What's the Difference?

My Dad had given me a blower that he had purchased on clearance from a Walmart in Elmira, NY about 15 years ago.  A 2 cycle blower that could also vacuum leaves and mulch them.  I used it every year in Austintown, and every year since I have been in Norwalk.  Over the last few years I noticed it began to be more temperamental in starting and that it began to run lean, so I usually had to apply some choke to keep it running.  It kept running so year after year I kept using it.

 

This fall the blower began to run even leaner than it had before.  To blow the leaves off my driveway or out of the yard I often h

ad to restart it after it simply stalled out.  But I kept nursing it along.  I actually used it twice like that to 

clear the front lawn of leaves.  

 Finally after one of those days when the trees shed their leaves in droves, I gave up on the blower.  It had stalled out ten times in ten minutes and it was apparent that it could no longer do the job, meet the need.  It could no longer perform.

I headed off to Tractor Supply, forked over the money I would have preferred not to have spent, and took home my new 2 cycle blower, vac/mulching machine.  Ten minutes later the lighter, more efficient, more powerful motor roared to life.  Ten minutes later the lawn was free of leaves.  What a difference the new blower made.

 

I hadn't realized how much efficiency I had sacrificed over the years.  I hadn't realized how much more effort I was putting into the chore because the tool I was using was losing its power.  I hadn't realized how dramatic the change would be when the new blower was used.  It was actually enjoyable to run it, to use it. 

 

Today I have to go back out and blow more leaves.  And as I was sitting in the coffee house, the Holy One began to teach me about the blower, about leadership.

 

Sometimes we may hang on to a tool, a method way too long.  We keep pushing at it, keep tweaking it, we get it running again, we get a job done, but we lose effectiveness, efficiency, power.  Somewhere along the way we lose sight of the tipping point of when it costs too much time, energy, frustration to keep it running.  But year after year we keep dragging the same tool, the same methods out.

 

My allegiance to the blower my Dad gave me, my misdirected sense of frugality (if it runs, it doesn't need to be fixed or replaced), my stubbornness thinking that I could get it done with a failing tool, impacted the mission-clearing the leaves.  It was harder than it needed to be, it took more time, it robbed me of joy and pleasure.  I could say I got the leaves cleared, but it wasn't a good thing.

 

I changed the tool, accomplished the mission-clearing the leaves, discovered fresh power, new enthusiasm, greater effectiveness and efficiency.  I actually told my wife, I should have done that a couple of years ago.

 

Leaders lead.  One aspect of that leadership is the continual review, evaluation of everything that we do and how we do it.  Leaders know we are not called to a method, but to a mission.  And one of the traps that is so easy for us to fall into is commitment to the tool at the sacrifice of the mission.

 

What about you where you lead?  Have you held on to things, tools, methods too long?  Are there tools, methods that have lost their edge, their power?  Is it time for a new tool, a new method, a new approach?

 

Leaders serve the Mission, not method.  Keep leading.

 

the man in the window