February 1, 2008
Obstacle or Opportunity?
I read a recent post from Dave Opton who founded Execunet, the networking and career service for Senior Executives. Learnings from the way we treat people gives five lessons in story format. They focus on paying attention and not getting caught up in our own importance. Lesson 4, The Obstacle in our path is particularly applicable to leaders.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a
roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if
anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the
king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by
and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the
King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did
anything about getting the stone out of t he way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of
vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the
peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the
stone to the side of the road. After much pushing
and straining, he finally succeeded. After the
peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed
a purse lying in the road where the boulder had
been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note
from the King indicating that the gold was for the
person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The
peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
On every project, there comes a time when something goes wrong. An unforseen dependency, a staffing issue or a budget cut will pop up at the worst possible moment. You have some options on how to approach these obstacles to the success of your project. Like the people in the story you could blame 'management' for letting it happen. Or you pretend that it's not your job to fix it. However, if like the peasant in the story, you figure out a way to resolve the issue, you will find that you improve your career position by learning a new skill or building a new relationship.
Filed under Coaching, Leadership by Linda Griffin
