Rise Above: Learning to Lead

By Cam Hodgson

Leadership is a difficult and messy pursuit. The obstacles we face are many and the responsibility can weigh heavily. From juggling the elusive work-life balance to dealing with toxic or entitled staff to succession planning and developing an organizational culture of excellence, our skills and energy can become exhausted.

This collection of methods, inspirations, and case studies will help leaders of all levels rise above the negativity and pressure to implement key principles for a thriving organization. 

On this exploration of critical leadership elements, you’ll discover how to:

-Develop Critical Mindsets for Success

-Utilize Creative Problem Solving in any Organizational Structure

-Lead the Entitled

-Deal with Toxic Staff and Colleagues

-Halt Dysfunction and Transform the Culture

-Leverage Crises for Growth and Progress

-Deal with Being Unrecognized or Misunderstood

-Lead with Courage and Authenticity

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Whatever your level of leadership, these methods will deepen your knowledge and broaden your personal and corporate success.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal;
it is the courage to continue that counts.”
-Winston Churchill

• Language: English
• Publisher: Podium Enterprises Inc.
• Release date: Sep 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781775037019

Cam Hodgson

Cam Hodgson draws from his years of leadership experience as an All-Canadian student-athlete, teacher, coach, CEO, board director, entrepreneur, and consultant. He was inspired by powerful leaders at an early age and began the quest to learn what makes an effective leader. This journey has proved to him the more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to learn. Cam assists organizations and individuals in their pursuit of personal and corporate excellence.

Book preview

RISE

ABOVE

LEARNING TO

LEAD

CAM HODGSON

PODIUM ENTERPRISES INC.

CALGARY

Copyright © 2017 Cam Hodgson

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Advisor: Les Kletke

Editing: Kim Rempel

Design: Your Words Publications

eBook: tikaebooks.com

Published by Podium Enterprises Inc.

Calgary, Alberta

www.podiumenterprises.ca

ISBN 978-1-7750370-0-2

(eBook 978-1-7750370-1-9)

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 Rise Above

2 Know Your Story

3 Know Their Story

4 The Man in the Arena

5 Developing Your Leadership Skills

6 You Are Part of a Team

7 No One Knows Your Role

8 Having A Personal Mission

9 Defining Success

10 Stretching Your Perspective

11 Organizational Culture

12 Constraints

13 What Leaders Can Learn from Entrepreneurs

14 Back To The Future

15 The Importance of Resilience

16 Leading Toxic People

17 Authentic Objectivity

18 Leading the Entitled

19 Cultivating a Positive Work Culture

20 Leading with Courage

21 Creating a Culture of Excellence

22 The Touchstones of Powerful Leaders

23 Continuous Improvement

24 Discover the Talent in Front of You

25 Leaving Well

FOR MY FOUR REASONS WHY:

WENDY, MEGAN, TYLER, AND CAYLEY.

INTRODUCTION

I have had the good fortune in my life of being influenced by remarkable people.

Olympic champions and professional athletes, captains of industry, artists, educators, executive directors of not-for-profit entities, highly successful entrepreneurs, and average people living extraordinary lives.

Each of the outstanding people who influenced my view about the critical importance of leadership had something to teach me about being a better leader and a better person. I have studied leadership both formally and informally for over forty years and been in numerous leadership roles from captaining teams to teaching in schools and even serving as CEO and being on various boards of directors.

The more I learn about leadership, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. No matter where we are on the leadership continuum, we are always learning to lead.

This book is a collection of what I have learned on my leadership journey thus far. My hope is that it will help you on your own journey. You’ll save time by learning from my mistakes, and maybe even walk away affirmed that you’re on the right track.

Some ideas and lessons will resonate with you more than others. Take what’s useful to you, mark up the pages, and cross out what you disagree with. The intent is that these thoughts are one more tool in your leadership toolbox, to be used as you see fit.

The words rise above have significant meaning in my life. The people I admire most are those who live their lives with grace and class, and are able to rise above all challenges they encounter. To be able to rise above is my personal mission. It is what I am challenged to do every single day. My wish for my children – and for you! – is that they would develop the wisdom, strength, and discipline needed to rise above life’s many challenges.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

NELSON MANDELA

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

NELSON MANDELA

CHAPTER 1

RISE ABOVE

Rise Above. They’re only two words, but are incredibly powerful. Great leaders throughout history have demonstrated their ability to rise above others to accomplish amazing outcomes. Ordinary people daily rise above the hand they have been dealt to persevere in making their lives as fulfilling as possible, or to enrich the lives of those around them.

I have made these two words my personal quest. I am not always successful at it, but am never without opportunity to put it into practice. It is my daily mission. It has become so ingrained in my thoughts that it is my metric for success when I reflect on each day. Where was I successful in rising above the situations I found myself in? Where did I fall short and what needs to improve tomorrow?

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO RISE ABOVE

Those I admire exemplify the Rise Above philosophy by carrying themselves with class and dignity in every circumstance. They resist being pulled to the lowest common dominators that many people operate in: gossip, complaining, cynicism, and blaming. Those who rise above do not become immobilized in self-pity. When something happens to them that is unfortunate and seems unfair, they use it as an opportunity to learn or grow. They take each day as it comes, and look for opportunities where others see failure. They think in terms of possibilities. Essentially, to truly rise above is not a task or an occasional practice; it is a way of being.

