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Podcast Season 4, Episode 7: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Timing Matters

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it’s a great reminder that timing matters.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Timing Matters

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it’s a great reminder that timing matters.

My wife and I had the opportunity to stay in our little camper at an RV site on the bank of a river. It was an area known as a place for people to float down the river in innertubes or kayaks. In fact, there are companies in that region that are dedicated to providing that experience. We arrived at the RV campground on a Monday afternoon, and when we got there, there were no other RVs and no other people. We set up our site and proceeded to enjoy a beautiful and relaxing few days. We would hear the birds, and listen to the rippling water of the river as it flowed right outside of our camper. We cooked breakfast and dinner on the grill, and enjoyed the beauty of God‘s creation. Every once in a while, a few people would float by on their innertubes, and then we would have the peace and quiet to ourselves again.

We were staying through Friday morning, but it wasn’t until Thursday night that somebody else showed up at the campsite to stay. Friday morning, others started to arrive, and based on what we knew of the campground and the community, we knew that by Friday night , the place would be full of activity, music, and people enjoying their weekend on the river. But while we were there during the week, it was quiet, relaxing, and a time for my wife and I to thoroughly enjoy being together and experiencing God‘s creation.You see, the place was the same, but the timing was important. If we had wanted to be around a lot of people with loud music and activities, we would have gone on the weekend. But because we went during the week, we had a completely different experience. The only thing that was not the same between those two experiences was the timing of when we were staying there. Because the timing mattered for what we were trying to do.

That’s an important lesson for you to understand. In the leadership work that you do, sometimes your idea is a good idea and your plan is a good plan, but the timing is wrong. If it’s not a good plan, then it’s not a good plan regardless of the timing, but there are times when a good plan is impacted by bad timing. It reminds me of an experience when I was the principal of a high school, and had spent months developing a plan to implement a 1-to-1 technology program, meaning that every student would have a device in their hands at school for their classes. I had researched and visited other schools who had done it, I had prepared the infrastructure with the IT department, I had secured funding to purchase devices for all teachers, and I had prepared a plan to roll it out to students and their families. But the night before I was going to announce what we were doing, the superintendent contacted me after a board meeting to tell me that I couldn’t do it yet. At first, I was frustrated, but I came to understand that there were other factors and circumstances that the board was navigating that made this not the best time. Six months later, when we did roll out this program, it was a great success. But the timing had mattered.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from the intentional timing of when my wife and I went away for a little retreat. The days that we were there determined the kind of experience we would have, and if we had chosen different days, it would have been a different experience. For that reason, timing is one of the important considerations that needs to be part of your planning, but it is one that people often don’t think through carefully. A good plan can be derailed by poor timing, which then makes a good plan look like a bad one. That, in turn, makes it difficult to implement and sustain that plan. So, when you are developing your next big idea or preparing your next project, remember to consider the timing. Because the timing matters.

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Quote Your Dad

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 6: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Wisdom Is a Choice

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it teaches us that gaining wisdom is your choice.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Wisdom Is a Choice

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it teaches us that gaining wisdom is your choice.

My dad was known as someone with great wisdom. He was a very knowledgeable person, and knew a lot about many things. He was also highly intelligent, demonstrated by the fact that he was a self-taught electrical engineer. But more than those things, he had tremendous wisdom. When he passed away, a pastor that he had mentored spoke at his graveside service, and in his message he said that my dad was a man characterized by knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. He proceeded to explain the difference between those three things, and then talked about how my dad was one of the very few people he knew that had all three.

One of the ways that he expressed his wisdom was by often sharing profound and memorable statements in the appropriate situations. For example, he would say things like, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks”, or’ “If you’re good, you don’t have to tell people, they’ll tell you!“ It’s because of his wisdom that people were often turning to him for counseling and advice. As the years have passed, I have found myself quoting him all the time. That’s also why one of the pages on my website, www.LeadershipEzra.com, is a page titled “Quote Your Dad,“ where I share many of his various sayings.

The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom as well. When Solomon, the son of David, was to become king, God asked him what he wanted, and Solomon asked for wisdom. Because he had the wisdom to ask for wisdom, God gave it to him in abundance. It was Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs, which is filled with practical wisdom. In fact, wisdom is the primary focus of much of the first few chapters. The book of James, sometimes referred to as the Proverbs of the New Testament, begins by telling us that wisdom is available from God, and all we have to do is ask.

The significance of these things, – the things that the Bible has to say about wisdom, as well as all the practical sayings my dad would share that communicated wisdom for living – is that they show us that wisdom is attainable. Anyone can cultivate wisdom, but it requires a few things:

  1. Humility: you need to be humble enough to recognize how much you don’t know. As my dad would say, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
  2. Teachability: you need to be willing to hear and receive the council and correction of your teachers and experiences. As I often told my own children, “You learn most things from experience, but it’s usually less painful if it’s someone else’s experience.”
  3. Discernment: you need to be intentional about choosing your teachers. Some will be foolish, and some will be wise, so choose carefully. As it has been said, “If you show me your three closest friends, you show me the kind of person you are.”

