In the beginning….Setting Priorities (I)

A friend and colleague, Mike S, recently wrote to me, “I enjoy reading your thoughts on leadership and know you have dealt in the past with how a leader sets an example, acts and lives, but I was wondering if you have considered the topic I will call ‘how a leader starts’. This topic intrigues me because I am about to start something new and the timing is appropriate.”

I am starting a new role as well so this is a great moment to explore the subject of ‘In the beginning’. In a series of posts I will outline some of my thoughts as I start this new role. If you follow this blog you know I took a time out for Bill Taylor a couple of weeks ago. Before my eulogy for Bill, the previous blog was titled “Ask Questions”; I will pick back up here with “Setting Priorities”. This will be the first of several posts on this topic.

How many business books have you seen with a sub-title, “How to do everything all at once”? None; in fact usually we read statements like this from Peter Drucker, “Do first things first, and second things not at all.” I have long considered strategy to be more about what you decide NOT to do, rather than what you decide TO do. We all know we should focus, we all know we should be Setting Priorities, but how should we go about doing it?

In photography, a filter is a camera accessory that is inserted in the optical path. Filters allow added control for the photographer of the images being produced. Sometimes they are used to make only subtle changes to images; other times the image would simply not be possible without them. Likewise, we have a filter as we begin Setting Priorities. Like the photographer, our filter sits in our field of vision and controls our image of the future. Sometimes our filter makes subtle changes to the future and sometimes our view of the future simply would not exist without our filter. The filter we choose to put in our field of vision is critical. In general, I have seen two very different types of filters; serve or be served.

Serve or be served relates to the overall posture you or your organization will maintain. Serve or be served defines your frame of mind which affects all your thoughts and behavior. As I hire managers, the first thing I look at is their posture related to their people. Does this person arrive at work and think, “What will my people do for me today?” Or do they arrive at work and think, “What will I do for my people today?” The same can be said of an organization; does it exist to serve or be served? Long term the posture that succeeds is the “serve” posture.

Therefore, the first step in Setting Priorities is to place a “serve” filter in your field of vision. How is that done? Recently I got my management team together as part of “Setting Priorities” and asked them to identify our constituents; essentially I asked them, who do we serve? They identified four key constituents; employees, customers, partners and investors. Then we went through a process to identify how these constituents see us today and how they will see us in the future if we do a great job of serving them. Here is the output of that session:

• For employees we want them to have a stock that is valuable, we want them to attain their bonus targets and feel engaged and part of the success of the sales organization.
• For customers we want them to say we understand and transform their business, they have a great buying experience, we provide great solutions to their challenges and they are enthusiastic about being references.
• For partners we want them to grow their business, be self-sufficient in driving sales and build successful marketing automation practices.
• For investors we want them to say we are accurate in our forecasts, we perform consistently, we are growing faster than the market and we are the clear market leader.

We now have our filter in place. Our view of the future is seen through that filter. Everything we do next in “Setting Priorities” will be shaped by a future state thought process surrounding those we serve.

“No wind favors him who has no destined port.” - Michel de Montaigne French Philosopher and Writer, 1533-1592

In the beginning…Listen

At the end of the series titled Joshua’s lessons on leadership, I asked for input on topics. A friend and colleague, Mike S, wrote me this in response, “I enjoy reading your thoughts on leadership and know you have dealt in the past with how a leader sets an example, acts and lives, but I was wondering if you have considered the topic I will call ‘how a leader starts’.  This topic intrigues me because I am about to start something new and the timing is appropriate.”

Mike S, your timing is impeccable. I am starting a new role as well so this is a great moment to explore the subject of ‘In the beginning’. In a series of posts I will outline some of my thoughts as I start this new role including what is effective and what is a dud. Mike thanks for the idea – this series may turn out different than you thought, but let’s go on a journey together. I hope others contribute; you all have plenty to share about your own individual ‘In the beginning’ experiences.

Napoleon said, “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” When you start a new role folks around you expect immediate action. Chaos will reign. There is new terminology to learn, decisions are waiting for you, people will use your arrival to advance their agenda, meetings to go to, trips to take, people to meet and all sorts of pop-up crises. Breathe deep and know that ‘In the beginning’ is a rare moment when you are most in control of your calendar. Heed Napoleon’s advice and take time to deliberate. In amongst the cacophony you must answer four simple questions:

What needs to be done? How will it get done? Who will get it done? When will we know it is getting done? With these questions answered you will be far more effective at ‘go in’.

