FitzSpeaks - Leadership

It took me time and money as well as the help of some wonderful friends to carve this space out of the cliff on the back of our property. Here in the tranquility of the world my wife and I have built just outside of Nashville they were re-centered in their personhood, invigorated in their identity, reinforced in their purpose, and energized by the freedom that higher altitude brings. Then strategies flow easily and the previously wild and unruly commotion of possibilities and responsibilities become manageable and a sustainable flow of progressive and prioritized execution becomes clear. 

But the thing I want to say here, is look at the picture and feel the immense swirl of such diverse colors, the heat of the different nuances of light and the immense invitation to realize just how much life swirls around you in your being out there trying to lead. You create your own world and that world develops around you. It’s there to support you to give you an inner meaning that actually matches the journeyer that is in you. It’s in the lonely places of discovery that you find your best and truest you. Our road 100 yards beyond our driveway.

Action Item: Are you a pioneer or a settler, both are essential for the establishment of a secure culture. Settlers manage what the pioneers discover. if your a pioneer then the question would be. Are you emotionally and .. strong secure and strong enough to survive and thrive away for the comforts of conforming? 

Notice the several doors in my background, all doors or eras, all in my past, all now positioning me, at this age to arrive at a very open space. 

Are you in touch with how the volume and velocity of your life interact with the natural rhythms, seasons, or individual eras of your life? 

They all play an incredibly important role in the ultimate capacity of your current advancement.

I’m intrigued by synchronizing coordinated outfits with natural surroundings. As they blend and mix they tell a deeper story and cast a greater image. An invitation to nuances. 

In the very same way I’m a person who is very dialed into my social environments and interactions. They can be far more revealing than simply reading body language. It’s testing the atmosphere, and the seemingly unrelated peripheral objects and movements. For instance yesterday while discussing this season of waiting I was trying to light a fire with green wood, experiencing in my own environment a picture of my own process. It’s like using the mood of a dream to interpret the dream. There are signs everywhere for those who study to see. 

Action Item: On one of your next social settings try and notice how many layers deep you can see. Start with body language and go from there. I guarantee your wisdom will increase substantially.

I love the concept and practice of servant leadership. Using one’s skill sets, position and calling for the advancement of others is truly rewarding. But sometimes you just need to be bright, bold and stand out. Strong, vibrant colors and diverse textures in a wardrobe can do that. In a very similar way I think it’s essential for leaders to have some bold, bright stand out color and diverse texture in their character.

Teens at the Tennessee State Capitol. One of the greatest joys of my life for the past four years has been enjoying and investing in teenagers from Tennessee, Canada, and especially Israel. We create totally new social spaces that allow them to see life from each others different cultural perspectives. It forces new thinking, fosters tolerance, and has forged some of the best friendship imaginable.

Action Item: Are there any teens in your life and if so, how are you using your world to expand theirs? Or do you see a way in your community to build bridges between groups that are separate or maybe even at odds with each other?

Its’ always been amazing to me how a styled top coat can not only reframe all of the other garments but lift personhood to presentation level. 

Our attitude, demeanor or spirit should do the same. Ideally it should harmonize our character, our intention to care and a willingness to be present for the betterment of the other. 

Action Item: What “Top Coat” do you wear when you show up?

Don’t mistake your finer exterior developments with your commitment to focus, intentionality, purpose, sacrifice and drive as you live a life defining and fulfilling your own True North.

Chutzpah: shameless audacity, cheek, guts, nerve, boldness, supreme self-confidence. 

I write a lot about being prepared, posturing and nailing an opportunity, but here is an over-the-top example. Sagi, a young Israeli teen from our friendship camps who is currently staying with us, was in Israel at a concert of one of his favorite bands on his recent 18th birthday. He was in the packed house audience but had come to the event with the specific plan to get on stage and play a certain song with the band. 

