Lessons Learned on the Run

I just ran my first 15K race yesterday. Now if you know me, you'll know that I am not a runner. I am good for 2 miles - the Army standard for assessing Physical Fitness. Two knee surgeries and a bad back generally assure that I do not venture beyond that distance!

Yesterday I went beyond 2 miles. Way beyond. Now for many of you, 9 miles is not a big deal. But at 44 years and 235 pounds...this isn't my gig. Well...it is now. I'm still aching but it has inspired me to keep at it. I'm signed up for a 1/2 marathon in January. Who knows what is behind it? Maybe I'll go for the full marathon after that.

Those of you who pound the pavement know that there is plenty of time to think when it is just you and your ipod. Notwithstanding the 5,000 or so of my closest friends, this time with myself allowed me to think about...leadership. Here is what I learned:

1. Keep making goals. I use the expression, "If you're not going up...you're going down!" This is my first run beyond 10K - at 44. With this one in my rearview mirror, I am onto the 1/2 marathon. The inner city kids who were part of this race (Students Run LA), were learning goal-setting, discipline, and character development as they pushed themselves beyond what they thought they could do. We all have to keep pushing ourselves to improve - physically, mentally, spiritually, organizationally. Sometimes putting something like a race on the calendar gives us that challenge we need to push ourselves to the next level.

2. Accountability. Goals are difficult to achieve without some sort of accountability partner. I would not have entered this race without the challenge from my friend Wayne, shown in the picture. I did not want to let him down. This was often the motivation I needed to strap on the running shoes and hit the road during my training. Having an accountability partner is critical to achieve our goals - whether personal or professional.

3. Humility. Nothing will put you in your place better than seeing your competition blow right by you. In this case my competition was a bunch of middle school and high school kids, some of them half my size, all training for the LA Marathon. Good for them! And good for me...to be trounced by kids, by older men, by older women. I'm proud of finishing but need to know that I have a lot more that I can ask of myself. So now I am back to point #1 - establishing new goals that will push me further and maybe allow me to beat some of those 12 year olds!

It was a great day. I'm still nursing some sore muscles but feel good about what I accomplished. Now I need to take the discipline, the focus, and the determination that I got from training for and running the race...and apply it to other aspects of my life.

What about you? What "stretch" goals get you out of bed in the morning? Who have you told? Who is holding you accountable? What are you doing to grow, personally and professionally? And how can I help you?

I'm humble enough to know that I have a long way to go. Yesterday, despite how bad I felt when I finished, served as a terrific reminder of what we all can do when we put our hearts, minds, and bodies into it. Can I do better? You bet I can. Those 12 year olds better watch out next year! Hooah!

Be Fit, revisited

Friends,

I thought maybe I'd follow up the discussion about being fit (one of the 7 BEs of a Leader...details in posts below) to share an easy way to maintain your fitness. My friend Jeff Weiser is a retiree from the Army Corps of Engineers. He has found the workout below to help him maintain amazing levels of health and energy. It is simple and something that we can all try to do every day. I'm going to give it a shot myself. Read on...and enjoy.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks. Then try 50-lb potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I'm at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks. Hooah!

Have a great weekend.

Be Fit

This is the 6th in a series addressing the key elements of a leadership philosophy. I call them the “7 BEs of a Leader.” Before assuming a new leadership position, Army pre-command training includes time to create one’s personal leadership philosophy. This is a great exercise, one that I have done deliberately many times. I have found that articulating my beliefs, my core values, and what exactly makes me tick are critical elements to share with my subordinates. Doing so, from the beginning, eliminates uncertainty – with subordinates and those whom I serve (customers, stakeholders, etc.) - and helps define the culture and leadership climate that I seek to create. It, like me, is a work in progress. So let me know what you think.

Be Fit

Few areas offer the opportunity to lead by example like fitness. Leadership by its very nature is from the front, always on display. We are constantly being measured, for better or for worse. We simply cannot take the “do as I say, not as I do” approach with regard to fitness if we want any credibility. In taking care of others and in affording them the opportunities to be successful, we need to carefully assess how to invest in their welfare, as well as our own.

This is an area that is ripe for leadership. If we want healthy, energized teammates, we must lead the way. We must lead a life of balanced fitness. And we must find ways to provide similar opportunities and incentives for subordinates. Fitness is the business of leaders.

The benefits of fitness are incalculable. A fit leader enjoys lower stress and higher productivity. They have the energy and stamina to go the distance, to do what needs to be done to outwork or outlast the competition. They are able to energize and inspire those around them by providing an example of balanced fitness that says, “Follow me!”

Healthy employees think and work better on their feet. They generally have higher morale. They are less likely to miss a work day due to illness, placing a lessened demand on soaring personal and organizational health care costs. And they present a positive image of health and energy to customers and stakeholders. Physical fitness makes sense (cents?) on every level!

These returns do not come without investment. Leaders must make reasoned business decisions (cost/benefit) and consider outlays in areas such as:

· Health care (16% of Fortune magazine’s Best Companies to Work For offer full medical coverage).
· Health club memberships (always one of the most valued employee benefit programs).
· Company sports teams.
· Smoking cessation and weight loss programs.
· Proactive physical exams and check-ups.

Fitness is part of a balanced approach to life and leadership. It represents the understanding that we are committed to the overall success of teammates, not just their work output. It implies that there is more to life than work. Thus a balanced commitment to fitness requires investments in other components of our lives to include: spiritual fitness (go to church, synagogue, etc.); family relationship fitness (regular vacations, attendance at our children’s events, and getting home early enough to help with school work); and social fitness (spend time with friends, go to a party, get some rest).

Leadership is from the front. In a life of balanced fitness we lead by example. And by providing opportunities for health and fitness in others, we change lives in meaningful, life-changing ways. And when you think about it that is what leadership is all about. Be better, improve your team, and make a difference.

Be fit. That’s Leader Business.

P.S. Check out my favorite fitness website, CrossFit (http://www.crossfit.com/). The workouts are crazy and I love their attitude. Many of our deployed troopers work out the CrossFit way. Hooah!