Humility is not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less.
If you have children, you know they are great at maintaining their parents’ humility. My youngest child, Lexi, is particularly gifted in this area.
Along with the books and columns I write, I have been writing this newsletter/blog for 20 years now. Occasionally I will ask my kids what they thought about one of my blog posts on a topic that is relevant to them.
As I reflected on the life our family dog, Sparky, I was struck by his gold standard of reliability.
Before Sparky went to doggy Heaven, he greeted me at home every time I walked in the door for 14 years. To put that into perspective, that’s 20,000+ times without failure! The same greeting, the same panting with excitement, the same wagging tail. He was as reliable as, well, a dog.
So, it made me think about my own human reliability:
I just returned from a fun weekend in Washington DC with my son. I was able to share some favorite things I did while I was in graduate school at George Washington University, but we mostly discovered new favorite sights and experiences together.
Cameron and I were both struck by the scale and majesty of the buildings and monuments that left us awestruck. The word “awesome” has been diluted by its hyperbolic use during the past decade, but we found the Lincoln Memorial, U.S. Capitol, World War II memorial and Supreme Court truly awesome.
Sparky was our furry family member for 14 years. He was very smart, spunky and snuggly. May he rest in peace.
I vividly recall taking him for long walks after dinner. I'm not sure who needed the exercise more. Although it was a well-worn path for both of us, one particular walk taught me a lesson about my dog and about me.
Sparky was a smart Maltipoo, but he was not particularly well-trained. That’s a direct result of having a poorly trained owner! So, we had to be careful about leaving doors and gates open or Sparky would run like the wind.
Captain Charles Plumb was a graduate from the Naval Academy. His plane was shot down after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam.
He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell.
After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of everyday life.
We live in an information-rich, time-poor world. Daily pressures can make us feel like one of B.F. Skinners' rats In other words, we see an opportunity (stimulus) and we jump at it (response).
The great thing about being human (aside from our ability to use a TV remote) is that we can exercise choice. So unlike one of B.F. Skinner's rats, our human behavior equation is: Stimulus > Choice > Response.
Having spent the past 20+ years serving leaders and leading others myself, I've accumulated some practical perspectives on leadership. Your time is valuable, so I've boiled them down to bite-size nuggets:
