Thermostat NOT thermometer…

Thermostat not thermometer. 

Leader; not victim. Leaders are kinda like thermostats, they regulate themselves and set the temperature in the room. Leaders regulate. Normal humans simply reflect. They run hot and cold and like a thermostatic pendulum, tend to have wild swings from raging fevers to feeling cold as ice. We tend to lose trust in the positional leader who operates like a pendulum. Remember, we humans want a leader who cares and does so from a state of equilibrium and uncommon poise. We do NOT give our best to the poser who swings from bully to buddy. Nope, we do not.

Humans, turns out, naturally reflect. Real, BTL leaders build a better nature, a second nature. These few slowly learn to regulate themselves and then others. Trust deepens with this leader. Trust spreads throughout the system when teammates feel they’re being lead by a human who has mastered their emotions. Not so much when teammates think their leader is simply a slave to circumstance and just as likely to blow up or blow it off. Humans, turns out, kinda like predictability when deciding where to give their committed best. Make sense?

Today, in practice 41, we went back and reviewed the explosion that was practice 40. We went back to learn about what went wrong and how we could lead through turbulent times a bit more virtuously. We didn’t play fair. We picked on the leader in a bit of a public forum. We passed the tension to one of it’s rightful owners and we role played how to pass it along, so to speak.

Leaders are thermostat’s. Victims are thermometers. One regulates self and control the temperature in the room. One simply runs hot or cold and reflects as such. Which are Y.O.U.? How do you know? How would your team describe you? Who is helping you see your emotional blind-spots?

Tell me more, my friend. Tell me more…