THE ONLY TOOL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED—A MIRROR

The following is an excerpt from Jim’s latest book, THE SENSEI LEADER:

I told you about my past life as a drug addict. I told you about the times I was literally facing myself in my bathroom mirror. I absolutely hated what I saw.

I also saw my reflection in a mirror the first day I opened my martial arts center.

We usually install a wall of mirrors in the dojo so students can see what they’re doing as they practice. On this first day, of course, I was the only one in the building.

I wanted to make sure I looked the part, so I put on my uniform and stepped in front of the mirror to tie my belt.

I have to admit, I spent a few minutes just looking at myself. I was, for one of the first times in my life––genuinely proud.

What I saw in the mirror this day was much different than the reflection from my drug days.

From then on, clear sailing––right? Of course not!

Over the years I faced many challenges. I still do—and I expect to face many more. What was different that day was that I felt ready for these challenges.

I understood myself on a much deeper level. I understood the process of awareness. I knew that I would examine and challenge myself as much as, if not more than anyone else would.

I also knew that from then on, I could accept whatever reflection I saw in the mirror––and that I could always grow from there.

Whether you take this practice literally or metaphorically, you’ve got to find some way and commit some time to look in the mirror once in a while. You’ve got to think clearly about what you see there. You’ve got to decide whether that reflection represents who and what you truly want to be at any given time, or you’ve got to reflect on what you want to change––and how.

Awareness is the practice of assessing who and where you are—right here and right now. It’s the practice of paying attention and understanding the circumstances and conditions you are experiencing—right here and right now.

It’s also kind of an inventory. What material, emotional and spiritual resources do you have at your disposal––right here and right now?

On its highest level, awareness is understanding others and your relationship to the people around you. After all, your life is a human experience largely defined by your relationships with other human beings.

Awareness is your ability to experience life here and now.

The past and future are important too, but you can’t do a damn thing about your history or your dreams, except by what you do––right here and right now.

The ancient masters taught us that the only thing that lasts forever is the present moment. The past is done and the future hasn’t arrived yet. You make amends for the past and you shape your future in the present. Awareness is your ability to be open to this present moment.

I said that external awareness is relatively simple once you master the internal process. I can sum it all up in another game I still play when I teach kids …

I yell, “Eyes?”

They yell, “OPEN!”

“Ears?”

“OPEN!”

“Heart?”

“OPEN!”

“Mind?”

“OPEN!”

“Mouth?”

“CLOSED!!!”

That’s the entire formula for awareness.

Now––go look in the mirror!

BOOK REVIEW: Leadership by Virtue by Jaro Berce

The internet amazes me at times. I’m meeting incredible people I probably would never have had the chance to meet in person. One of these people is a kindred spirit named Jaro Berce, the author of Leadership by Virtue.

One of the great divides in martial arts––and leadership––is that between “hard” and “soft” styles.

Hard styles, like Karate and Tae Kwon Do generally emphasize striking and explosive power––what we call the “external” aspects of fighting. Soft or “internal” styles emphasize deflection, leverage and borrowing an attacker’s energy. These styles include Aikido and Tai Chi.

I wrote in The Sensei Leader that “You can see the same divide in business and professional development. Hard skills refer to technical and domain training, whereas soft skills include personal development areas—character development, communication and listening skills, empathy, mentoring, and of course, leadership training.”

When I read Berce’s book, I felt as if we were brothers from different mothers!

Leadership by Virtue explores what the author describes as a dichotomy between external Western styles of leadership and internal Eastern philosophies. The book takes the form of a story of an ongoing relationship between the main character, Ben, and his “Shifu,” or martial arts Master. Ben strives to apply the lessons he learns through the martial arts to his life and business. Each scenario provides an opportunity to explore how various situations might be handled from a Western or an Eastern perspective.

Here’s an excerpt that provides a terrific example. Waldo is an HR expert who is training Ben and his team through a series of workshops …

“Waldo continued with a description of the different types of management and leaders as defined by researchers. I listened very carefully as my interest was just in those styles and types although after today’s discussion with Shifu, I find them tedious and one-sided. It is a list of behaviors that are seen from the outside. What is missing is the inside view. The presented view does not show what he or she has in mind, would like to communicate, or how that links to expected results.”

Leadership is a human experience.

Ultimately, leadership describes an intimate connection between an authentic leader and the people who trust and follow him. We’ve got to be very careful not to lose this connection to process––we’ve got to take care not to lose our humanity to the machinery of business and politics.

