Last evening I was watching an interview with a female executive and really was not paying much attention for I was also listening with my ear buds to music on YouTube; yes, it can be done! Toward the end of her impassioned dialog, she made a comment that captured what I have realized, lived and believed during my entire life. She said, "the reality is that Growth and Comfort cannot co-exist. STOP! What? Let me amplify.
As humans we all want comfort which is closely linked to peace. It, Comfort, provides a sense of stability, worth and can also breed laziness and detachment. The Growth versus Comfort concept gelled for me in working my brain back through the decade of teaching university students in a high energy, competitive, team-driven, high expectation learning endeavor. Even before I met the student, my fundamental assumption was that they were coming into my world as their professor to be stretched and not groomed, elevated to perform and not simply to listen, to be part of the course work and not a spectator. Most of my students, as they will attest if they read this, was that the pressure to organize, plan, direct, execute and to develop work relationships with others in their assigned team began with a very personal choice that said, I Can Do This! Once that ICDT was internalized, a magical moment to witness or a painful journey for those that chose not to internalize for peer pressure can been horrid and disconcerting yet a powerful force of change, the real learning process was launched.
See, in that contextual paragraph, the genesis of today's blog is illustrated in that Growth and Comfort are incompatible forces in a competitive environment. Growth is a choice! I speak about and write much about the power of Choice for it is that powerful force that drives one forward or pushes one backward. You then add that into the gin of team-based work and you have an amazing mechanism for Change which will lead to Growth thus requiring more Change as the fuel to energize or Growth.
There is a long standing and much debated economic theory, Creative Destruction, that postulates that economic performance is fueled and driven via the destruction or utilization of a blend of the Factors of Production, Land, Labor, Capital and Technology. As the blend, the means, is consumed thus deconstructed and destroyed, the more creative ways of blending the Factors to need heights and needs will drive the economy.
I absolutely believe that. In that belief, back to my professorial experience using corporate leadership lessons learned in that classroom world, I saw ever increasing levels of utilization of the Factors in accomplishing the heavy load of course work within the framework of men and women working cohesively and productively to get the work done. My challenge as their professor or CEO of Jim, Inc, was to meter the progress in each team seeking as an Air Traffic Controllers to monitor all the teams / planes, from where they were to the right air strip at the right time and with the right landing info to the pilot / team leader. Magical to experience!!!!
For me, the words of the lady last night were a positive jolt again the in this world; we may seek Comfort and that is a noble venture but the means to getting to that state is through the energies and demands of Growth. Some will read that and will totally disagree but in my lifetime and with the countless experiences in the military, career at Goodyear and some amazing leaders and even more amazing challenges, a decade of teaching young people, prison ministry, leading a singing quartet, raising a family, etc, etc, the fact is that Growth drives change in the strive for a state of Comfort. This one paragraph is a beacon for leaders to lock onto for at the aggregate of my words is the real challenge for leaders. One of my fall back points about leading is that one will never learn to lead until they learn to serve. Serving people's real needs, key word is REAL, is a bridge to the resource potential of those being led, right?
One of my great leaders taught me once that there is NO CHANGE until there is a MEASURABLE CHANGE IN BEHAVIOR and to that I say a resounding Amen this early morning. Growth is not without consternation nor void of fear for growth means it is time to jump off the high dive into the dark waters of the night. Once that courage is elevated to accomplish the leap, leading, then the waters begin to feel enveloping and spurs the elixir of Growth; but it did not come via the boulevard of Comfort; quite the contrary, did it?
It is my belief, hope, that this particular blog, more academic than most, will embrace many that will read it for I have written my heart; a heart crafted from many years of doing. Seek the pathway of Growth in every endeavor and the fruits of the labor and choice will yield sweeter, cooler water to ease the pain of thirst. This requires levels of commitment and energy far too many just cannot and choose not to invest. That group is what I called the Twenty Percent Club for it is they that choose that Club that will impede and impugn the performance of the 80% that are always in place, ready to perform, seeking the fuel of growth and you can depend on.
NEVER BE A 20%er and yes, it is a choice!
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