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from the blessing of a father who was characterized by wisdom. Wisdom is something you can choose and cultivate, but it requires you to be humble, teachable, and discerning. Recognize that you don’t know everything and that others know things you don’t know, be willing to hear counsel and criticism even if you don’t like the source, and purposely choose who and what you are going to listen to and learn from. In the end, whether or not you develop wisdom is up to you.

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Quote Your Dad

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 5: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Get Some Rest

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is a reminder that you need to take some time to rest.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Get Some Rest

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is a reminder that you need to take some time to rest.

This reminder is one that God seems to have been giving me repeatedly lately. Earlier this year I read a book by Mark Buchanan called “The Rest of God,” which dove deep into what it means to rest in the way that God designed us to rest. Then, more recently, my pastor preached sermons on rest for two Sunday’s in a row. First he preached about how, in the past, God created us to rest; in the present, Jesus is our rest; and in the future, we have the hope of true rest. Then in the second message, he preached more specifically about how we rest in Jesus. In between these two sermons, I had an opportunity to get away with my wife and stay at a campsite right on a river. No one else was there while we were staying there, and it was a time of peace and quiet. So, while being reminded of the need for and value of rest, God provided a time of rest to me, and it came at a time when I really needed it.

This also reminds me of the story about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Elijah had just experienced great victory in 1 Kings 18 by defeating the prophets of Baal and by bringing a 3-year drought to an end (both of which were done by God‘s power and with His direction). But then he was threatened by the king’s wife, and he ran away. Eventually he stopped, exhausted, and asked God to end his life, and then fell asleep. After a little time, an angel brought him food, he ate, and then he laid down to sleep some more, until the angel came back and woke him up and gave him more food to eat. Finally, refreshed and revived, he was able to keep going. As I once heard someone say about this story, sometimes you just need to eat a snack and take a nap.

One of the things this story illustrates, though, is the importance of rest and refreshment. Early in my leadership experience, my tendency was to see my value in my work to the point that I was putting my work before everything else, including my health and my family. With a smack on my head from God and wife’s help, I realized this and began to put boundaries on my work to protect and value my family, and to rest. However, it can still be my tendency, so every once in a while I need the reminder to reclaim those boundaries and have regular time for rest and refreshment. That’s what these recent reminders have been about, and why this recent time away with my wife was so necessary. It makes me think of an old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. ” To this I would also add that all work and no rest leads to emotional dysfunction and physical breakdown.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from my recent reminders about rest. It is easy to work ourselves to exhaustion, but in the process to lose sight of the most important things and dimish our capability of functioning at our best. When that happens, it hurts you, it’s hurts the people around you that you love, and it hurts your work. Our bodies and our minds need rest, so it is important to not neglect that. So please, take some time to get some rest!

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 4: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – You Choose Your Attitude

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it teaches us that we have the ability to choose our responses and our attitudes.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: You Choose Your Attitude

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it teaches us that we have the ability to choose our responses and our attitudes.

My three year-old granddaughter was walking across the dining room floor. Her arms were full with several stuffed Paw Patrol characters, and she seemed to be intently having conversations with them as she was walking. Therefore, all of her attention was on these, so she didn’t see the piece of paper that was on the floor in front of her. When she stepped on it, her foot slid forward and she had to quickly catch her balance to keep from falling. With no hesitation, she kept on walking and giving full attention to the stuffed toys in her arms, but without missing a beat she also said out loud to herself, “Well, that was a fun ride!”

We laughed at her self-talk response to nearly wiping out on the floor, but the truth is that her uncle helped to cultivate this kind of pattern of attitude and response in her. Like many toddlers, as she was developing her physical coordination she would sometimes trip and fall. If you’ve ever seen a toddler do that, you know that there is usually a moment afterward when you see in their face that they are trying to decide how they should respond. But when her uncle saw this, he immediately showed her how to jump back up with enthusiasm and say, “Ta-da!” As she kept having that response anytime she would trip, it began to shape her normal responses when she fell. Ultimately, she cultivated a pattern of responding to these kinds of circumstances.

Her learned response to falling is a great example to us. It teaches us some things about how we respond when we fall. We will have challenges and difficulties, there will be obstacles that trip us up, and we will experience defeat. When those things happen, there is always a moment when we get to process how we are going to respond. Often, the tendency is to react in anger or frustration, or to blame others or the circumstances, but what I saw in my granddaughter shows us three things about this:

  1. You can choose how you respond. The fact that there is a moment that we are processing and deciding what we’re going to do next reveals that we get to make a choice. When something happens, in that moment, you have the opportunity to decide how you will respond.
  2. You can change how you respond. If you can choose it, you can change it. If you are quick to respond in a harmful or negative way, most likely it is because sometime in the past you made a choice to respond that way, and then learned to repeat it. But if you made a choice once, you can make a choice again to change it.
  3. You can cultivate a pattern of response. If you choose the attitude that you’re going to have in response to something and you intentionally make that choice repeatedly, over time it becomes the new way of responding.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from my granddaughter’s instant response to a near fall. We will make mistakes and we will fall, sometimes as a result of something we did, sometimes as a result of something someone else did, and sometimes caused by something outside of our control. Whether or not we had control over the cause of it, we always have control over how we respond to it. We have the ability to choose our response and to cultivate a habit of that response. So, when something happens, take a moment to pause and think about how you are going to react. Because, you choose your attitude.

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