Author: Mary Ila Ward

I’ve been focused over the past couple of months writing about how to create innovation in the workplace.  Really, being an innovation leader comes down to one simple question:

Do you believe people are fundamentally good?

Because if you do, you are led to:

• Hire for diversity
• Give people freedom with trust at the core
• Structure rules that help people exhibit the good instead of bringing out the bad 

So, do you believe people are fundamentally good?

Innovate or die.

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Week 3 Mileage: 27 miles (with 6 on the elliptical for cross training)

Long run distance: 11 miles

“Just keep swimming.”

“Crush it.”

My two running mantras.  The one I use depends on how I’m feeling.

The swimming reference from Dory in Finding Nemo is my go to when I just want to stop. When I really just want to quit and take it to the house.   I say it to myself often, like on our long run last week when it was blazing hot, and Drew and I both wanted to quit.

The Brad Paisley song “Crushin’ It” inspires the second one.  I heard it on the way to a 15K race a few years ago when I pulled up to the starting line a mere four minutes before the race started with spit up all over me from our 3 month old. I didn’t have time to change my shirt. This run became my time. I was running solo, and it was my time to prove I could do something other than nurse, change diapers and try to find a time to actually sleep.   “Crush it” ran through my mind the whole race, and I was able to PR on the course.

What primarily differentiates humans from other animals is our ability to think about our thinking.  In scientific terms, it’s called metacognition. A “Think Fast” article in Runner’s World points to elite runners being masters of metacognition.  They are able to self-monitor their thoughts and adjust as needed, just like emotionally intelligent leaders.

Steering thoughts away from pain or negativity and redirecting them to a singular focus is what the elites in any field do well. It helps runners run faster and leaders lead better. The article goes on to site mantras as one example of how runners can self-monitor their thinking in order to get better results.

Leaders sometimes need to push harder- run faster- and sometimes they just need to keep their heads above water- simply not giving up.  Regardless of where you are now as a leader, needing to step it up or just keep up, picking a mantra can help you through your leading. This helps you focus and readjust your thoughts when we you may be getting off course.

Great quotes about Leadership can be a good start for establishing your own mantra.  Or it could simply be words displayed visually in your office and internally in your mind that align with your personal and/or company values.

My two, “There is no elevator to success.  You have to take the stairs.” And “Dream Big,” both hang where I see them daily.  Whether it’s these, or “Just Keep Swimming” and “Crush it”, singular thoughts help me adjust or maintain focus whether on the roads or in the office.

What words and phrases do you keep handy to redirect your thinking and therefore your performance?

Go crush it today!

“Victory awaits him who has everything in order—luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.”

Roald Amundsen -The first person to lead an expedition to reach the South Pole

We live in a VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous- world.  Innovation, in part, creates this dynamic.  However, creating an environment where innovation can be cultivated and thrive relies on people and businesses having the opposite of this- a house in order.

As Jim Collins stated in Great By Choice, leaders who have navigated this world successfully “prepare with intensity, all of the time, so that when conditions turn against you, you can draw from a reservoir of strength. And equally, you can prepare so that when conditions turn in your favor, you can strike hard.”

In other words, it’s hard to innovate if you don’t have endurance of mind and endurance of resources. Innovation requires the bandwidth to be able to test and fail and this requires resources.    As stated in the Innovator’s Dilemma:

“The dominant difference between successful ventures and failed ones, generally, is not the astuteness of their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset isn’t nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources (or having the relationship with trusting bankers or investors) so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate toward a viable strategy are the ones that fail.”

Bottom-line, you better have cash in the bank if you want to innovate.  If, as an organization or as an individual, you’re worried about the next check bouncing you aren’t going to get very far.  This is why many organizations now offer personal financial training to employees and rightly so.  If your people are worried about their personal cash flow, how productive and creative can they be for you?

If you don’t have your resources in order, start saving now.  You’ll get beat if you don’t, regardless of whether or not you have the best people or the best strategy.

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Weekly 2 Mileage: 24 miles (with 6 on the elliptical for cross training)

Long run distance: 9 miles

“Tell me why again y’all are running hills in August? The marathon is in Philadelphia (in other words, flat) in November (in other words, cold),” asked my training partner’s husband.

My first thought was, good question, smart man that he is, why are we putting ourselves through this?  Why did we pick the training plan that involves hills in the heat?  There are many more to choose from that don’t involve this weekly ritual for the first half of the training calendar.

My second thought was, well because that is the way we did it last time (New York Marathon training in 2009). Which I then followed-up in my thought process as- and it worked. The hills in New York- and you haven’t seen a hill until you realize what hell, I mean hill, it is running over two long bridges and taking a jog on the “rolling hills” in Central Park after already running 23 miles.  The conditioning we did on hills in August paid off on these hills the first Sunday in November.

But even with Philly having a very minuscule elevation change throughout the course, running hills in the heat builds strength.

It strengthens your legs better than running a flat route, which gives you stamina when you ask your legs to go much further than they are used to going.

The heat (it was 78 when we ran our last set of 6 miles hills at 5:15 in the morning) gives you stamina to go the distance cardiovascularly, and when it lessens, gives you a new found energy of running through the first days of crisp, fall air.  Which, by the way, probably won’t hit until October here.

Hills in the heat are the hard stuff that makes all the other work 1. Easier and 2. More enjoyable.

There are hills in the heat in leadership too.  They come in the form of things like:

• Giving honest feedback
• Coaching someone through a performance issue
• Coaching someone up for a challenging assignment
• Firing someone because it is best for your team, your organization, and ultimately the one you are letting go
• Asking for honest feedback for yourself
• Changing your behavior based on feedback you receive on yourself

It really isn’t leadership if you are avoiding these hard things, and a lot less rewarding in the long run if you aren’t.  Just like skipping the hills in August is tempting in the short run, but invaluable come November 20^th.   My dad would tell you, it isn’t marathon training if you aren’t doing hills in the heat.

What hills are you running today to build strength for tomorrow?

August has been a month of milestones at our house. First born off to kindergarten and the celebration of 10 years of marriage.

We decided to celebrate our marital bliss (of course it hasn’t been all roses, but it has been a fun ride so far) with training for a marathon together and a trip to the Dominican Republic. Just us. No kids. Thank goodness for wonderful in-laws and parents.

While we’re away, I thought it would be nice to honor the man that makes me a better person everyday with the blog posts he’s inspired over the years.

Most are about sports, including this series on leadership lessons learned from college football:

Leadership lessons from college football

Leadership Lessons from Football – Maximize & Recognize Your Rudys

Leadership Lesson from Football – The “Mediocre” & Team Success

Do you have a better half?

And the one he wrote:  Talent Management Lessons Learned from T-Ball

And for the ones that may not have been as obvious to the reader that he inspired…

Each of these posts tie back to how he teaches me each day that avoiding judgment leads to better leadership:

4 Tips for the C- Level Executive to Empower the Middle Manager

3 Tips for Checking your Facts: Leaders know things aren’t always what the seem

Leading through Expectations and Empathy

What leadership lessons has your spouse taught you?