A short time ago my son was in his room listening to a local radio station when he burst into my office excited about something. He really enjoys cars at this stage of his life and he heard about a local car show and he wanted to see. I checked out the cost and after seeing it was more than I was willing to pay I asked him if he was willing to pay for his ticket. Without hesitation he said “yes!”
A couple days later we get our tickets from the auto parts store that was sponsoring the event and drive downtown to attend the experience. Personally I am not as excited about looking at cars as my son, but we walk around and see cars ranging from classic cars to exotic race cars such as Lamborghinis. I must confess I did enjoy the experience more than I anticipated (it did help I was able to buy some fudge at a vendor).
During our time I was looking at photographs of a car in front of me that showed the process of rebuilding the car. I was intrigued so I asked him how he did it. After a brief conversation I found four principles from rebuilding a car that can be applied to leadership either personally or professionally.
- Vision – In order to take something that looks to the common person as worthless and turn it into a display to be admired one has to have a clear picture in their mind of what the final result will look like. In order to lead anything one must have a clear picture of what the final result looks like.
- Passion – Angela Duckworth discusses in her book Grit that a person who has grit or toughness exhibits two characteristics and one of those is passion. In order to take a rusted-out car and turn it into a showroom exhibit one has to have a lot of passion for the project. If your vision is going to come to fruition as a leader there must be passion that will fuel it or the vision will die from a lack of energy pushing it forward.
- Strategic Plan – as I talked to the car owner I heard a plan that he had to implement in order to get a car with a rusted out bottom to become what eventually was a car that could be driven. This was not a random plan, but a specific process where certain aspects of the car were rebuilt first in order to get to the next step. As leaders we may have a vision and passion, but we must have a plan to follow which will have to be adjusted and will not be perfect. The plan will keep us focused on the purposeful work we need to accomplish so we lead intentionally.
- Daily Action – One of the biggest concepts that arose from my brief conversation was that in order for him to accomplish this car rebuild he took daily action. He didn’t complete the project in one weekend. He did a little bit on a regular basis over a couple years. I know I get really impatient and want the vision fulfilled yesterday, but I need to remember that in order to accomplish anything worthwhile it will take daily habits that help me climb up the hill to my desired result.
As you look at these four principles where do you need to grow? Do you have a clear vision for what you are leading and are you passionate about it? If you have those is there a strategic (not perfect) plan in place? What is one daily action step you and your team need to take in order to fulfill the vision? Finally, who will hold you accountable to this next step? Keep leading well both at work and home with passion, vision, planning, and daily action and who knows what you will accomplish.
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