Hitting it Hard 

Last night we celebrated the birthday of our 3 year old Ashlyn with some dear friends the Davis Family.  Flora Davis is from Mexico and created a traditional piñata for the occasion.  As you can see in the picture, it is the real deal.  A life size mini-mouse who was much tougher than she looks.  (More mighty mouse than mini-mouse)

Hitting with the Team

She, the piñata, took every hit our little Ashlyn could dish out but she couldn’t break through.  So six year old Brooklyn took some swings…still no break through.  So we brought in the big brothers.  They were able to take off some limbs and do some serious damage but still no break through. 

Hitting with Leaders

So they called in the “Big Daddy” (me).  I focused my efforts on areas where we had already built some momentum and done some damage and after several serious hits we achieved a major breakthrough and experienced the sweet rewards of our combined and cumulative efforts. (the candy came pouring out)

Your Personal Piñata - LIFE LESSONS in LEADERSHIP

More often than not, to get the best out of life requires us to get the best out of ourselves.  If we want the good stuff, the great stuff… then we need to hit it and hit it hard.  If we are swinging alone, we may be swinging hard, but we are not swinging smart. 

HIT HARD, and HIT with THE TEAM - The highest achievers and hardest hitters all tell stories of how they could not have done it alone - without the coaching, encouragement, support, and help of Hard Hitting Team Members.   Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” refers to this principle in his famous “Fly Wheel” concept..  We swing together, build momentum and allow the cumulative affect of our combined efforts help us break through to greatness.

Finally - Hitting with Leaders is not just about aligning our efforts behind the strategy and institutional goals.  It’s about leaders who are aligning their support with our efforts.  It’s about leaders who are offering the feedback, encouragement and coaching.  Leaders who are doing all they can in the capacity of a servant leader to help their people achieve breakthroughs. 

These breakthroughs are far more than mere goal achievement.  They are breakthroughs that symbolize the overcoming of limiting beliefs.  Breakthroughs that allow and inspire people to journey from good towards great as they realize a fuller measure of their own unrealized potential.  These breakthroughs encourage and enable a belief that there is still more in them to be realized.  This self-discovery often generates a self motivating excitement that keeps them swinging and hitting it hard to discover all that is inside themselves.  Thus one breakthrough leads to another and another… as we grow, we grow in our ability to swing with more strength and accuracy..Our discovery of what’s inside of our personal piñatas is the true treasure that enables us to better share with the world that better portion of ourselves.  Then, because of our hard hitting efforts… we have ever more to share. 

Walk softly…YES. 

Carry a big bat…YES. 

But to create legacy and legend… HIT IT HARD, HIT with the TEAM, and Support your TEAM as they HIT!

Let’s make this a hard hitting week….

 Let’s make our legacy and our legend one that is worthy, and worth more because we are. 

Kirk Out

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm and is filed under T4D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.