I remember my history class in high school so well... every night as a 15 year old I would sit on my bed, open my book to the right chapter, plug in my headphones to the huge turntable/dual cassette/turn dial radio/oversized music maker next to my bed and drown my thoughts in rock and roll while convincing myself by looking at the page I was going to learn something. After a couple of lousy grades I came to realize maybe reading the material was a good idea after all. From that point on the hardest part for me was sitting in the silence and "getting started". Like trying to put a 3 year old to bed (20 times a night) I came up with every excuse to find something else to do besides getting started.
Fast forward through 3 kids, a wife of 21 years, countless business meetings, six sigma projects, business papers, powerpoint decks, training sessions, and emails that come in larger groupings than the population of some third world countries, and one thing I have learned is that getting started is still hard for me. So, when I decided to start a blog I spent hours, and several iterations of writing stuff, to determine what I was going to post first. Then I had an idea - start with the beginning in mind... hmmmmmm, seems logical, yet so profound. So, I have turned off my music, stopped getting up to get drinks and eat, quit thinking about the emails and tasks coming up in my work week, and decided to start by talking about starting.
Most of what I have to say is about business, leadership, office politics, relationships, learning, teaching, and all of those things that help people become better at what they do, so they can be smarter, learn faster, apply what they know, and grow in their career. However, what I have noticed over my years of drudging on about "what is important" and watching some people gloss over (a clear sign they have run face-first into a tree in the forest of your discussion) there are two types of people. Those that love to listen, assess what they have heard, apply it with their own distinct prowess, and expand their expertise through the application process (for a lack of a better term I will borrow Nike's idea - it is known as "just do[ing] it"). The other person is the one that likes to learn the terms that are bigger than the terms their audience uses or knows. These folks are as easy to spot as a two headed Shetland pony on the farm. You can identify them by the words coming out of their mouths that require a secret business term decoder ring, and the fact their audience is nodding at a pace that will cause their head to soon pop off, or at least dislocate their neck, yet all of the oxygen is being stolen by the speaker, and has left them feeling smaller than when the conversation started, and a little light headed.
These two types of people are usually different because of, not just what they say, but what they do to execute against "what is important". I have been around hundreds of leaders over the years and the one thing I have learned is that there are "sayers" and "doers". The sayers usually have good ideas, know what to do, have read some books that they rely heavily on for their materials for discussion, and talk a great game. The only thing missing is the execution. It is like buying a Bently and failing to put gas in the tank. It sure looks good in the driveway, people wil be in awe at your buying power (and assume you must be smart to get the money to buy on of those) but it won't get you very far.
The other type of person is the one that understands the art of execution. The person who understands that knowledge is power, but has the ability to plan, simplify what they know so it can be digested and acted on, and amoebically motivate and move an organization to fulfill the vision is the one that is worthy of the term Leader.
As I take off on my journey of thinking outloud for the world (or the few friends and collegues I have) to read I will tackle the idea of execution. Why is it so important, how is it done, what can be expected, and all the other "rocket science" ideas I have in my noggin'.
Okay, wow, I actually "started"... that felt good...
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