Inspired by Life: Lessons in Leadership from Watching My Kids Ski & Snowboard (Part 1)

I often tell people that children are very insightful - and when you watch them learn and grow, you can learn a lot about life and leadership. I didn't grow up skiing or doing winter sports for a variety of reasons, and it has been wonderfully inspiring to watch my kids learn and excel. Watching them the last few weeks reminded me of a few lessons in leadership. I'm breaking this into two pieces because I keep reflecting on how we can be inspired by life.

Big Idea Upfront: As a leader, boldness, resilience, and relationships are cultivated by the conditions you create.

Question to Consider: Who are you setting up to be bold, resilient, and connected?

My kiddo being bold

Be bold

Watching my kids try new things … harder runs, snowboarding instead of skiing, etc. inspires me to remember that leadership is a willingness to be bold. It is also about cultivating the conditions where others can be bold - try new things, make mistakes, and know that you will be there to guide, to coach, and to provide feedback to help their idea become a reality.

I won't pretend that I haven't seen my kids frustrated, and I've seen them embrace a growth mindset and realize they could get up, try something new, and get better next time. In our house, we talk about practice makes better, being good takes effort, and it is a good thing to work hard to be excellent.

Jeff Wetzler wrote in his book Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life,

When you feel newly challenged, stuck, or stymied, remember that you have merely reached the edge of your current competence level, and now you have an opportunity to grow.

I love his reframe of how to look at being stuck. Whether you are the person who wants to be bold, or you are leading someone who wants to be bold, there likely will be stuck moments, so working through strategies on helping yourself or creating the conditions for others to be bold are both essential to leadership.

Question for leaders:

Are you creating the conditions for those you lead to be bold? If, so, how? If not, why?

Rest & Resilience

When you are working hard and learning something new, rest matters. As my youngest was working her way down her first long ski run, we all rested along the way. As my new-to-snowboarding kiddo was slowly making her way down, we rested along the way. We always encourage our kids to rest before they are too tired. (We actually build downtime into every day we can to all learn to slow down.)

Resilience is an important topic for leaders - really all humans. And rest matters. I often tell people I haven't read a book or study yet that suggests not resting helps leadership. However, many organizational cultures and messages in society suggest that burning the candle at both ends is the only way to success. Research says different in many places.

Emily Ballesteros wrote in her book The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life,

Rest doesn't need to be earned.

Diving into your mindset about rest and resilience is important, as a human and as a leader. What standard are you holding yourself to? What unwritten rules have you created about work for yourself or others? Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan wrote in 2016 about the often skewed perspective of work and resilience. Knowing yourself to know what recharges you and modeling it for others matters.

Questions for leaders:

Are modeling rest and resilience or are you modeling a pattern towards burnout? Are you expecting people to earn their rest and recharge?

Relationships Matter: Find Your People

You will meet all types of people on your path … those that clearly can care less and might even trip you up to the ones who will help lighten your load and help you get up when you fall. Special thanks to the kind individual who was helping my littlest one get up after a wipe out as we made our way back up the hill to her. (We changed our method after that - and I'm grateful for his kindness.) Watching the care and positivity reminded me that we may not know who is willing to help and to give a positive perspective or pep talk, and the people around you matter. As leaders, we have a lot of opportunity to build conditions for relationships between people. Unfortunately, we can also do the opposite.

Margaret Wheatley wrote in her book Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations,

It is possible to create conditions for people to engage together for work they care about.

It is both an honor and a responsibility to create conditions for people to work well together. It is an honor because we have the opportunity to see and to learn from others. It is a responsibility because we have the opportunity to bring talented people together to create great things. And we can also do this badly. We can take actions or make decisions in ways as leaders that cause strife and friction, instead of creating cohesion and collaboration. In very few places or organizations do the relationships between people not matter. Relationships have an impact on individual and team lives and successes.

Question for leaders:

Are you creating the conditions for people to both find their people and build relationships to innovate, collaborate, and do great work together? If so, how? If not, why?

Lots comes from watching my kids learn and lead their lives. Who doesn't love to be inspired by the humans around them, especially the little humans? I know I'll keep watching their greatness to inspire mine.

#whendrreedreflects

Dig Deeper:

Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life (Read the book: https://amzn.to/4ahwIFT)

The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life (Read the book: https://amzn.to/42ggsCY)

Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work by Kandi Wiens (Read the book: https://amzn.to/4ghLq1b)

Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure. (Read the article: Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure)

Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations (Read the book: https://amzn.to/3Wifoeb)