Berce does not reject the Western model of leadership. Instead, he invites us to explore the connection––how we can borrow the best of both to become the adaptable and responsive leaders so badly needed in today’s ever-changing world.

Selfishly, I found it validating to find another author writing about the powerful leadership lessons and philosophy available through the martial arts. It’s refreshing to see another martial artist share these ideas with the public. Every leader can benefit from these powerful philosophies––even if you never want to kick or punch or toss people around the training hall!

I highly recommend Leadership by Virtue, and I look forward to meeting Jaro Berce in person––we’ve got a lot to talk about!

The metrics of training compassionate leaders

It’s difficult to measure the direct effect of teaching your leaders to be more compassionate—yet that which is not measured, seldom gets done.

From McKinsey Quarterly:

Half of those who responded to a McKinsey survey last year told us that they see organizational capability building as one of their top strategic priorities, but many said their companies could do better. When we asked respondents about their companies’ biggest challenge with training programs, we found that the lack of effective metrics appeared to be a growing concern.

The constant tug-of-war between soft and hard skills training makes the problem even more difficult.

If you see a need to improve process in a technical area like sales protocols or time management, that’s likely to be viewed as a higher priority than teaching your managers to be more empathetic.

It shouldn’t be.

The problem is not one of higher or lower value—both skills are critical to the success of your company; the problem is one of metrics. It’s easier to measure the return of hard skills training, especially in the short-term. Soft skills require a different, more qualitative and long-term assessment to understand their true value.

In one day I can come to your organization and teach your leaders how to be more compassionate. We’ll also talk about how to be more courageous and wise at the same time—but I wouldn’t expect to see a spike in sales or productivity at the end of your next quarter as a result.

You can measure the qualitative effects rather quickly. A few weeks after the workshop:

• Do people feel their supervisors are giving them the attention they need?
• Are managers more open to feedback?
• Are managers responsive to employee concerns?
• Are managers listening?
• Is there clear follow-up on promises?

Should all of this produce results on your profit and loss statement?

Well, yes—eventually.

Over the long haul you might see better employee retention. You might see a decline in lost or wasted time. You could experience a decline in employee complaints and an increase in overall levels of engagement.

Of course to really see the direct ROI for your training expenditure, you’ll still need to connect the dots with some kind of cause and result qualitative analysis. Or—you trust the overwhelming mass of data that says creating a more compassionate workplace produces all these benefits.

If you see a decline in production after soft-skills training—that may be a problem. That doesn’t necessarily mean you wasted your money, it may mean we stirred the hornet’s nest and simply made people aware that they’re working in an untenable environment.

Or—it could mean your leadership team is rotten to the core!

It’s no secret that people are not staying as long as they used to. It’s also no secret that people are disengaged in staggering percentages. Some experts have had a hard-time correlating those facts with a slight uptick in production—I haven’t.

Production is rising because of automation and technology. But how long can we sustain that curve and more important—how much more productive could we be if we improve retention and engagement?

That’s why investment in soft-skills training for your leaders is crucial. Companies that make this investment create a significant competitive advantage.

I can teach your leaders to be more compassionate, courageous and wise in one day. That one day will produce returns for years.

In personal and professional Mastery, the leader must lead by example

Another preview of THE SENSEI LEADER…

Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank said:

“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.”

For this dynamic to work successfully everyone, including those at the top, must be committed to continual self-improvement.

It may seem I’m obsessed to a degree with “self” improvement. Some people challenge me on that point. They’ll say that too much emphasis on self-improvement is, well, selfish.

I say that self-improvement is the least selfish thing you can do for others. As you improve yourself, you become more valuable to others. You become a greater resource to your team, your organization and your community.

When everyone in an organization is committed to self-improvement- to personal and professional mastery, then the entire organization becomes stronger, better- more productive, innovative and progressive.

At the risk of beating the dead horse even more, even a small improvement in each individual produces an exponential return.

I remember a story I once heard about a basketball coach who was trying to improve a struggling team. One of his first observations is that they were, as a team, lousy free-throw shooters.

Many coaches in this case would focus either on the top shooters and try to get more production there, or would commit a large effort to improving the weakest shooters. Instead, this coach set a goal. Every player would improve just one percent.

Together, the gains of just one percent far exceeded what could reasonably be expected by trying to extract bigger gains from just a few players.

It worked!

With each player contributing something, the overall performance of the team skyrocketed.

When each individual commits to the concept of personal mastery and continual self-improvement, the team and the organization become much more powerful.

If you want to lead and inspire others, start with you. This is one area where leadership it’s essential to provide an example from the top down.