I have really enjoyed this year. It has not come with­out its tri­als and chal­lenges but the bless­ings have so out­weighed any of the dif­fi­cul­ties. There is just so much to be grate­ful for.

Now this may come as a sur­prise, but one of the things that I am most grate­ful for is a deeper aware­ness of just how lit­tle I know. If I leave it at this, many of you might be some­what con­cerned. After all, you invest time in this blog look­ing for insights — not the ram­blings of some­one who knows nothing.

But this aware­ness of how lit­tle I know has been really free­ing and excit­ing. The truth of the mat­ter is that I am most likely more than halfway through this jour­ney called life, and I still feel like so much of it is an experiment.

There are some things that I am quite con­fi­dent in, but much of what I encounter day by day and moment by moment has a cer­tain degree of risk or uncer­tainty to it. I don’t know for cer­tain if what I say or do will lead to the out­come I hope for. I don’t know for cer­tain if this deci­sion or that deci­sion will lead to fruit­ful results.

Here are some examples:

• Should we hire this coach?
• Take on more space?
• Write another book?
• Move this per­son in the com­pany to this role?
• Advise my daugh­ter this way?
• Share this thought with my son?
• Make this deci­sion for my fam­ily?
• Invest in this project or opportunity?

In years past, I think I believed that I knew more than I actu­ally do. And some of you might be say­ing, “Finally Harkavy, you are start­ing to get it, thank God!”  But this new aware­ness of how much I still need to learn has caused me to observe lead­ers a bit differently.

Here are three big obser­va­tions that might help you as well.

1. Many of the great­est lead­ers are the hun­gri­est learn­ers. Exam­ples: Mor­ris at 73 years old, very suc­cess­ful and tak­ing copi­ous notes in one of our recent work­shops. Dom, a very sea­soned CEO who just retired, and his deep life ques­tions over our first glass of wine. One of my old men­tors, Clem, with his con­stant ques­tions about any and all top­ics. Ques­tions, learn­ing, lis­ten­ing — all three of them. They are never too proud, never con­cerned with how lit­tle they might know on a topic, always ask­ing, always inter­ested, always learn­ing, always grow­ing, and never pos­ing. They are what I call Life-Long Learners.

2. Many of the great­est lead­ers move slowly. This has not been me! I have been called Taz in past years and for good rea­son. The faster I move, the more I get done. Well maybe for a while, but the faster I move, the more I miss. If I move too fast, I don’t give myself the chance to reflect and assess. How am I doing as a hus­band, father, friend, ser­vant and leader? If I move too fast, I miss the oppor­tu­nity to allow oth­ers to lead, serve and grow — and this stunts the organization’s growth.

Great lead­ers not only move slower, but they talk slower as well. If I am rush­ing my con­ver­sa­tions, I miss the oppor­tu­ni­ties to really con­nect with those around me. I miss the oppor­tu­ni­ties to hear not only what is being said, but what is behind what is being said (or not said). And as a leader, the clar­ity of my com­mu­ni­ca­tion is vital. This is true not only at work but at home as well. My pace of speech can either serve to calm and bring clar­ity and com­fort or it can serve to cre­ate angst, con­fu­sion and even panic.

3. Many of the great­est lead­ers are dis­ci­plined thinkers. They see think­ing time — or as we at Build­ing Cham­pi­ons call it, ON time — as one of their most impor­tant dis­ci­plines. Not only do they have this think­ing time sched­uled daily, but they have reg­u­lar larger blocks of time sched­uled for just thinking.

A few of us coaches take what we call “Sab­bath days.” I hate when I go for long peri­ods with­out them because I am run­ning too hard. When I do get them, set­tling into that quiet place to pray, reflect, assess, ques­tion, seek and learn — get­ting to that quiet state of mind — can be hard work. But I always walk away refreshed and a bet­ter leader because of it.

As many of you know, I am striv­ing to live my life on the foun­da­tion of God’s Word. For me, it comes down to this: I must draw closer to Him so that I can bet­ter serve Him by using the gifts He has given to me to serve and love those around me. That hap­pens when I make the time to slow down, to be still, to reflect, assess, ques­tion, chal­lenge, seek, learn and connect.

As we approach the hol­i­day sea­son — which can pull us in many direc­tions — I encour­age you to carve some time out to reflect and assess where you are at. Slow down. Be intentional.

Tak­ing time to invest in your­self may be the great­est gift you can give your­self and those you serve this year.

Related posts:

1. Fail­ure “______” Me
2. NEXT — Are You Devel­op­ing Your Future Leaders?
3. Lead­er­ship and Personhood
4. For­get the Answers
5. Me First!

Tags: Great Leaders, Holidays, Leadership, Learning and Development, On Time, Thinking

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 11:16 am and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.