Can we learn about leadership from Trappist monks?  Yes!  Today’s link takes us to those lessons, shared by Stephen Martin in his July 14 guest contribution to the Washington Post. Click HERE for the complete article and enjoy.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.

Fiddler takes place in 1905 Tzarist Russia.  The main character, Tevye, is a poor Jewish milkman, desperately trying to instill family and religious traditions in his five daughters, in spite of how rapidly the world around them is changing.

This came to mind yesterday as I was looking forward to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.  Unfortunately, it was not televised on commercial TV.  It was restricted to the subscription-only MLB channel. On the radio, the broadcast was limited to the MLB satellite radio channel. A tradition has been lost.

We often hear that the younger generation doesn’t appreciate tradition. They don’t respect those who came before.  They haven’t learned from the struggles of the people who paved the way.

Have we provided the opportunity to develop that appreciation?

This isn’t just about the baseball Hall of Fame.  This is about taking the time to share the traditions we value.  If we think it is important for children and young adults to know something, than it must be important enough for us to take the time to teach it.  It is not the public school’s responsibility, it is not the church’s responsibility, it is not the neighborhood Boys and Girls Club’s responsibility.  It is our responsibility, yours and mine, as adults with values and traditions and knowledge to share.

Sharing traditions and values can be as simple as eating dinner together as a family.  It can be expecting everyone to share a moment of gratitude before Thanksgiving dinner.  Values can be learned while folding laundry or doing homework together, while sharing a walk or going for a drive.

Wonderful teaching moments can occur while watching classic movies as a family (another great tradition).  Significant life lessons can be learned from To Kill A Mockingbird, PT-109, West Side Story, The Sound of Music and Forrest Gump.  Reading classic novels (I prefer real, hard cover books with pages to turn, but e-books will work) can provide life lessons that can break your heart, demonstrate integrity, or provide a framework for compassion.  Have your children read Beauty and the Beast, Gulliver’s Travels or The Hardy Boys?  Have your teens read Death Be Not Proud or Catcher in the Rye or The Color Purple?

History of all kinds can teach lessons.  Have you shared the struggles of grandparents or great-grandparents to establish a new life in this country, so today’s generation realizes not everything comes easy?  Do you still prepare a traditional family meal or bake a special holiday cookie?  Have you shared the story of what memories that certain recipe brings back, or why that particular tradition is important? In our house, there are German traditions, Polish and Irish traditions, patriotic American traditions, Catholic and Lutheran traditions.  Our children may not follow all of these practices today, but they have experienced them and understand them.  Perhaps, someday, they might continue these traditions with their own children, even while establishing new traditions to carry on.

In his Hall of Fame induction speech today, Andre’ Dawson said that there is nothing wrong with today’s game of baseball; it’s some of the people in the game that are the problem.  Dawson said they don’t respect the tradition of the game.  The same could be said for other major league sports and recent attacks on younger players for doing what’s viewed as best for them instead of what’s best for the game.  We could probably extend that to corporate America, politics and nearly any walk of life. 

It’s not a lack of respect for the past; it’s a lack of knowledge.  You can’t appreciate what you don’t know. 

While Major League Baseball tries to figure out how to instill the love of classic baseball in a younger audience, perhaps one area they should look at is the message they are sending by not making the Hall of Fame induction ceremony widely available.  How can kids and young adults appreciate the history of the game when the game’s managing body doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity to share it?

Perhaps, along the same lines, we all can look at ourselves and assess what message we are sending to the next generation.

If we don’t take the time to share traditions, how would the younger generation know about them?  If we don’t demonstrate their importance, why should the younger generation think they have any value?  If we don’t take time to talk about history, how can we expect our children to know the lessons learned by those who came before?

Valuing tradition does not mean being stuck in the past.  It also does not mean that every ritual of the past is worth keeping.

Valuing tradition means understanding how we got to the present.  Having this knowledge can then help us make a better future.  Ignoring the past means losing the lessons that have been learned over time.  And, if we lose those lessons, aren’t we bound to make the same mistakes?

What is your favorite tradition?  Why is it important to you?  Have you taken the time to share it?

At its most basic level, leadership is influence.  Sometimes, the influence can lead us to a place we don’t want to go.  Have you been sucked in by “The Influence Project” tweets?  I admit, I was curious the first time I saw a tweet that stated “You are more influential than you think,” with a FastCompany link.  Instead of informative content discussing influence, I was disappointed to see it was simply a contest of sorts to see which person could get (read: influence) more people to click on the link.  I felt tricked and annoyed and bypassed all future invitations.  However, my interest was piqued and I wondered what FastCompany was trying to prove with this experiment.  Click HERE for the explanation, provided by Mark Borden in his July 5 article.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.

Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life – well, valuable, but small – and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave?

