I led a wonderful 12-hour Leader’s Protocol® workshop last week out in the San Francisco bay area. We had a great group of leaders of the future join us from all over North America from 8AM on Tuesday until noon on Wednesday. The client does things right, and set up a ‘social painting’ event on Monday evening for us to break the ice. I’d never done a ‘paint and pour’ before, and you can certainly tell that by the photo of my finished product that accompanies this post. The reason for this blog is not the picture though, but the leading lesson I learned from one of the participants.
Let’s call him ‘Kevin’. Kevin came in from Vancouver, but ran into travel delays. He got there more than half way through the 2-hour guided process and had a lot to do to catch up with the rest of the group. Within a very short period of time I looked over and Kevin was not only caught up – his end product looked a lot better than most! While we’d taken 70 or 80 minutes to get to that point, Kevin got there in 15 or 20 and did a great job. But, he didn’t look all that happy, even taking into account the adult beverages we’d consumed before he got there. His demeanor surprised me.
At the end of the evening as everyone cleaned up, laughing over their attempts to create an acrylic masterpiece, I went and talked with Kevin. ‘How did you do it?’ I asked. ‘You look a little bored, was it a little too easy for you?’ His answer was profound in its insight. ‘No, not at all – the teacher did my painting. In about 5 minutes she laid in the water and the sky and told me to let it dry for a minute. Then she came back and did the rocks and clouds…that’s why mine doesn’t have a boat, there was no time left.’ He was quiet for a minute and then said, ‘It’s not much fun to sit and look at someone else’s picture.’
Think about his experience for a moment. How often as leaders do we help a follower ‘catch up’ by essentially doing their work for them? How often as parents do we ‘help’ our kids with a project? Most importantly, how inspiring can it be for them to engage with the end product? Is it really that critical that we do the work for them, or do we just like to paint?
Thank you for the lesson Kevin!
