As 2024 comes to a close, I’m completing my 10th year as a columnist for Smart Business Magazine. Inspired by this milestone, I went back through my files and read all my previous columns. Aside from thinking, “Damn, I might have enough stuff for a book here,” my big impression was, “This stuff holds up pretty well.”
A 10-year retrospective at 54 looks a lot more like the person I am today than the things I wrote during any other period. It seems a light came on in my 40s that still shapes my view of the world today. As Miyamoto Musashi said, “If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything.” At some point in my 40s, the way of leadership became generally clear. Having written myself through those years, this is how it looks to me today.
At the highest level, the way of leadership is the proper application of the art and science of leadership to the shifts between chaos and order occurring within individuals, teams and organizational systems. Read that sentence over five times.
The art and science of leadership are best explained as the scope of tools you have gathered and your understanding of how or when to apply them. The early stages of your leadership journey are the gathering phase. After 10 or so years of gathering tools, you will begin to apply them more frequently and more artfully, and you will start to see your leadership as a form of creative expression.
The predictable vacillation between chaos and order occurring within individuals, teams and organizational systems becomes increasingly evident only after your application of a robust assembly of leadership tools can be consistently and artfully applied. In other words, you won’t begin to see patterns of breakdowns and repairs until you’ve done many of them. And you won’t master making repairs until you have a variety of tools in your toolbox and you’ve had plenty of experience using them. There is no fast-forwarding through it. All you can do is pay attention.
This is how I see it. Thus, the mission of this column has been to challenge myself to think about my leadership journey and what it has revealed to me, to find words to express my understanding of the way, and to break down elements of it in forms that I hope can be helpful to others on their journeys. I have tried to be honest about my failures along the way. I’m no leadership guru and I’m skeptical of anyone willing to accept that moniker. But I am paying attention. I hope this column has given you inspiration to pay attention too, and made you feel less alone.
I’d love to hear from you with questions, comments or ideas you’d like me to write about. Email me at [email protected] any time.
Here’s to the next 10 years! #SteadyOn
Daniel Flowers is President and CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank
