High Performance Leadership

What if retreat is part of the plan? If our goals are truly ambitious, we will experience some difficulty achieving them. Tough goals cause us to stretch. Tough goals encourage us to grow, to adapt, to create. And, tough goals sometimes cause us to retreat. I do not like to retreat. I do not like to come up short. My ambition is to plunge ever forward at rapidly increasing rates of speed. But sometimes, crap happens. Sometimes, that action item is bigger than expected and more challenging than it at first appeared. We might miss. We might retreat. There does not need to be shame in retreating. It's just a dance step, really, leading to the next bold step up. We create some room, some breathing space. It's just a pause, or a parry. And then we leap ahead. That's how it has felt with one of my exercise goals. I do well, and then something happens that distracts or delays me, and a day goes by with a missed goal. I am making peace with that while NOT letting go of th...

What stands in your way? What prevents you from achieving your goals? The bigger your goal, the more likely that obstacles will spring up. Sometimes they are very real and very formidable. At other times they simply look formidable but amount to small walls that are easily overcome -- once the effort is made. How do you overcome an obstacle? The first step is to recognize it. Acknowledge it. Admit it. And then clearly define what exactly it is that is standing in your way. Did you put it there? Is it something that you secretly want and so have done nothing to overcome? Did someone else put it there and was it intentional or not? What function does the obstacle play? Will anyone else miss that thing standing in your way if you get rid of it once and for all? Will you need help? Will you stay with the effort even if working toward overcoming that obstacle brings about side effects? The art of leadership is overcoming the obstacles to your plan without creating harm. If...