While recently riding the shuttle bus from off-airport parking to the terminal, I was seated across the aisle from a young family…Mom, Dad, and three daughters. The children were about 1, 3, and 5 years old…and they were reacting to the whole airport experience much differently than the rest of us in the bus.
The well-mannered daughters were clearly excited about their airplane ride “adventure”. They asked their parents question after question about the airplanes, the airport, and were even excited about riding the shuttle bus. The seasoned travelers in the bus were either bored or just plain unhappy about doing the whole airport thing yet again.
Does this observation help explain why leaders may enjoy their jobs so much?
True leaders at any level, as opposed to managers or caretakers, are continuously looking for and implementing the “better way”: new products or services to sell, better organization of the company, improved internal processes, more effective relationships with others in the organization….anything to improve the outcome.
As a result, they are always working…and thriving… in a new, evolving and challenging environment full of unknowns. As one of my advisors in corporate life described it…leaders like to “work without a net”. They are driven and energized by the challenge of change and believe the potential rewards are worth the inevitable risk.
For these leaders, every day brings something new, something exciting, something to keep them thinking, learning, and creating. They come to work fully engaged and excited, much like those young girls on their first airplane ride.
Non-leaders innately try to maintain the status quo, the “way we’ve always done it”. After a while they become bored, even cynical. Their energy and creativity saps away. Like the older riders on that shuttle bus, they look at what’s happening around them almost with distain while the young girls, seeing exactly the same situation, are excited.
We’ve all seen colleagues in this situation, bored with their jobs, just going through the paces, and hating to go to work every day. How sad. Especially when leaders around them, in the same environment, are excited, engaged, and having a great time.
I urge you to create and embrace positive change. Not change for the sake of change, but change to make things demonstrably better. It is a bit scary, but also rewarding on many levels. .
If we have to work, why not enjoy the ride?
The well-mannered daughters were clearly excited about their airplane ride “adventure”. They asked their parents question after question about the airplanes, the airport, and were even excited about riding the shuttle bus. The seasoned travelers in the bus were either bored or just plain unhappy about doing the whole airport thing yet again.
Does this observation help explain why leaders may enjoy their jobs so much?
True leaders at any level, as opposed to managers or caretakers, are continuously looking for and implementing the “better way”: new products or services to sell, better organization of the company, improved internal processes, more effective relationships with others in the organization….anything to improve the outcome.
As a result, they are always working…and thriving… in a new, evolving and challenging environment full of unknowns. As one of my advisors in corporate life described it…leaders like to “work without a net”. They are driven and energized by the challenge of change and believe the potential rewards are worth the inevitable risk.
For these leaders, every day brings something new, something exciting, something to keep them thinking, learning, and creating. They come to work fully engaged and excited, much like those young girls on their first airplane ride.
Non-leaders innately try to maintain the status quo, the “way we’ve always done it”. After a while they become bored, even cynical. Their energy and creativity saps away. Like the older riders on that shuttle bus, they look at what’s happening around them almost with distain while the young girls, seeing exactly the same situation, are excited.
We’ve all seen colleagues in this situation, bored with their jobs, just going through the paces, and hating to go to work every day. How sad. Especially when leaders around them, in the same environment, are excited, engaged, and having a great time.
I urge you to create and embrace positive change. Not change for the sake of change, but change to make things demonstrably better. It is a bit scary, but also rewarding on many levels. .
If we have to work, why not enjoy the ride?
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