By way of reminder…
Orange is my favorite color. Here’s why.
Everytime I head to I 70 for a trip out west I run into an endless stream of orange. ODOT, IDOT and every other DOT seem to have settled on orange as thier construction zone color of choice. Orange cones and barrels mean you are entering a construction zone. Time to slow down. The road is being built. This is good news/bad news. The good news is that the road will be repaired, widened, and built better than it was before. The bad news is that, until that time, we have to slow down. Sometimes, really slow down.
At BUILT TO LEAD, we believe that all of us that want to get on the hero’s journey, build something cool, and sustain our high performance in work and life must embrace some “orange barrels.” Transformational leaders are ALWAYS under construction; they are always being built. The hero’s journey requires a lifetime of learning. You will not go very far if you only go where you’ve always gone and if you always travel the same road. In the old days this was obvious to see. The well traveled roads developed “ruts” that you could not miss.
Most “normal” people, I’ve observed, see orange barrels as a problem. They just want to go fast, period. They run right through the barrels until they have a HARD STOP. The hard stop is usually really painful and really slows them down. Here’s the root.
Normal people develop some level of competence and choose to stop learning. They lack a clear purpose to inspire them and corporate “enrichment” will only carry you so far. They get complacent.
They decide to stop.
They stop exploring and taking the “white” roads. They keep repeating the model. The develop deep “ruts” in their families, their companies, and sadly, in their BRAINS. These people slowly wind down. They don’t know it, but they’ve chosen a slow death.
The BUILT TO LEAD leader is different. They LOVE orange. They are always under construction and changing. They LOVE to try new roads. They actually slow down to speed up. They choose quick death, quick death, quick death, and then a burst of life. They learn from their wins, losses, and slowly pick up speed. They build momentum over time.
They learn baby learn.
See, the “orange barrels” are our friend. Who knew?
What are you learning for your development?
How are you applying what you are learning to improve your performance in work and life?
What “baby step” do you want to take to play with what you just learned?
Tell me more, my friend.
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 