Thermopylae

Thermopylae is a narrow pass (about 50 feet wide) in ancient Greece, between Mount Oeta and the Malian Gulf.  It leads from Thessaly (Thessalia) into Locris.  In ancient times, it was the main route by which an invading army could penetrate from the north into southern Greece.

It is best known for being the site where King Leonidas I died with his 1400 men (of whom 300 were Spartans) during the Persian Wars as they attempted to stop Xerxes and the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC. When Xerxes arrived with his enormous contingent of soldiers (Herodotus estimated it at 2.6 million, but it probably wasn’t nearly that high), he expected the small group of Greeks to retreat in light of his superior numbers, but Leonidas and his men refused to move.  In fact, they appeared confident, even calm, in the face of certain death.  Xerxes tried to wait them out for four days, but they wouldn’t leave.

When fighting finally began, it took three days for Xerxes to defeat the Spartans.  The Greeks easily repelled the initial attacks on their position, for what they lacked in numbers, they made up in determination and strategy.  The Spartans believed in a code of courage and discipline.  Retreat and surrender were not options.  They made their stand at Thermopylae, because the narrow pass nullified the threat of Xerxes’ overwhelming numbers.  Further, Leonidas knew that the Persians’ shorter spears made them unable to engage the Greeks at close quarters.

Had it not been for betrayal by a fellow Greek, Leonidas and his men might have held off the Persians indefinitely, but Ephialtes, a Thessalonian, showed the Persians how to use a path over the mountain to attack the Greeks from behind.  Once betrayed, it was all but over for the Greeks.  Leonidas was killed as he helped defend the pass.  Xerxes then dispatched his 10,000 Immortals, an elite fighting group.  The remaining Greeks retreated to a small hillock, where they formed a circle around the body of Leonidas.

Xerxes asked for the body of Leonidas in return for sparing the lives of the remaining Spartans, but the brave warriors refused.  Xerxes didn’t want to command his men to close in on the Spartans, because it was clear that the Persian armies were afraid of the Spartans.  They had never seen such determination and reckless abandon.  The Spartans didn’t care about preserving their lives.  They only wished to die honorably and protect the body of their leader.  Faced with his soldiers’ reluctance to fight, Xerxes ordered his archers to shoot arrows into the dense circle of Spartans until the sky was blackened and every Spartan dead.

Why did Leonidas and the Spartans fight so hard even after the battle was clearly lost?  Leonidas took counsel of an oracle before the battle, who foretold that either Sparta would perish or one of her kings would perish. By his death, Leonidas hoped to sacrifice himself to save his city.  And as it turns out, he did.  While the Persians went on to take Athens, they had been delayed long enough at Thermopylae to allow the Greeks to regroup and reinforce.  Later in 480 BC, the Greek navy defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, halting Xerxes’ advance on Greece and putting an end to his imperial ambitions.  Had the Greeks not be able to repel the Persians, the later contributions of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other Greeks would never have been possible.

The Spartans had cohesion.  They stuck together no matter what the threat.  They didn’t do it because it was their job as soldiers.  They didn’t do it because of the paycheck.  They didn’t even do it just for their love and respect they had for their leader.  They did it, because they had a common purpose that was larger than all of them.  They had a unifying vision and a common enemy to that vision.

If you want the commitment of your team members, you’ve got to give them something worthy to fight for….a common purpose, a common enemy, something larger than the fading motivation of a paycheck.

Crazy Maisie

Maisie DeVore had a vision.  She wanted to build a community pool for children to enjoy.  She was worried that there weren’t enough positive and healthy activities for kids in her hometown of Eskridge, Kansas, and she felt that the pool was just the thing they needed.

But she had a problem.  Money.  Maisie decided the best way to earn the money was by collecting aluminum cans and turning them in for recycling.  She began searching for them all around town – in trash cans, behind bushes, along roadsides.  When that didn’t net enough cash, she began collecting scrap metal, then making and raffling quilts, then picking wild berries to sell as homemade jellies.

Her neighbors thought she was crazy.  “Hide the toaster!  Maisie’s looking for scrap metal again.”

Her family thought she was crazy.  Said one, “I never came right out and told her I thought she was nuts, but I said, ‘You know Maisie, are you gonna be okay with this if it doesn’t happen?’”

In truth, no one but Maisie thought she would ever see ground broken on the pool.  But that was all the belief she needed.  She collected cans, scrap metal and berries until she had earned $100,000 ($83,000 from the 90 tons of aluminum cans she found).  When the state of Kansas got wind of what she had done, they kicked in a grant of $73,000 to make up the difference.  It wasn’t long before the pool was going in right across the street from Maisie’s home.

