Running and Leadership

I've recently restarted exercising for the first time in years.  And while running (a very short distance) this morning several thoughts occurred to me about the similarities between leadership and exercise, more specifically running (but I think they apply to other exercise as well).

Wise runners know that you must prepare for the exercise.  Once I got past about 25 years old, I realized I had to start stretching before I ran or I wouldn't be able to run as far, and I would pay for it later.  I can't just jump in and start doing but must get ready first.  Good leaders also recognize that sufficient preparation enables people and projects to go further and lessen the negative repercussions later.

Wise runners know that you build endurance.  When I started running three weeks ago, I didn't run a marathon.  Shoot, I didn't even run a mile that first day!  Now I'm up to about 2.5 miles, but it's been a slow endurance-building process.  Similarly, good leaders recognize that almost anything worth doing, and requiring leadership, takes endurance.  You don't ask family members, or new employees, or friends, to run a marathon right out of the gate.  You let them get used to an idea, and to doing bits of the work required, before asking them to go 26.2.

This point bears elaboration.  So much of our society focuses on people "hitting the ground running" as though there were no learning curve.  There is always a learning curve: even if I've done the same task 100 times in other places, or with other people, or at a different time, something is guaranteed to be different when I do it again.  New technology, new or changed personalities, my own life experiences, all these things make the way I approach a task different.  So instead of using the phrase "hit the ground running" maybe we need to change our terminology to recognize that there will always be a ramp-up time.  I think it's fine to delineate which elements are most important to have coming in, but people need to know there is space, and grace, to learn as well.  Running is the same way: I need technique, equipment, endurance, speed, strength ... and I need to know which of those are the most important to start exercising.

Wise runners know that you must push yourself beyond what you think you can do.  Already I've had many days where I think, "I can't run any further, I'm tired."  It probably doesn't help that my runs start by going uphill!  But I've set low enough goals for myself here at the beginning that I can encourage myself through the mental barrier.  And once I did that a couple of times, now I know I can push myself just a little more.  And it doesn't hurt that I know my return run will be downhill!  Good leaders also know that people are typically able to do more than they have done before but may just need a little encouragement (the "push").  Good leaders provide the opportunity for people to do something new, or something old in a new way, and empower people by affirming the skills and abilities they have to bring to bear on the task.

Wise runners know that the finish line is never the last finish line.  Each day I am glad to get back home, but I know the next day there is another run ahead of me.  I enjoy the satisfaction of finishing the day's run but I don't stop there or I lose everything I just worked to gain.  Similarly, good leaders help people to celebrate crossing the finish line but also set the stage for the next time.  Lessons learned sessions, project debriefings, exit interviews, or the like, help people process what they went through, what they learned and how they can use it in their ongoing lives.  This also shows a commitment not just to the task but also to the people, affirming their value as people.

Juggling but that's all right

Those of you who have read my first three blog posts may ask yourselves: how in the world does he juggle these major efforts (direct one nonprofit, co-direct another, pursue the PhD)?  It's a question I often get asked, especially as I currently serve as Board Chair for two other organizations (a local nonprofit, FamilyWorks! Ministries (famworks.org) and a state denominational committee).  And of course I value and prioritize the time I spend with Rose and my boys.

Fifteen years ago my best friend Jim Smith and I were corresponding across 2300 miles: I was living in my parents' downstairs in Vancouver, Washington, having graduated a year or so earlier, and Jim was finishing up his undergrad education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.  We'd write 6-8 page letters, single-spaced, sometimes written and sometimes typed, but always covering a range of topics both wide and deep.

In one letter, Jim wrote about the various activities he had going on and said he was struggling to understand how to prioritize.  He said he knew God came first, but then what was second.  And in prayer one day, the answer came to him: as long as God is first, it doesn't matter what comes second.  Or rather, what comes second may change based on the leading of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  Profound, and true.

I've often thought of that over the past three years as my workload has piled up.  God built me with a large capacity for work.  Part of that is that I don't need much sleep, part is that I tend to quickly organize my work to finish it as efficiently as possible, and part is that (as an INTJ) even while I am working on one thing my brain is processing the other things I need to spend time on, so that when I sit down to actually work on them, they go much faster.  I first discovered this in college when I would routinely write 10-page papers for my literature or history courses in two hours or less, and get A's on them.

So the key is not how I prioritize my own work today, or this week, or for the next 12 months.  I make plans, of course -- I am a J who loves structure, after all -- but I've become much more comfortable with God changing my plans.

My life -- as yours, I'm guessing -- is a juggling act, where I may change what I'm focused on every half an hour.  But as Jim Elliot once said "Wherever you are, be all there."  It's okay for me to have 10 things to work on, so long as God has called me to them and so long as I am not distracted and frittering away my time and energy.  When I am talking with someone about AllOne, I am completely focused on that effort; when I have a phone call about the SEED web site, I am only thinking about SEED; when I sit down to research articles for the dissertation, that's what I do.  And when I have a date with my wife, I focus on her.  When I am hiking or wrestling with my boys, I am with them.

Would I like to spend more time in each of these areas?  Sure.  But if I am called to multiple expressions for what God has built in me, my job is simply to be obedient and do my best in each.  Just as the call was his, so the results are God's.