So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?

I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void.

- Kathleen Kelly in You’ve Got Mail

I’m a great fan of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movies, probably because I love romantic comedies.  I could watch You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle over and over!  They touch the heart and make the soul smile.  However, if you really pay attention, even the lightest plot can have some very thoughtful moments.

Take the above quote, for example.

Many people aren’t brave.  They choose the safe path, the one with the least risk and the least opportunity for failure.  Failure.  That’s how most of us would view an unsuccessful attempt at something.  Not the brave, though.  They view it as an opportunity for feedback, to learn how to do it better the next time.

In THIS article, Overcoming The Fear of Failure, Arina Nikitina states:  

Fear of failure is one of the greatest fears people have. Fear of failure is closely related to fear of criticism and fear of rejection. Successful people overcome their fear of failure. Fear incapacitates unsuccessful people.

The best thing to do is not to avoid the things we might fail at, but instead, we must learn how to fail.  Martha Beck wrote THIS article for Oprah.com a couple years ago: How To Fail Your Way to Success.  Through her humorous storytelling, Beck reminds us that:

We shouldn’t assign more significance to a failure than it deserves…Sometimes, there just isn’t anything you can do about failure…Some failures pave the way to sucesses…We must accept that failure is a part of life.

The second part of the movie quote above also demands our attention. 

 When we think about our lives, does it remind us of books we’ve read?  Or, has our life been such that we should write a book about it?  Are we sitting back and letting life just happen?  Or, are we bravely charging into life’s possible experiences?  Are we making things happen?

So, why is life the way it is?  Is it because of the path we took or because of the path we didn’t?  It’s an interesting question, isn’t it?

I don’t really want an answer. I just wanted to send this cosmic question out into the void.

My, my, how things have changed.

I don’t think anyone would debate that agreeing to participate in a one hour special to announce his next team was not a good move by LeBron James.  Yes, lots of money was raised for the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is admirable, but it does not excuse the poor judgment used in setting up the plan to begin with.  And, let’s not forget that Jim Gray – who devised the whole plan – and ESPN are just as much to blame as LeBron’s camp for the spectacle that was.

Worst of all, James chose to share the news with the world before telling the team he was leaving, the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Fans of the team feel betrayed, abandoned and once again publicly humiliated by one of their pro sports teams.  Dan Gilbert, the owner of the team, has behaved even worse then LeBron with his classless public rantings denouncing LeBron.  The entire situation was a mess.  As Mitch Albom stated on Sunday morning’s ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, “This is what happens when 25 year olds run the world.”

All that aside, what about the basketball career decision LeBron made?

LeBron James wants to win a championship.  He was close last year in Cleveland, but close isn’t quite the same thing, is it?  In Miami, circumstances evolved to allow him to play on the same team as other superstars in the game, Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade.  D.Wade already is “the man” in Miami.  Bosh and James are coming in to a situation where they have to share the spotlight. James could be going from being the ”King” to being a just another member of the King’s court.  And, reportedly, all three players are taking pay cuts to make this happen within NBA salary rules.

Some people think this entire situation is all about LeBron’s ego.  In some respects, though, isn’t his ego being put aside in order to win?

All of us have the right to choose opportunities to advance our career, to achieve personal and professonal goals, to live and work where we want to, and to enjoy the benefits that come with hard work and success.  Why should it be any different for atheletes?  Why shouldn’t LeBron be able to play for Miami if that’s what he thinks gives him the best chance to win?  As Wade said on an ESPN interview Saturday, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

I hope it works out.

I hope that the “big three” in Miami are able to keep egos in check and show us all that the team comes first.  I also hope that if they can do that, that they win and show kids that team really is more important – and more rewarding – than individual glory.

I hope Cleveland fans will someday be able to regain their pride in the hometown guy who grew up to be an international superstar.  They should be proud to call him one of their own - admittedly, not right now, though.

I hope someone takes Dan Gilbert aside and tells him his behavior was also pretty bad.  From a management perspective, his public rantings, insults aimed at LeBron, and empty promises for future success demonstrate a lack of leadership skills.  LeBron is right in his comment that Gilbert “needs to look himself in the mirror and understand that what he may have done may have cost him in the long run.”

I hope that LeBron will be able to overcome the fallout of the choices he made in handling his departure.  Perhaps one day he’ll regain public admiration for his athletic skills, team orientation and humble character.  He has an uphill climb, but not an impossible one.

Then again, my husband has often told me that, once in a while, I need to remove my rose-colored glasses.

Today’s link takes us to a wonderful leadership reading published in UPenn’s Knowledge@Wharton on July 7, 2010.  If you haven’t already read The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, this piece will inspire you to pick up the book and read it today.  Click HERE for the full article.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.