As you may have guessed, Maisie didn’t raise that much money overnight.  It took her 30 years!  During that time, Maisie kept her focus on her ultimate goal.  She withstood the teasing and the gossip and put in the incredibly hard work required to see it through.  Now, her neighbors don’t call her “Crazy Maisie” anymore.  As dozens of kids enjoy playing in “Maisie’s Community Pool” each day, all the neighbors call her “Amazing Maisie!”

(S – “Making a Splash,” CBSNews.com, 7/14/02)

Possibility Thinking

During World War I, a Colonel was notified that his troops were surrounded by the enemy, who was demanding that they surrender.  The Colonel took this message to his troops, “Gentlemen, we have a situation that armies dream of.  We are surrounded on all sides, so we can attack in any direction we want.  All we have to do is pick one and go.  Our danger is if we sit here.”

Now, that’s possibility thinking!  Leadership sometimes requires that we reframe an impossible goal so that our team’s can see their potential for success.

Famous Last Words

Talent and genius aren’t always recognized, especially when they are innovative talent or genius.  Just because someone says you can’t doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.  Some of the most successful people in their fields have been denounced at one time or other by a critic who failed to see their potential.

The following list of quotes are about famous people you may have heard of.  Despite the negative feedback, they stuck with it and accomplished incredible things.

1. “He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation.” (Vince Lombardi)
2. “He lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” (Walt Disney)
3. “Can’t act.  Can’t sing.  Slightly bald.  Can dance a little.” (Fred Astaire)
4. “Why don’t you stop wasting peoples’ time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?” (Sidney Poitier)
5. “Try another profession.”(Lucille Ball)
6. “You’d better learn secretarial work or else get married.” (Marilyn Monroe)
7. “You ain’t got it, kid.  You ain’t got it.  Now get out of here.” (Harrison Ford)
8. “You will be a laborer all your life.” (Michael Caine)
9. “Least Likely to Succeed” (Robin Williams)
10. “We don’t like their sound.  Groups of guitars are on their way out.” (The Beatles)
11. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son.  You ought to go back to driving a truck.” (Elvis Presley)
12. “Hopeless as a composer” (Beethoven)
13. “Unable and unwilling to learn” (Leo Tolstoy)
14. “Mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams” (Albert Einstein)
15. “Too stupid to learn anything” and “non-productive” (Thomas Edison)

 

The Competence Cycle

As team members learn how to do new tasks, they will go through four predictable stages related to their confidence and competence.  The leader’s role is to help them progress through the four stages without damaging their self-confidence or causing too much risk to the team or organization.

Stage 1 – Unconscious Incompetence At this stage, the performer has little concept of what the task is actually going to entail.  She is incredibly excited about it and feels enormous confidence that she is up to the task.  The problem is that this confidence is rarely based on reality.  The confidence comes from ignorance of the skills, knowledge and hard work necessary to complete the task.  Often, performers feel that success in previous endeavors will guarantee success in this one.  Sometimes they are right, but most often they are not.  The leader should be very specific with a performer at this stage.  It’s important to tell her exactly what, when, where and how a task should be done.  Make expectations crystal clear, and supervise progress closely. Think about the last time you took up a new sport.  I’ll use golf as an example.  You watched it on TV, saw the pros do their thing and thought, “Hey, I can do that!  How hard could it be to hit a ball with a stick?”  So, you go out to a golf course and mortgage your house to play 18.  (You didn’t know it was going to be so expensive!)  You head to the first hole and watch the party in front of you.  Looks easy enough.  Your turn.  You set your tee, work a little bit to get the ball to balance on top of it, and then you take a swing!  You strain your eyes to see your first hole-in-one.  Wow!  Those balls are really hard to see…oh… wait.  No, they’re not.  They show up nicely against the green color of the grass.  You take another swing… and another… and another… This is getting embarrassing.  The party behind you is starting to laugh… and then complain.  Now they are getting hostile.  You’ve just entered… Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetence This stage is typically a huge letdown for performers.  The high expectations they had have not materialized.  The task is harder, bigger, less glamorous, more work, more expensive…you name it.  They’ve made a big step, though.  Just recognizing that they don’t have the skill set or knowledge for the task is the first step toward getting them.  Now they know what they don’t know.  As long as the performer doesn’t regress to Stage 1 (i.e., go into denial about the skills and knowledge they need), you’ve got them right where you want them.  Now that they know they won’t be the next prodigy, they will typically be much more teachable.  What they need from you is encouragement.  Their confidence has been dealt a blow, and they need to know that this is a normal stage…that all experts were once beginners.  Keep the end result in front of them to motivate them through this stage. Now that you know you aren’t Tiger Woods, you have a few choices.  You can give up – golf must be a hereditary skill that you didn’t get in your gene pool.  Or you can keep plugging (divots, that is).  Get a coach, head to the driving range, practice, practice, practice…  With time, instruction and practice, you’ll reach… Stage 3 – Conscious Competence Progress has been made.  The performer has developed the competence to be able to perform the task.  The problem here is that the performer has to really concentrate on the steps to get it done.  He will typically be hesitant and afraid of making mistakes.  He might over-think the process, leading to avoidable errors and frustration.  Your role as the leader will be to be patient and allow him plenty of practice.  He may need a pep talk from time to time to remind him of how far he has come.  If the performer starts making too many mistakes in a row, his confidence could be seriously damaged.  If you start to see signs of demoralization, give him a break so that he can get his mind off all the steps.  When he relaxes, he will perform better. You are now a golfer, but you’re not enjoying it much.  It takes too much thinking.  Eyes on the ball, legs apart, knees bent, eyes on the ball, pull back, eyes on the ball, elbow straight, eyes on the ball, swing, eyes on the ball, WHACK!  You thought golf was supposed to be fun.  Be patient.  Before you know it, you will cross over to… Stage 4 – Unconscious Competence Eureka!  You’ll rarely recognize the transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4 when it happens, but you’ll be able to see it in retrospect.  One day, you’ll observe the performer, and she will be performing the task without even thinking about it.  Be sure to point it out to her, because she will probably be the last to know.  The beauty of this stage is that the new skills and knowledge have been integrated into the performer’s skill set.  She is now the expert that she originally set out to be! When did it happen?  Who knows?  Overnight, you stopped having to think so much about what you were doing.  Now, you can’t wait to get on the greens.  Everybody wants you to join their group for the upcoming tournament.  Tiger called and asked you for some advice. The Competence Cycle is universal.  All experts were once beginners  – even the Tiger Woods of the world.  While some have natural ability, disciplining it to make it work for them is still a learning process.  Use the Competence Cycle to diagnose your performers.  Then, meet them where they are at to help them move to the next level.

