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Jeni Nichols
Editor
This Spring marks our sixth year offering The Leadership Challenge Workshops in Sonoma, California. A lot has changed over time. I'm not sure I could have envisioned the extraordinary participants and expertise we've had the good fortune of experiencing during our programs here in the beautiful Sonoma Valley. Looking back gives me a good perspective for looking forward.
This issue of "The Leader’s Almanac" is about future thinking, forecasting and vision. As I mulled over this topic, I couldn’t help but think about my future, my legacy. What will my legacy be? What will your legacy be? There is no right or wrong answer as Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner point out in their wonderful book A Leader’s Legacy. Asking the question, they say, opens us up to the notion that all of us, during life’s journey, are going to be struggling with choosing how to make a difference and how to do things that matter. After all, as Jim and Barry point out, the legacy you leave is the life you lead.
This notion of making a difference and doing things that matter became crystal clear to me last week. I lost a friend who had truly made a difference and had done something that mattered. She was an extraordinary leader in our local art community here in Sonoma. She had brought her big city credentials and talent to our little town and given selflessly to the academic community and to the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. When I visited her in hospice, she was working diligently on a triptych, a magnificent tile piece. She had that "trademark twinkle" in her eyes as she showed me the drawings, described the medium being used, and explained the meaning of the images. Two weeks later, after champagne toasts with friends at her side, my dear friend closed her eyes and died peacefully, the last work of her life having already been handed off to her Israeli collaborator who would complete it for installation at the Harvard Divinity School.
My friend’s focused drive to complete her work woke me up to the importance of having a life’s work and the parallel need to have a purpose in life. I’m obviously not the only one to be pondering how to spend my days on this earth. There is an abundance of before-you-die (BYD) books, starting with Patricia Schultz’s run-away bestseller, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.” When you search Amazon.com for "before you die," you’ll find 3,553 titles including, “101 Things to Do in Florida Before You Up and Die, “Stroke a Martian and 99 Other Things to Do Before you Die,” and my personal favorite “1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die.”
Maybe this BYD and Bucket List obsession is a trend driven by Baby Boomers like me. Maybe taking stock is something as inevitable as rain in Seattle. If so, in the same vein, I’d like to propose a way of looking at the future—my Seven Things to Do As a Leader Before You Die (or retire).
1) Mentor someone. It doesn’t have to be a formal process, just pick someone you like that has less experience than you do and offer to help.
2) Write. Join a writer’s group. Contribute to a newsletter, a journal, a column for your local newspaper, or a white paper. Getting your point of view and your observations down on paper is therapeutic and clarifying.
3) Offer up your leadership skills pro bono. There is a dire need for leaders in every aspect of life. For me, it was becoming a docent for the Ecology Center, leading hikes for adults and fourth-graders on a wilderness trail right in town. I find it fun to lead in an entirely different setting than business.
4) Make at least one change in your daily life that will reduce your footprint on the planet. Whether it’s recycling, reducing paper usage, or simply changing a light bulb from iridescent to an energy saver type, do your part.
5) Get feedback. If you haven’t gone through a formal feedback process—do it. Nothing like hearing how your actions impact others. Could be as simple as saying “How am I doing?”
6) Try something completely different. Immerse yourself in something new—in a foreign language, a musical instrument, hot yoga—if only for a short while. Open up your world to a new perspective and have fun with it.
7) Enjoy this issue of "The Leader's Almanac." Hopefully it will provoke you to think about your future, and maybe even make a list of things to do before you.... retire.
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