Post-it Notes

Leaders love post it notes.  I love post it notes.  I have them scattered on my bulletin board, through out books, even at times on my laptop.  They help me remember appointments, I am able to quickly jot down short notes, and they stand out, causing me to re-read them over and over.

But here's the one thing about post it notes that they probably were not intended for.  They cause me pain.  No not paper cuts, thought they do hurt, this is on a deeper level, they cause a type of pain that brings about growth and change in who I am and the way I lead.

As I write down these short notes and thoughts, and quotes very often I am just writing something that I thought was a profound statement, and often at that moment, that's all it was a few words that caused me to stop and say WOW.  So I write it down, here's an example.  'Be a people who make interest not a people who pay interest.' Andy Stanley.

But as I reread these notes months or even years later, I am cut deeply by some of the statements that are on them, because they reflect words that at one time made me say wow, and now, well now they are just words on a blue post it on my wall or in a book.  Not doing what the words were intended for, but doing what the post it was intended for, just hanging there waiting to be read.  The words on the post it have the power, but it's the post it that is the messenger and the 'author' of what is hurting me at the moment.

As I read all the notes scattered in my office and house I realize one great thing, I have not lived up to what is written down, that great revelation months ago that I promised to stand on has slipped away and become decor on my walls.  I have come to realize that the reason I wrote them down was to better my leadership value, my goal is to one day lead as a 10, not stay as a 5 or 6 forever.

Post its, in my life, are a way of saying, I need to live at a higher standard.  I hold people around me, those who are in leadership with me, and under my scope of leadership to what may seem at times as an unlivable standard, and yet I hold myself to a higher standard then I have for them.

Throughout the world people look at others and expect huge things from them but in their own life they live at a very low standard, expecting and delivering the bare minimum.  This isn't always the case of leadership or management, but it does occur in these realms just as it does in everyday life.

We have an idea, one that is literally disturbing and disruptive, that others have to live in a standard that is higher then what we hold our selves to.  We cannot expect this of people, but we can expect it of ourselves.  You want to be a great employee or employer, maybe improve the way you serve in a volunteer roll, perhaps you desire to be a better spouse or parent, create a standard that is higher then where you are so you have to strive to improve the way you live  Not so much that you drain all your energy and never improve but enough that you recognize improvements and can determine what you can do to grow a little more.  I would never expect of myself to double the size of my leadership team in one day, but I do in one year, maybe even triple it.

The reason to all this is simple and maybe just as profound as the notes I have made; we need to expect great things of others, have a high standard for them, but we must have a higher standard and greater desire of our own lives, or we will never be happy with the way people around us lead/live/parent/serve.

Now, go buy some post it notes.