Nose Position

When pilots are flying planes in conditions where visibility is low, they have to use their instrument panel to give them information about the plane’s position in relation to the earth.  One of the most important instruments is the attitude indicator.  It shows how the aircraft is tilted during flight, i.e., nose up or nose down.  Depending upon airspeed, an aircraft with its nose down is typically in a descent, while an aircraft with its nose up is typically in a climb.  So, attitude helps determine altitude.

Know where I’m going with this?  What a great analogy for life!  Your attitude determines your altitude (how high you’ll go).  You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it.  Responding with a great attitude helps you rebound faster from disappointments; it helps you start problem-solving faster; it helps you build relationships; it helps you handle things with grace.  Respond with a bad attitude enough, and you’ll find that problems pick up speed as you hurtle downward, that people steer clear of you, that you get fewer opportunities.  Pretty soon, nothing seems to be going your way.

Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, lost his Phonograph Works plant to fire on December 9, 1914.  His daughter, concerned for his safety, rushed to the plant while it was still blazing to make sure he was okay.  When she arrived, Edison turned to her and said, “Where’s your mother? Go get her. Tell her to get her friends. They’ll never see another fire like this as long as they live!”  The next morning at 5:30 a.m., he called his employees together and said, “We’re rebuilding.”  To reporters, he said, “I am 67, but I’m not too old to make a fresh start.”

Edison treated the disaster as nothing more than a setback.  Better, it was an opportunity to fix some problems that existed in the old plant and rebuild the plant the way he wanted it.  His attitude allowed Edison to continue thinking about possibilities.  His attitude determined his altitude.

So, next time you’re in a tail-spin and headed for a crash, check your attitude and get your nose up!

Fake It Till You Make It

Unless we are compelled to do something, most of us live life doing the things we feel like doing.  Happiness, comfort and pleasure are our main motivators during our non-working hours.  This approach keeps us firmly rooted in our comfort zones.

Unfortunately, the tricky thing about comfort zones is that they tend to shrink if they aren’t stretched regularly.  When we aren’t pushing their boundaries, they start to close in on us, and we find ourselves “comfortable” doing less and less.  Before long, all we feel like doing is renting movies from the local video store.

We won’t grow inside our comfort zones.  Growth is beyond their borders, and we have to push through some ugly discomfort to reach it.  Like a rocket leaving the earth’s atmosphere, we will expend most of our fuel getting out of the lower atmosphere of our habits, but there is a payoff – it gets much, much easier once we have made it through.

What this means is that if we are ever going to introduce some positive change into our lives, we are going to have to do what we don’t feel like doing.  We have to exercise when our body screams, “NO!”  We have to apologize when our pride gives us excuses.  We have to take a leap when the fear (spelled F.E.A.R.) cements our feet to the ground.  We’re going to have to fake it until we make it.

