Every so often you need new lights.
This leadership truth became clear to me today when I was shopping at a local big box store. I love to shop there because every time I go, there is something new. There are some things which they always carry, but most of the time they have moved products around in order to feature a new item or a seasonal favorite. This time, being that it is fall and Christmas will be here before we know it, there were shelves filled with new decorations, ornaments, and the latest technology in outdoor lighting. This caught my attention because each year I put a lot of effort into adorning my home with Christmas lights and last year, as I was putting it all away on January 1st, I made myself a promise that this year I would replace some of my old standard light strands with the new, energy-efficient LED strands. I knew that I would not only save on electricity, but because of the drastic reduction in power requirements, I also knew that I would be able to install even more lights than ever. So today, I lived up to the promise I had made to myself and bought new lights. It was a very special moment.
Speaking of Christmas, many people know that for the past three decades I have produced a variety of Christmas entertainment events. I’ve provided song and dance groups to dozens of shopping malls, served as a consultant to countless churches and schools for their presentations, and each year created and produced a fully-staged mega musical to help people of all ages get ready for Christmas. I love to do it, but one of the things that is a huge challenge for me is coming up with new and creative ways to tell virtually the same story, year after year. This year, for my annual Christmas Lights event, I intentionally wrote an entirely unique presentation in a style I’ve never done before. I’m very excited about it. In a very real sense, with almost every aspect of the presentation, I’ve done the same thing that I did earlier today at the store – I bought new lights.
What does this have to do with leadership, you may ask? It has everything to do with leadership, because the longer we lead, the more we need new and creative tools in our toolbox. I wish leadership were easy, where we could just use the same leadership methods year after year and continue to get great results. But I’ve learned that the fastest way to die a slow death in an organization, a team, a work group, or even a family is to do the same thing over and over and over, and then, when things decline, complain about it! The hard truth is that if we want the people we lead to thrive, we must continue to do new things, with new techniques, and with newfound knowledge of our chosen field. We must never stop learning and we must never stop being creative. To once again borrow a phrase from a great little book by Thomas Engel called Put More Butts in the Seats!, “Innovation is key.” In other words, every so often we need new lights. I encourage you to talk a look at how you lead and see where you can innovate and buy some new lights.
Lead well.