Your most potent tool to discover the answer to these questions is the art and skill of effective listening. If I do a Google search on ‘effective listening’ I get 1,940,000 responses. Cleary a popular subject, yet not one I can cover completely in a blog post. However, I would like to share a few lessons taught to me by my friend and mentor, Margreet van de Griend, senior partner at the consulting firm Axialent (www.axialent.com).

Margreet counsels us to think about interpersonal interactions in the context of a 2x2 matrix where the vertical axis is level of advocacy (low to high) and the horizontal axis is level of inquiry (low to high). This provides four different modes:

1. Low advocacy/low inquiry – observing
2. High advocacy/low inquiry – asserting
3. Low advocacy/high inquiry – listening
4. High advocacy/high inquiry – influencing

In order for us to take advantage of Margreet’s framework, we have to exercise effective advocacy and inquiry skills. Effective advocacy requires that we clarify our intentions, remain centered, express ourselves, support the expression of others and persist with our perspective through the objections of others.

Effective inquiry requires that we park our agenda, attend to the other person through body language, amplify their ideas through encouragement and clarifying questions and reflect the other person through effective summarizing and paraphrasing.

In addition to learning, practicing and implementing these skills we have to determine which mode to operate in given the situation. It should be a purposeful decision to be observing, vs. asserting vs. listening vs. influencing. Think back to the key questions we need to answer; what, who and how. Can we get these questions answered by merely observing? If we spend our time asserting our position, can we discover what we need to know? The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘no’. We need to be either in an influencing or a listening mode. Both call for a high level of inquiry.

Look back at the list of skills under inquiry. If we could pick only one to execute it would be ‘park your agenda’. Here is a challenge. Pay attention to the next five conversations you have. Notice how often during the conversation you are timing the other person; trying to determine when they are going to take a breath and formulating your point or counterpoint to whatever they are saying. If you are like me, the only way for someone to finish a thought sometimes is for them to never breathe. I find myself waiting to pounce on any moment of silence. When that is happening, I am not truly listening. Park your agenda; it is likely the most important action we can take to improve our ability to listen and influence.

In the beginning we are likely more objective than at any point in our tenure. We probably have more control over our time than we will ever have. Objectivity and time are critical ingredients for effective deliberation. There will be a moment to ‘go in’. Take a moment now to deliberate, discover, inquire and park your agenda.

In the beginning…Listen

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Joshua's Last Lesson

For those of you that follow this blog, I apologize for the length of time between posts. I generally update this blog every week or so and it has been four weeks since my last update. The last month has been a blur of travel that ended up with me accepting a role at a new company. I now plan to get back on my regular blog schedule. As always, I’d love any input on topics.

If you have been following the blog you know that I’ve been writing about leadership lessons from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns. If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, Joshua reminded us that “Leaders Protect the Truth”. In this post, I close out my thoughts on Joshua with “Joshua’s Last Lesson”.

The stage for this last lesson is Joshua’s farewell address. Joshua lead the Jewish people for 28 years and brought an area of land bounded by the Egyptian empire to the south and the Mesopotamia to the north under one rule through 14 years of conquest and settlement. This was no easy task since no one power ruled this section of land; it was inhabited by seven Canaanite tribes in 31 fortified city-states scattered all over the map, each ruled by its own "king." Here is what we know, "when the country was at rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, summoned all Israel, their elders, leaders, judges and officials". Joshua summoned them for his farewell speech. I imagine that people sat on the edge of their seat to listen. They were all there to hear the last words of the man who lead them to their permanent home.

Have you ever noticed we pay more attention to someone’s farewell speech than most anything else they say? I had a coach who once told me, “Alex, it is not about how you enter a role that matters; it is about how you leave it”. Think about some of the famous farewell comments through history:

• Napoleon – “Do not regret my fate; if I have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory”
• Edward VIII – “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility without the help and support of the woman I love”
• Lou Gehrig – “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth”
• LBJ – “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as President”
• Douglas MacArthur - “I came through, and I shall return”
• George Washington – “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all”

When it comes time to give a farewell address people become thoughtful and selective with their words. Whether passing on an idea, encouragement, closure, a lesson or a directive, a farewell message speaks loudly about the person’s deepest character and passion.

So what did Joshua tell the people that were gathered to listen to his final lesson? What did they hear as they leaned into his farewell address? "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written…without turning aside to the right or to the left”

The last lesson of Joshua directs us toward strength, obedience and determination. Strength observed as moral power, firmness, or courage. Obedience defined as subjection to rightful restraint or control. Determination described as the quality of being resolute; firmness of purpose.

At the end of his life, in his farewell address, Joshua gives us one last great lesson. When we lead, it is not our words that matter. It is our actions that should demonstrate strength, obedience and determination.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Leaders Eat Last

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, I discussed the reality that “Results Matter”.  In this post, Joshua reminds us “Leaders Eat Last”.

The setting for this lesson comes after Joshua has led Israel through many victories.  Tradition has it that he is close to 100 years old when he completes the battles that returned a people group to a land they had left 400 years earlier.  By this time Joshua had rolled up a pretty good record, 31& 0, decent results for a wandering people who had just crossed the Jordan.  Although Joshua did not obtain a total victory over the territory (he did not defeat the Philistines and others inhabiting the seacoast, and he did not capture the northern lands between Mt. Hermon and the Euphrates River, which would not be totally captured for another 300 years) he completed enough to shift from warrior to administrator.

After the victories, Joshua led an effort to divide the land between the various tribes that had wandered with Moses and fought with Joshua.  We read that, “Joshua took the entire land and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war”.  It is in the act of dividing the land that Joshua sets an expectation of leadership.  After all of the land had been divided, we find out that “when they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance.  They gave him the town he asked for - Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there”.

Let me get this straight; Joshua leads an army in a multi-year battle with 31 different kings, gives all the land away and then merely asks for a city to live in?  Was Joshua a Marine?  Forgive a little literary license.  I know Joshua was not a Marine, but I can see the Marine code in the way that Joshua led.  The code includes, in order: 

1. Accomplish the mission
2. Look after the welfare of your people
3. Look after your own needs 

With this code in mind, Marines take care of Marines first. This is where one of the more well known aspects of the Marines gets its’ origin…when Marines eat, the lowest ranking eat first, the highest ranking eat last.  It is an action observable by all, which occurs each day and is a visible sign of the culture of the organization. 

I just finished reading a book I highly recommend called “The Unforgiving Minute” by Craig Mullaney.  Craig grew up in a blue-collar, Irish-Catholic family and went to the U.S. Military Academy.  He graduated West Point in 2000 and was commissioned in the United States Army. After completing Ranger School, Craig continued to the University of Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. In 2003, Craig led an infantry rifle platoon along the hostile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the 10th Mountain Division as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Here is what General David Petraeus said about Craig’s book, “The Unforgiving Minute is a wonderful, beautifully written story of the education and development of a young soldier-scholar, the coming of age of an infantry officer, and the exercise of a small unit leader's responsibilities in a tough, complex, and frustrating situation in Afghanistan. It captures particularly eloquently and movingly the relationships among those who walk point for our nation as part of that most elite of fraternities, the brotherhood of the close fight.” 

What does the Unforgiving Minute have to do with Joshua?  During Ranger training Craig writes, “There is a chain of command, but there also is a chain of influence…I had to lead by example.  If I wanted them to march faster, I had to march twice as fast with a smile on my face.  If I wanted them to extend their threshold of pain, I had to push myself even harder and under no circumstance could I afford to whine.  The only way to gain my squad’s loyalty was to show loyalty to them.  I served them, not the other way around.” 

At one point Craig is standing on Omaha beach in Normandy with a Lieutenant Colonel who is a combat veteran and a Ranger.  Craig asks the Colonel, “How do you know you’ll handle combat?”  The Colonel replies, “You don’t, you’ll never know until you are there.  What you will know for certain is that it will be chaotic and loud, and you’ll be ready to piss in your own boots.  You’ll be more scared of letting your men down than anything the enemy is going to do to you.  And then you’ll lead from instinct and judgment.  That is the price of a salute” 

The price of a salute.  Leaders are human, there is a tendency at least for me to say in my mind, “I have done this for 25 years, I deserve a little (fill in the blank – glory, luxury, rest, stuff, nice hotel room, bigger seat on the airplane).”  Basically saying, “What are the rewards of a salute?”  Joshua divides the land and gives it away first.  He gets his inheritance after the people he has led.  Joshua reminds us to eat last.  To show others through action the level at which you care about their welfare. To serve and not to take.  To wake up in the morning and think,"What will I do for my team today?" not "What will my team do for me today?"

The price of a salute? Eat last.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - See the truth: but not for worse than it is

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, we dug into a lesson about obedience, when Joshua “fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered”.  In this post, we learn the importance of “See the truth: but not for worse than it is”. 