In other words, we are going to have to act like we want to do it even when we absolutely don’t want to do it.  But there is a payoff here, too.  It gets easier.  The feelings will follow after we act.  The want to follows the do.

The American psychologist, Jerome Bruner, says,

We are more likely to act ourselves into a feeling than feel ourselves into an action.

When we use our will to take positive action even though we don’t feel like it, the positive feelings will eventually follow as we start to see the benefits of our new behaviors.  Who hasn’t felt better after a long-procrastinated workout, a pride-swallowing resolution to a family conflict or a a fear-conquering leap of faith?

True, the feelings don’t always come right away.  It may take repeated trips out of the comfort zone.  But before too long, our comfort catches up with our new activity and we feel better about ourselves for doing what was difficult.

When our feelings decide our actions, we retreat into our comfort zones, but when our actions lead our feelings, we grow.  Act before you feel like it.  Fake it until you make it.

Creating Pearls

Ever wonder where we get pearls?

Interestingly enough, they all start with a grain of sand. The sand finds its way into an oyster and becomes an irritant to it. The oyster reacts to the friction caused by the unwelcome particle by coating it with a layer of nacre. The coated sand is larger now and thus a greater irritant, so it gets coated by another layer of nacre. This process is repeated over and over and over until a finished pearl is formed.

Amazing! Let’s apply it to the human dimension. Your greatest irritants will often produce pearls in your life if you will let them. The friction caused by a difficult situation or a strained relationship should cause you to look for ways to overcome the problem. Before you know it, you’ve grown through the process. You’ve developed new skills and knowledge for coping, and those skills and knowledge can be used in other areas of your life to make you more effective. Think back over your life. I bet you are a product of the difficult times you’ve grown through.

So, try remembering this motto; it will help you make the most of your irritating grains of sand.

If you cannot remove it, try to improve it!

No Need to Rush…You’ve Got Some Time

Poster seen in my hotel in Dhaka – 090214.

(My apologies to my Bangladeshi brothers and sisters.  I mean no disrespect…just think this is a unique and somewhat odd marketing campaign.  But you’ve got to hand it to them…they are working whatever angles they have at the moment.)

It Takes Endurance

Ernest Shackleton led a doomed 1914 expedition to Antarctica aboard the vessel Endurance. The mission of the Endurance expedition was to cross a 1,800-mile expanse of Antarctica on foot. Just one day’s journey from its intended landing site, the ship became stuck in the polar ice of the Weddell Sea. The ice dragged the vessel for ten months and eventually crushed her, forcing the crew to abandon ship. The men salvaged Endurance’s lifeboats before she inevitably sank, but they were stranded with no means of communicating with the outside world and no hope of timely rescue.

The group camped out on the ice, sleeping in crude tents and subsisting on a diet of penguins, seals, and sled dogs. Knowing that they would die if despair and hopelessness took hold, Shackleton made sure that the men felt useful and productive. They had to believe that they were actively trying to get out of their predicament, and that if they worked together, that they would succeed. Shackleton had to balance negative and positive energy to make sure that the naysayers among them wouldn’t destroy the group’s fragile confidence.

To get the men working together, he dropped all pretenses of hierarchy and treated everyone, including himself, as equals. He set up work assignments on a rotating schedule so that everyone did the same tasks. On occasion, he even stepped aside and let another member of the group assume leadership. To encourage the men to remain in good spirits, he insisted that they play music, keep journals, create and perform skits, and otherwise engage their minds creatively.

After nearly six months of living on the ice, the Endurance crew braved the turbulent waters of the Weddell Sea and set sail in their lifeboats to Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton left with a small group to seek rescue, leaving the majority of the men on Elephant Island. After several months, he finally returned to rescue the men of the Endurance. Amazingly, there were zero casualties.

During times of major change, individual’s and leaders’ limits are tested.  When the changes stretch out over many months, individuals can become demoralized and lose focus on what they are working so hard to achieve.  They may become exhausted trying to keep one foot on the old ice floe (their old way of life) and one foot on the new (their new way of life) until they can leave the old ice floe behind. No matter what challenges you are facing, never let hopelessness take hold. In groups, it works from the inside out, spreading from person to person and destroying morale. Eventually, it will even affect you.

How do you do it?

· Focus on what you can control – even if it’s small.

· Allow those going through change to see how they are contributing to improvement of the current situation.

· Talk more about opportunities than about obstacles. (It’s okay to acknowledge that things are difficult, just don’t dwell on them.)

· Roll up your sleeves, and work alongside them.

· Take the risks necessary help your those going through changes realize short-term wins and breakthroughs.

If you want to know more about Shackleton’s incredible story and leadership, get a copy of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.