He mastered in advance not only the music but the performance style of the song, got positioned front and center, and part way into the performance held up a sign—in German, the language of the band--showing the song, some lyrics and a request to come on stage and play with the band. Something the band had never done before. 

This Youtube video shows the results. Especially notice how amazingly well he synchronized with the band’s style and the timing of the shift points and the nuances with the band’s leader. 

Milky Chance Tel Aviv

https://youtu.be/H1fL03AgGFg

Action Item: What is something that you have never done before but you are totally prepared and in motion to show up for?

Sometimes you play sometimes you sell. 

Playing an instrument like all developed skill sets needs to be done with devotion, excellence and an intended purpose. Presenting, promoting or selling those skill sets is equally important. Just as lamps are mean to give light, have impact, and change the atmosphere, so are the skill sets you have developed. There is not much use in devoting your life to (lighting a lamp) and then hiding it or allowing it to remain in obscurity through some false notion of humility. 

You have heard of the saying “Wear the pants, fill the shoes”. Bought these pants in Israel in 2006, still stylin’ today. I was living in Israel for a year working as the executive director of the Hiram foundation, focused on bringing western investment into Israel. The second Lebanon war dislodged a well advanced 5M investment we had been working on in the city of Acco. The war forced us to focus on humanitarian aid, refurbishing the kitchens of apartments hit by kathuska rockets. 

You may have a plan that ultimately comes up short of your intentions but it may still be a bridge to something good. Stay at it.

Action Item:  Is there something you’re working on that is missing your expectations but that you can still shift toward profitability?

So who are the people on Instagram? Being only two weeks into it, one thing that impresses me about them/you is it seems to be a culture that has a lot of horsepower. You are dialed into who you are, what you are, why you are and where you are. You have stepped off the sidelines and are players in the game of life. I’m liking it. Challenges me to be the same.

Exotic cars deliver massive horsepower, sophisticated driving systems and powerful brakes. You can have all kinds of power under your hood and all of the right moves to accelerate and maneuver where you want to go. But if you don’t have the equivalent of big brakes and the ability to reduce your speed at the same rate that you accelerated it then eventually you may be in trouble.

As you’re finding your path in life and forging your calling and its impact on your culture, realize the incredible enlightenment, camaraderie, energy and courage you can receive from reading books. 

Books can be the conduits to walking with giants, the greats of history. Through books (and the people in them) you can redefine yourself, your world, and its possibilities. As Paul said if we compare ourselves among ourselves or from our immediate environment we lack wisdom. I try not to measure myself by my environment but rather by the much bigger world I have created through the ideals and feats of these “other” friends of mine who now speak from the shelves of history. They are just waiting for me to pick them off the shelf of history and let them live again.

*University of Dublin, 2017

Action Item: How do you measure yourself? Is it focused on those around you and the collective social standards. Read deep, draw from beyond and then you can live beyond.

Mothers are one of the most powerful, discerning and directive forces in the earth. While the child contemplates, for decades the mother has been there and intuitively knows the corresponding formation taking place. She watches, she guards and she protects yet all the while ever knowing while the child will eventually move on, she will never be truly released. Called for life to protect, guide and support, at times with full approval and at times without it yet she stands called ever vigilant to the ones to whom she has committed the essence of her entire being.

Perched for more. 

One of the things I enjoy most in life is helping people go to the edge of their current experience and helping them gaze off into the future of who they are and where they can go. When you stop and take the time and invest in a teenager in this way because they are younger their amazement and appreciation are greater. If you’re looking to increase your impact invest younger. 

Teens on our ICCA tour from Tennessee, Cape Breton Canada and Shaarey Tikva Israel at a sunrise in Masada.

Design your life carefully because you can only pass on who you are. 

Children have a value beyond wonder. Catch it, cultivate it and make a way for them. Your hands and life may guide them now but one day their hands and life will guide you as they will become your unrealized dreams. 

Action Item: You're on your own for this one.