After the battle with the Amalekites, Joshua becomes Moses’ aid de camp.  Moses took him everywhere, even up the mountain when Moses got the first set of famous stone tablets.  A little over two years after the battle where Joshua showed obedience, came the event that Joshua showed the importance of “See the truth, but not for worse than it is”

Moses selects twelve men to go explore Canaan, the land that the Israelites were supposed to settle in.  These twelve men were each selected as leaders from the original twelve tribes of Israel.  Joshua was among the men.  Moses gave fairly broad instructions to the men, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.  See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.  What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they un-walled or fortified?  How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land."  Essentially these twelve leaders were sent out on a reconnaissance mission; they were spies.

The twelve men spent time gathering information about Canaan, even bringing back examples of the fruit that existed.  Moses gathered advisors to listen to the reports, "We went into the land to which you sent us, and you were right, it would be a great place for us, however, the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”  A man named Caleb, who would become a key partner of Joshua said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

Then all hell breaks loose, the rest of the men, except for Joshua start shouting over each other in the assembly meeting, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." Worse, they walked among the rest of the people telling them, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."  They created a truth that was worse than it really was.

Have you noticed there is always a group of people, when confronted with a challenge, who choose to see the worst of all the outcomes? Moreover, it is insufficient for them to be worried by themselves; they must bring people along with them.  This infection of worrying is actually easy to accomplish; worry can be more contagious than hope.  So their definition of “lead” is to get others to worry with them.  When it happens, they think they have followers.  In reality people are just following their fears not the person who speaks to the fear. 

Here is the interesting thing about worry vs. fear.  Fear we will all feel.  Fear will enter our journey often.  Worry does not have to be our companion.  Worry is fear not healed by belief.  If I believe in the team, their talents, their preparation, their effort, their sponsorship and their attitude I need not worry.  My belief in any situation can heal my fear.  So these “leaders” who were walking around the tribes were not sowing fear; they were creating worry.  This is not the job of a leader.

Dwight Eisenhower wrote to his wife from Algiers on December 30^th, 1942, “As pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his; above all to conceal doubt, fear and distrust”.  Eisenhower understood the leader's job is to heal fear through belief and not let worry take hold in the gut of the team.

What about Joshua?  Let’s look back at the rest of the story.  The night that the spies came back with their report, after worry had been sown all the people of the community raised their voices, wept and grumbled, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.  We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

 Joshua and his partner Caleb, stood strong in front of the entire community and said, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone…do not be afraid of them."

There was still conflict and argument, but this moment by Joshua, where he “saw the truth, but not for worse than it is” was a turning point in the Israelites history.

Or, in the words of Napoleon, “A leader is a dealer in hope”.  Joshua was dealing hope, not worry.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Obedience

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, we dug into the backdrop for Joshua’s leadership lessons, in this entry, I want to look the very first time we hear about Joshua, when he “fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered”.  When Joshua arrives on the scene, he teaches us an unforgettable lesson about obedience. 

The battle with the Amalekites occurred right after events that have provided idioms in almost every culture.  Have you ever heard, “like manna from heaven” or “get water from rocks”?  Well, the Israelites had just been led out of Egypt and through the parting of the Red Sea.  They were about six weeks out of Egypt and they were complaining to their leader Moses that they had nothing to eat – this is when strange bread like substance called manna started appearing every day.  Manna is cross cultural, it is also identified in three different places in the Qur'an, each mentioning the divine supply of manna as one of the miracles with which the Israelites were favored.  Then the Israelites started whining that they were thirsty and wished they had never left slavery and according to the story, Moses struck the rock at Horeb with a stick and caused water to flow from it.

It is against this backdrop that Joshua is ordered into battle.  The entire tribe is whining for food, which they are given, then whining for water, which they receive.  I can only imagine that going in to combat was not high on the list of things folks wanted to do - much whining was going on for sure.  All we know about this battle is that the Amalekites, aboriginal people of Canaan and the Sinai Peninsula that waged constant warfare against the Hebrews started it.   The Amalekites attack and in response Moses tells Joshua, “Grab some men and go attack the enemy, I will be hanging out on the hill watching you”

Joshua does it.  I am not sure I would be as obedient as Joshua.  I am not sure it was real easy to find folks in the tribe willing to go fight.  My response might have been, “What, I am going to battle and you are going up on a hill with a stick in your hand?”  But Joshua does it, and check out what happens next.  This is the narrative we have of the battle, “So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.  As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

Wow, to me that is obedience to a leader.  Joshua is down on the field of battle sweating, bleeding, suffering and he looks up and watches the ebb and flow of the battle depend upon his leader's arms rising and falling.  “I am down here swinging a sword and you are up there waving your arms?”  He has to give it all he has got, obedient to the task and dependent upon his leader’s actions.  