There are endless opportunities to practice rising above. It might start with the morning news, where you could allow yourself to become depressed by the awful things happening in the world. Then, on your morning commute, it seems as if all the other drivers were sent to test your resolve. When you arrive at work, if you hold a leadership position, there are endless issues that you could allow to make you crazy. And the day has only begun. Each challenge is an opportunity to either give in to negativity or to rise above. Your choice.

A TALE OF TWO LEADERS

There are many, many examples of powerful leaders who chose to rise above their own circumstances for the benefit of others. One of my favorite examples is Nelson Mandela.

As an opponent of the apartheid system in South Africa, he fought long and hard for equal rights for non-whites, to end apartheid, and to encourage the nation to do so peacefully and without violence. All this in a system that didn’t value his humanity because of the colour of his skin.

I cannot fathom the fortitude required to persevere for what is right in that circumstance. During and after his twenty-seven years in prison, Mandela never veered from seeking opportunities to rise above his circumstances. In the end, apartheid ended, all citizens of all colours were permitted to vote, he became president of South Africa, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mandela is the epitome of rising above.

Closer to home, Romeo Dallaire lives with an often debilitating PTSD from his experiences leading the UN forces in Rwanda. If you have not yet read his account of that period of his life, Shake Hands With The Devil, you might want to.

Abandoned by his own organization while witnessing a genocide, General Dallaire continued to rise above his circumstances to do the best he could because it was right. Stranded in the battlefield with insufficient men and supplies, he was forced to watch people die gruesome, unnecessary deaths. Despite systemic failures and personal trauma, he pushed on to not only survive, but to make a difference for his peers, his nation, and the world.

Somehow this man has found the opportunity to help others by rising above his own misfortune. Now, this General-turned-advocate, relentlessly seeks improvement in a system that has neglected and marginalized its own for too long. He is a living example of a leader who has faced tremendous adversity, yet continues to advocate for others because he knows it is the right thing to do.

Those are just two of the many important leaders that have modeled how to thrive and succeed despite unbelievable circumstances. Many ordinary people also rise above significant challenges every single day. Many who come from extremely dysfunctional home lives refuse to allow their personal circumstances to diminish their performance at work. Others include the young mother receiving her chemotherapy in a cancer treatment centre who brings her young children with her, patiently and kindly cares for them, and refuses to complain about her circumstances or wallow in self-pity.

THE DIFFERENTIATOR

As we learn to lead, we have to differentiate our behaviours from the most common behaviors. It takes a consistent discipline to not be influenced by the crowd, to resist being enticed into doing things just because they are popular. We need the determination to be undeterred by setbacks.

With the right approach to leadership we can create better circumstances not just for ourselves, but also for our families, our organizations, and our society. The manner in which we conduct ourselves has a huge impact on those we lead. The behaviour we model is what people will follow – what we do is more important than anything we write or say.

HOW TO BEGIN

So how does one start on the path of rising above? It begins with a decision. Remembering that leadership requires perpetual learning, we must choose to look for opportunities for improvement. We must choose to see challenges as those opportunities.

These opportunities exist right in front of us, every single day. They exist in the way you treat the server in a restaurant. Do you treat them with respect, or are they just there to serve you? When that driver cuts you off in traffic, are you still mad twenty minutes later? When someone is rude to you, do you choose to reciprocate?

At the end of the day, reflect on where you rose above and where you sunk to a lower level of behavior. Try to understand why you did not rise above — why you chose to act the way you did. This is not to be an exercise in beating yourself up, it is a process in looking for ways that you can continuously improve.

Consider what influenced you to make the decisions you did during the day. Know what outside influences and pressures you may have succumbed to, and decide how you would choose to respond the next time, given a similar situation. Think about the people you admire, and how they would have reacted in a similar situation.

We will never be perfect, but that does not preclude us from seeking perfection of our character. If that is what we strive for every day, that will at least lead to new levels of personal excellence. Our goal should be to become a better version of ourselves today than we were yesterday.

As we learn to lead, striving to be a better person each day will also make us a better leader each day. When we seek opportunities to rise above, it allows us to rehearse being the type of leader we aspire to be. Maybe not a powerful world leader, but the best leader we are able to be.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.

LAO TZU

CHAPTER 2

KNOW YOUR STORY

We all have accomplishments we’re proud of. When our hard work and tireless pursuit of that accomplishment becomes recognized or rewarded though, something interesting happens; they become part of our identity.

Our achievements differentiate us from the crowd and serve as proof of our worth. They can even be held out as a reason to be considered for positions of prestige. These are the things media releases and resumes are made of. This is our public persona, though, and to allow it to define us personally is to tread on dangerous ground.

We’re headed somewhere ugly when we start believing our own press releases. Every story as many sides, none of which contain the whole truth. If we trust our accomplishments as true indicators of who we are as a person, we dishonour ourselves. We also make it much more difficult to have empathy for others and connect with the other people in our lives, both personally and professionally. Who we are personally is much deeper and more meaningful than achievements.

WHAT MADE YOU WHO YOU ARE

We want people to know things about us that would have us looked upon