Cycling, even driving, the French Alps is stunningly beautiful and really hard at the same time. It is physically demanding, mentally taxing, and requires your full attention. Something you might not know, unless you’ve been there, is these mountain roads are quite a contrast to the mountain roads throughout America. Two things are missing, in fact.
Guardrails and Signs.
In America, we have guardrails all across the Rockies, throughout the Smokies, up and down the Carolinas, from Reno to Tahoe, and even in the Ozarks. We love guardrails. We feel safer just knowing they’re there. We love warning signs too. Those same mountain roads are littered with sign after sign telling the driver there is a dangerous curve up ahead. We’ve even gone so far as to tell the driver what speed to maintain. We care deeply about the safety of our American team and want to ensure they have all the information they need to navigate across our land. We leave nothing to chance…
The French, not so much. All across the Pyrennes and throughout the Alps, the guardrails are mostly missing. Mile after mile it’s just you, the narrow pavement, and the rugged, rocky, steep drop straight to certain death. The signs?
MIA.
You are alone to your own devices. On your own. The roads are narrower, steeper, and you’re inches away from certain death for mile after mile after mile. Here’s something kinda funny. The French roads are actually safer. They have far fewer crashes and fewer fatalities too. By now, assuming you are thinking, you know the reason why. Funny, huh.
Guardrails and warning signs do not make us safer. Actually, they make it easier for us to fall asleep, to become overly dependent on their data, less likely to pay attention, and more prone to error. The lack of both causes our senses to engage and puts our system on full alert. We tune into our surroundings, turn off the ipod, don’t even think about texting, and wouldn’t dare take our eyes off the road ahead. Full attention and full engagement fuels the Frenchie forward as the road narrows and twists and turn with little to no warning. The Rockies driver, not so much. He’s looking to the left at the guardrail and to the right for the warning sign. He is not fully engaged and engulfed in his surroundings. He’s looking side to side for data to tell him what to do. One sign blows down, one sign doesn’t catch his eye, and the next turn may just be his last.
As I travel from client to client, I’m reminded of this truth. We have way too many teams, far too many leaders, and countless individuals that are far too passive. They are NOT thinking. They think that they are.
Therein lies the danger.
And yet every day in a million little ways they look side to side and they look up hoping to find the answer. And then they wait. In fact, they mostly wait. They want the answer. The simple mistake is that they want someone to give it to them. Someone to tell them which way to go and how to go there. They don’t want to THINK.
We don’t want to think.
Wake up and think about the road you are on. Are you on the road of your choice. Is this road headed in the direction of your big dreams? Are you ripping up the twists and turns fully alert, alive, and engaged in your OPUS? Are you trusting your senses or still looking side to side for one more piece of analytics to give you the answer?
Are you thinking?
This past week ended with my intern, Taylor, being forced to think by one of my clients. My client asked Taylor to tell him the most important learning from his internship. Taylor did not rush to speak. I love this trait about my son. He is thoughtful. So, he took his time and allowed silence to permeate the room. After what seemed like minutes but was surely seconds, Tay said with ccd clarity, “I’ve learned to NOT give up on my passions/my dreams and get comfortable on the climb.”
What, my friend, are you learning? Are you thinking?
BUILT TO LEAD 