myself near the bottom of the list. One of the weakest names. Who do I place below me? No one in particular. I just hope I’ve made some progress on the list these last 3 years. It really doesn’t matter, because the past is past. There is still a long road ahead. I still have a lot to do and a lot to learn to be anywhere near where I want to be. This is what becoming an MVP meant to me: moving to the bottom of the list of some really awesome SQL Server people with the goal to work my way up by knowledge and experience.

Walk During Your Lunch Hour

I work in information technology. That means most days I’m in front of a computer, sitting down, for the majority of the day. This sedentary work (from an exercise perspective) is why I’ve packed on the pounds over the years. I’ve made a commitment to lose the weight and to run long distance again. However, running long distance takes time, far too much time to accomplish during a lunch hour. Working out with weights is good, but requires a gym membership, which may not be feasible for some. Or, if you’re like me, where you’d like to get a gym membership is closer to your house, not your work, making working out at lunch at the gym no longer an option.

One option that is on the table for most folks is walking. A quick bite to eat and there should be time left over for a walk. It doesn’t have to be too intense, and it doesn’t have to be that long. Even a 15 minute walk can be productive. If you can’t spare more than 15 minutes, take that. Then do the other 15 minutes some other time, such as before or after work. The key is to get out and do some exercise when you can. Also, 15 minutes of walking is something that is in the range of most people, even if they haven’t worked out in some time. That’s actually how I started to get back into things. I just started walking, and when I did, I first started at about 15 minutes a session.

If you’re the type that has to track something while you walk, consider getting a pedometer. A few years back my organization sponsored a contest where if you walked a certain number of steps each week, you won an inexpensive prize. For instance, if you averaged 2,500 steps over 7 days (17,500 steps) you received a cozie with an inspirational message to keep working out and it went up from there. The top cumulative steppers had chances to win gas card prizes. Tracking your walking with a pedometer gives you numbers to shoot for. A study also shows that if you shoot for 10,000 steps, you end up walking about a mile more each day than if you just shoot for 30 minutes of walking. It’s okay to work up to that number, the key is just to get active, and a walk during the lunch hour is one of the easiest ways to do so.