This is a longer blog than I usually write, but it is a topic that has come up frequently in my coaching and consulting work recently. What follows is an edited extract from my book, “The Spark, the Flame and the Torch“.
I live what, to some, might appear as two lives. One is dedicated to coaching and mentoring leaders and transforming organizational cultures so they become inspiring places for employees, customers, suppliers, and communities. Thirty of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies and 12 of Fortune’s Best Companies to Work for in America are our clients. And I speak to audiences all over the world each year.
My other life consists of skiing in the winter and kayaking and mountain biking in the summer. Years ago, when I was the CEO of Manpower Ltd., I employed a salesman called Mike. He weighed 285 pounds, drank 6 pints of beer each day, and played 36 holes of golf for as many days of the week as he could—which was usually at least six. He was an awesome golfer. As his manager, I could not easily organize him, encourage him to follow any kind of structure, submit reports, or make sales calls. In fact, I couldn’t put him into a box of any kind. Trying to do so, as I soon learned, was like putting socks on an octopus. But his personal production was extraordinary. Clients would call our office and ask to play a round of golf with Mike, so they could personally renew their contracts with us. Yes, Mike was an awesome golfer and he had a waiting list of clients wanting to get onto his dance card. Trying to remake Mike was not only pointless, but probably commercially risky as well. I know a genius when I see one, so I supported him in every way I could and set aside my need for conformity and control. He was a fabulous and high-producing asset for our company.
Lesson #1 – To encourage and achieve high performance, adapt the organization to the employee, not the other way around.
I’ve skied for well over 50 years all over the world, with some of the best skiers on the planet, and I can handle almost any kind of ski terrain. Although I have owned a ski home in the mountains for many years, I found I was spending too little time there because I was constantly traveling on behalf of our clients—just like all the other non-Mike-like consultants.
One day, I wondered to myself, why can’t I be more like Mike? I teach it—why can’t I do it? How could I combine the different aspects of my life—my two passions really—into one seamless whole? What I have learned over the years from coaching others (and sometimes we are cobbler’s children, slow to learn what we teach!) is that when I am following my Calling—my passion—and using my best gifts to serve, I become inspired and am therefore more effective at inspiring others. Yet, far too often, we sigh and say, “Someday, I will do that.”
So, many years ago, I decided to practice what I preach by initially offering two-to three-day retreats for leaders in my home 10,000 feet up in the mountains. We call it the Leadership Summit, and we teach leaders how to ski better and how to be more effective leaders. In addition to attending our Leadership Summits, some clients have chosen to bring their entire senior leadership teams to spend time with us in the mountains. These private skiing and consultation events, and the Leadership Summit, are both opportunities to improve technical competence in skiing while growing as a leader—as well as strategizing and exchanging ideas or discussing challenges, and making new personal and professional friends. Skiing is a great metaphor for all these (see the White Paper describing this here). It combines elements of the personality—personal excellence, competition, physical exercise and conditioning, technical training; and elements of the soul—the sense of oneness, the humility and awe one experiences in the mountains, friendship and interdependence with others, an honoring of the sacred, and a connection to the numinous and larger picture of life. By using the metaphor of skiing, participants leave the experience better skiers and re-energized and re-inspired leaders. Many experience personal transformations that change their lives forever.
Lesson # 2 – There is no such thing as “work-life-balance” because there aren’t two things – there’s just one, and it’s called “Life”. We all yearn for integration, not balance.
In a typical winter, I ski over 100 days. People look at me when I mention this to them and they sigh wistfully, saying, “Oh! How I envy that!” But there are two realities here: 1) This is a choice—I have chosen this format and adapted my life and professional practice in order to embrace my different passions, and 2) It’s not all play. I ski every day, but I work every day, too, and many leaders will work very hard with me—to become more inspirational leaders through skiing. It’s not a boondoggle—it is a big personal and organizational stretch—for my guests and for me. Marsha Sinetar wrote a book called Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. The advice is in the title. Life is too short to stifle our creativity—if we identify our passions and blend them into unique and valuable resources, we will develop magical and inspiring opportunities to serve and prosper. Funny thing, my dance card now looks a lot like Mike’s!
Lance, great message. I quote you often and live the motto of aligning my soul with my purpose. I feel I live/work seemlessly. Which is a great way to live life. Thank you for your continued inspiration to me and many.
Merry Christmas. Enjoy the season.
PS: just had my first visit to Boulder. Loved it. No skiing for me. But lots of delicious food.
Jim Strawn,
Charleston, WV
Jim, so good to hear from you. I watch your many pursuits with great interest and can see that you are having many “Mike Moments”. How will you dial it up even more in 2019?
I love Mike’s story…….haha……and how you, Lance, recognised his strength (which was outside of the box of what we traditionally understand to be a “work-life”). What you did is probably the most effective thing one could do to foster creativity, inspiration, joy, well-being and success in the workplace. I wish you a nice holiday season (incl. all that skiing – awesome). Best wishes, Stephan in London
Great to hear from you Stephan, and thanks for your comment. What will your “Mike Moment” be in 2019?
Nice article!
Thank you Russ. How will your life be different in 2019?
This is a perfect question for me today, as I enter into this day and this time of year of reflection, for the year ahead and this next phase of my life. Life is too short to have our creativity, purpose and joy placed in a box – time to leap out, dance and spread my wings! Thank you for these timely and thoughtful words of wisdom and inspiration -they ring true and deep!
You are so right Erika – life is short and needs to be lived large. As Fritz Perls once remarked, “I don’t want to be saved; I want to be spent. Or as Hunter Thompson wrote, “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” What will your ride look like in 2019?
I love this post and your writings have inspired me to seek out my most authentic self. In part, your work has influenced my starting my own businesses, one focused on coaching and consulting churches in areas of governance and finance and the other focused on energy work (reiki, qigong, etc.). This has allowed me to serve others with a variety of talents and gifts, all to instigate transformation, to organizations and individuals alike. Often, I find all of the modalities of transformation converging in one place. Thanks for all you do Lance!
Thanks for your comments Keith. I am humbled to learn that my work has influenced your life in this way – this is what I live for. So glad it is working well for you too. May your 2019 be filled with many blessings!
Lance,
My good friend and business associate Marc Hanlan, author of High Performance Teams, suggested I contact you to let you know that your book, The Bellwhether Effect, has been instrumental in my finally deciding after years of thinking about it, to lay out a plan in 2019 to get on the Inspirational Speakers circuit by the end of the year here in the US. I have centered the messages around a question and a phrase I thought I had somewhat coined about 10 years ago: What are you going to do now?; and ‘Responsibility is the ability to respond and it defines who we are.’ I have just rented out the oldest active theater in the US (the Newtown Theater in Newtown PA where I live) for a March 12th presentation I’m calling ‘Understanding and Mastering the Skills of Life”
Your book has not only given me a wealth of valuable information that adds to and fully supports the Executive Life Coaching and Teaming Consulting I have been doing for 15 years, but it has truly been a catalyst in my life inspiring me to take it all to the next level.
Thank you for being who you. You can add me and anyone I inspire to the list of people you have impacted. I look forward to meeting you someday and shaking your hand, at the very least.
Gratefully,
Patrick
(Website coming soon)
Patrick it is very kind of you to attribute your courage and clarity to my work, but I suspect this is simply your own inner strength coming to the fore. I salute your choice of your future and wish you good luck in this journey. If I can support you in any way, please let me know. Namaste!