July 4th is more than picnics and fireworks.  Today is the 234th anniversary of when the Continental Congress of the thirteen united States of America unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence from the monarchy of Great Britain.

Here is the text (minus the specific list of grievances); a reminder of what those brave men took a stand on; laying the foundation for the great country we live in today.  I encourage you to read it slowly, carefully considering each sentence and what it meant at that time and what it means for us today.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

A list of 27 grievances against the King were then listed, from imposing taxes without consent to cutting off world trade.  From forbidding emigration the the new land to making the polical process nearly impossible for the common man to be a part of.  From abdicating his governance of the colonies and waging war against them to abolishing the lcoal laws of the colonies.

“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The declaration was later signed by 56 men representing the thirteen states.

“I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance.”   - John Adams

The above quote holds just as true today as it did back in 1776.  There is still a price to pay for freedom.  A very difficult price for some.  And yet, we embrace the risk of paying that price to continue what our Founding Fathers began.

We continue to believe firmly in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We continue to believe in the right of self-governance.  We continue to believe that all men (broad meaning) are created equal.  We continue to pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to support this declaration.

This is why we celebrate.

Join the conversation. Join the movement. Follow WhyWeCelebrate on Twitter and post messages using the hashtag #WhyWeCelebrate.  Join the Facebook page and post messages of what Independence Day means to you. If you’re travelling and see a Soldier, Airman or Marine along the way, thank them for their service. If you have your own blog, share a message about why we celebrate on July 4th.

…I think of the still-smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center as I flew over it the week after 09/11 and how sad I felt about the fall of the landmark I had visited so many times.

…I think of military members and their families throughout history, sacrificing much to fight for freedoms across the world.

…I think of my German born and raised parents, and how proud they were the day they became citizens of the United States of America, and how much they loved this country.

…I think of women, people of color, children, the elderly, the poor, the diseased and any other human being who is treated as a person of lesser value simply because of their gender, color, age, poverty, or illness.

…I think of our political process and how proud I feel after an election, no matter the outcome, simply because I have the right to participate by casting a vote.

…I think of my writing and how fortunate I am to live in a country where the citizens can express opinions without worry over retribution.

…I think of our Founding Fathers and how brave they were to declare independence of the thirteen colonies from the rule of Great Britain.

What do you think of when you think of freedom?

“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid for it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.” -John F. Kennedy

Join the conversation. Join the movement. Follow WhyWeCelebrate on Twitter and post messages using the hashtag #WhyWeCelebrate.  Join the Facebook page and post messages of what Independence Day means to you. If you’re travelling and see a Soldier, Airman or Marine along the way, thank them for their service. If you have your own blog, share a message about why we celebrate on July 4th.

Today’s link takes us to Forbes.com and an interview with Srikumar S. Rao. Rao teaches at numerous business schools and is particularly known for his research into workplace motivation and the impact of workplace happiness on productivity, physical well-being and mental health.  Click HERE to read the article, written by Sangeeth Varghese and published June 28.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.

At a layover in Charlotte on Friday, my first stop after de-boarding the plane was the nearest ladies restroom.  I was greeted by a woman with a big smile saying, “Welcome to Valerie’s happy rest room!”  I smiled right back at her, and chuckled to myself, as I don’t think I’ve ever been so joyfully welcomed to a restroom before. 

As I walked over to an available stall, I could hear her singing “You Are My Sunshine” and repeating her greeting as other women entered.  When I walked over to the sink, several women were commenting about Valerie.  Most were laughing or smiling.  One woman said, “I wish I enjoyed my job that much.”  Another woman sarcastically commented, “I wonder what she had for breakfast.” 

“Welcome to Valerie’s happy restroom!  There are plenty of seats for all.  You make me happy when skies are gray…”

Valerie is a restroom attendant at the Charlotte Airport.  She is also a person who is clearly committed to service excellence – even when that service is simply keeping a restroom clean.  It’s probably not a job that most of us would not aspire to.  Valerie, however, has found a way to take pride in her work, share a little happiness with her customers, and help us all smile, even if for just a few moments.  I would be willing to bet that I am not the only person in Charlotte still humming that song to myself.

As we were in line to board, another couple was behind us and my husband overheard the wife telling her husband about this lady singing in the restroom.  My husband turned and asked if she was talking about “Valerie’s happy restroom,” which I had already told him about. This then led to a brief conversation punctuated with smiles and laughter as we, perfect strangers, continued to share Valerie’s happiness.

There is a saying that goes like this: Sorrow shared is halved while joy shared is doubled.  With the number of women that must go through Valerie’s happy restroom each day, I can’t imagine how many times her joy is doubled, exponentially!

 “Hey, thanks for stopping by.  Share a little happiness today!  You are my sunshine…”

You, too, Valerie.  You, too.  You are my sunshine…