Joyful Jubilant Learning

Last week while I was on the road I finally got a chance to read the book “The 4-Hour Workweek“, by Timothy Ferriss (check it out here on my Amazon page).

I’ll be posting a full review of the book on March 10 on Joyful Jubilant Learning (bookmark it or subscribe now so you don’t miss it), but I wanted to raise a particular leadership point featured in the book today, because I believe in it so fervently.

I’ll put the point in my own words: “Empowerment Equals Leadership Freedom”

Or perhaps a more pointed subtitle, “Be an Enabler, Not a Disabler”

Ferriss talks about this in a quite different context than I would (he uses it as a means to a different end - stay tuned for the book review), but he makes a powerful case nonetheless for “pushing down” as much responsibility as possible. His key observation:

“It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them”

Ah yes, trust. I’ve personally seen someone grow two inches taller upon my utterance of these magic words - “I trust you”.

It is a marvelously enabling string of words - and not without risk. It takes a good degree of courage to let something go, since as humans I think we have a tendency to be control freaks. I can personally attest it’s a pretty strong thing to resist.

But resist we must, because from a leadership perspective enabling reveals something else - our effectiveness in selecting and hiring teammates.

Because if we can’t entrust someone with proper responsibilities commensurate with the job description, we simply shouldn’t hire them. Having too many “disabled” teammates chains a leader to too much minutiae, and gives him or her much less freedom to do what leaders really should be doing - LEADING.

And that’s the kind of freedom that leads us to our own promised land of job fulfillment.

Ferriss included a great quote from Henry David Thoreau in his book that sums it all up very nicely:

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone”

So set them free, and find the richness in your leadership life.

Just a quick note to acknowledge three milestones today - one is the first birthday of Joyful Jubilant Learning, the blog dedicated to learning founded by Rosa Say .

I am honored to have made several contributions to a year’s compilation of excellent essays on the many pleasures and benefits of learning and the learning process. Rosa is our wonderful leader and mentor, and I want to express my personal thanks to her and to all of my JJL colleagues for all you have done to make my experience as a fellow contributor and teammate a great one.

The other two are birthdays - Tim and Abigail Johnson, father and daughter, both celebrate another year on the planet today. Abigail is three, and Tim won’t disclose his age as anything but “something-greater-than-three”.

In writing a post to commemorate the day, Tim said this:

“The more I think about it, the more I believe that childhood should be a lifelong state. There should always be wonder, imagination, and curiosity around every turn… even if we think we know the answers. We should continue to get skinned knees and wear them like trophies. We should check out that little forest at the end of the block because… well… you just never know…. We should revel in reading a swashbuckling adventure book under a tree on a lazy afternoon because every boy should know the finer art of swashbuckling. We should ask why… again… and again… and again. Maybe the answers the “adults” are giving are not complete enough for us to put our minds around. We should eat ice cream at our own pace, and if it drips… that’s what the dog is for.”

Lovely and inspired, isn’t it?

After reading this I looked at that scar I got on my knee when I was 14 for the first time in 20 years, and my inner child was reborn. And, of course, tonight I had ice cream.

Thanks Tim for this reminder, and Happy Birthday to you both!

Please take a look at my latest posting at Joyful Jubilant Learning, entitled “Learning From Mistakes the Half-Full Way - a 4 Step Approach“.

I’ve synthesized my process of gaining the greatest leverage from my (many) errors over my 47 years into 4 digestible parts - Acknowledgment, Correction, Learning, and Rear View Mirror.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts - I could always pick up a few new pointers on this particular topic!

While you are at JJL please welcome our newest contributor, April Groves. April publishes two great blogs, My Beautiful Chaos and Making Life Work For You. Great to have you on board April!

You too can participate in this grand learning experiment known as JJL - check out the “Where to Get Started” section on the left hand side of the home page.

Come share the joy (and don’t forget to read my post)!

This month over at Joyful Jubilant Learning I’m the host of our monthly “Rapid Fire Learning” feature, where we post the 5 things we’ve learned with 5 days left in the month.

I had so much to pick from that it was hard to reduce my learning to 5 things, but I took a shot at it. What a month it was!

As I noted in my post, we love it when readers and friends of JJL post their 5 things and link it back to us - sharing learning is truly a joyful and jubilant thing to do!

So while you are enjoying this holiday weekend, post your 5, and let’s start the summer off with a learning “bang”!

A couple of weeks back I posted about the great month-long event taking place at Joyful Jubilant Learning, “A Love Affair With Books 2007“.

It’s my turn to talk about a book today, and the book I selected was “Seeing David in the Stone“, by James B. and Joseph E. Swartz. The book’s subtitle is “Find and Seize Great Opportunities Using 12 Actions Mastered by 70 Highly Successful Leaders“.

In honor of the purpose and spirit of JJL, I chose to talk most about one of the 12 actions focused on the learning process, and the keys which link learning to success.

Here’s the review - please do check it out and let me know what you think.

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On a different note, I wanted to recognize two recent one year blogiversaries - Tom over at QAQNA, and Christine Kane. Both of these most excellent bloggers were kind enough to mention yours truly on their birthday posts, and for that I am grateful and honored. Well done you two! See you in Chicago in May.