When you read the work ‘obedient’ over and over again, does the hair on the back of your neck stand up?  Mine does, I am not sure I want to be ‘obedient’.  Why?

“The strongest is never strong enough always to be master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French writer whose novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution.

What is Rousseau saying?  Turn obedience into duty?  Rousseau understood the very nature of humans that we take pride in duty and see it as strength of character.  Yet we scorn obedience allowing the mental image of a dog and master creep into our minds.  Obedience is the act of complying with authority.  Duty is something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation, the respectful and obedient conduct due a parent, superior, elder, etc.

Duty and Obedience are essentially the same thing; one noble and one mocked.  Why do we feel different about the two?  It is because with duty, we feel that we have had some choice in the matter and by choosing created a voluntary compact that is honorable.  Obedience on the other hand feels like it is laid over us like chains, we had no say in the matter and we are treated like slaves.

Alcibiades, Athenian commander in the 1st Peloponnesian War, said, “If force must be employed with a subordinate, take care that it be minimal.  If I command you, "Pick up that bowl," and set a sword-point at your back, you will obey but no part will own the action.  You will exculpate yourself, accounting, "He made me do it, I had no choice."  But if I only suggest and you comply, then you must own your own compliance and, owning it, stand by it.”

Obedience must be taught and learned.  But to teach it, you must first submit to it and experience it, the good type of obedience and the bad, so that you know the right way to install obedience in an organization.  Not with a sword to the back.

We see the making of a leader start with the obedience of Joshua.  Joshua showed us a key truth, how can you ask others to obey, unless you have first learned what it means to obey?

David's lessons on leadership - Reputation

In a series of posts I reflect upon what we can learn about leadership from David, King of Israel.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the January 2, 2009 blog titled  “David’s lessons on leadership – Intro”; that post outlines why I am looking into David’s life.

The previous blog dealt with Trust  - comprised of character and competence.  This post deals with “Reputation”

What is your dearest possession?  Maybe your reputation is not #1, but I bet it is near the top.  This lesson on reputation comes from the time that Hushai the spy leveraged David’s reputation into an advantage. 

The back-story to this intrigue is that Absalom, the third son of David leads a revolt against David.  As Absalom holds the city and David is in retreat, Absalom seeks out his chief advisor.  This advisor, Ahithophel tells Absalom, “I would choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. Attack him while he is weary and weak”.  

Absalom turns to another advisor, Hushai, who he does not know is in place to defend the king’s interest and spy for him.  Hushai’s response instills fear in Absalom by reminding him of David’s reputation as a warrior.  "The advice Ahithophel has given is not good this time. You know your father and his men; they are fighters, and as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. If he should attack your troops first, whoever hears about it will say, 'There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.' Then even the bravest soldier, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a fighter and that those with him are brave.”

David’s reputation alone caused his son to stop pressing forward when he had an advantage and changed the course of the war of rebellion with his own son.

We all have a reputation, the question is – how close is it to who we are?  You cannot create your reputation, since it is what people think of you. All you can do is concentrate on your character, maintain consistency and then be comfortable with what happens next.  Abe Lincoln said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

I was on a job interview recently in my hometown and sat down to breakfast with a CEO who is well connected in the local high tech community.  He said, “Alex, this is a pretty small place and I have been checking you out”.  Gulp – here it comes, my reputation.  “Alex, word is that even when faced with challenging situations you do the right thing”.

Wow.  Now, I want a job with this man and the company he leads, but whatever happens from here, I am OK.  That morning - that moment in the breakfast meeting, I received a great gift.  I was told that my reputation was someone who will do the right thing.  I learned that at least for one brief moment, my reputation and what I desire my character to be are sometimes in sync.  That is pure gold, and I will do all that is possible to defend and maintain that reputation.

In David’s life, his reputation was a weapon, it preceded him, and it got things done for him even when he was not present.  It is the same for us; we can get things done through just our reputation.  The question is, “what do you want to get done through my reputation?”  Once you know that answer, the best next action is to work on character.  And the best way to work on my character is to focus on who we are becoming, not just what we are doing.

Reputation - created with character, strengthened by consistency, tested by trials and reflected in how others treat us.  "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently." Warren Buffett