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DÉJÀ VU LEADERS
We can all learn these patterns that work every time and lead to better lives. Cloud believes that once you do learn this pattern, your life and the lives of those you lead will never be the same.
He further explains that he chose these Nine Things for three specific reasons.
- First, they are paths or patterns of behavior that really do make a huge difference in the lives and leadership of those who practice them. I consider them uncontainable in their fruitfulness.
- Second, avoiding these principles can lead to disastrous consequences, such as a loss of dreams, goals, potential, relationships, profits, market share, trust— even faith itself.
- Third, these principles are often ignored. I seldom hear them talked about as specific patterns to be observed and diligently applied.
Thing One: Excavate Your Soul
Déjà vu leaders explore their deep hearts and invest in their inner desires and drives
Leadership success is the process of digging up the treasures of the invisible soul in order to bring dreams, desires, and talents into the visible world. So, the first thing déjà vu leaders do to succeed is to listen to their hearts and invest in their inner desires and drives.
The déjà vu leader:
- Becomes aware of his dreams, desires, talents, and other treasures of the soul.
- Listens to them and values them as life itself.
- Takes steps to develop them, beginning in very small ways.
God grants to us potential realities for leadership and success at many levels. It is our job to dig up whatever potential we have. The choice is whether we are going to allow fear and experiences to keep our potential buried, or choose to step out in faith and see that potential turn into reality.
Those who take what they possess, invest it in life, and are diligent and faithful with it over time, grow and build something good. But those who allow fear to keep them from stepping out, not only fail to increase what they have, they actually lose it.
Success and failure alike arise from what is going on inside, and the wise person is the one who pays attention.
Thing Two: Yank the Diseased Tooth
Déjà vu leaders do not allow negative things to take up space in their lives.
If déjà vu leaders can’t fix the bad stuff, they get rid of it. Sometimes quickly and sometimes through a process, but if a tooth is infected, they yank it out. They get rid of negative energy.
Examples of negative energy in a leader’s life can be physical (such as the junk that piles up on your desk or in your computer files), relational (such as people who are a bad influence on you), and emotional (such as unnecessary anxiety or worry). We need to clear out clutter, dead weight, things we keep around that don’t help us but take up space or drain resources.
Avoidance is really not helping anything, because you still expend the energy and feel the hurt. If you had simply yanked the bad tooth when it started bothering you, you would be over the pain by now. Avoidance always prolongs pain.
Thing Three: Play the Whole Movie
Déjà vu leaders evaluate their decisions in the present based on how they will affect the future.
You never know exactly what might happen down the line when you make a given choice, but the wise person at least thinks about it. However, déjà vu leaders don’t just think about future implications when making those big, scary decisions. They tend to think that way all the time, in matters large and small.
Successful leaders know how each scene contributes to the film’s good end. They don’t just see one scene; they watch the whole movie to the end.
Thing Four: Put Superman Out of a Job
Déjà vu leaders continually ask themselves, “What can I do to make this situation better?”
Scenarios change, but have a common theme: People are in deep trouble and need help—fast! The result is always the same: When the superhero arrives, the threat is disarmed, the crisis is averted, and lives are saved.
Déjà vu leaders continually ask themselves, “What can I do to make this situation better?” and then they do something. They tend to call on themselves as the first source to correct difficult situations. They take initiative to address the problem and seek a solution. Whatever the answer may be, déjà vu leaders make a move.
A great majority of the problems we face as leaders are people problems. When there is a breach in a relationship, the déjà vu leader figures out what he can do to repair it.
Thing Five: Embrace Your Inner Insect
Déjà vu leaders achieve big goals by taking small steps over time.
Proverbs 6:6-8 says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”
Ants teach us the fifth principle: Déjà vu leaders achieve big goals by taking small steps over time.
All-or-nothing thinking keeps people stuck in destructive ruts. All success is built and sustained just like a building is built, one brick at a time.
Wanting it all keeps you from having any. BUT I WANT IT NOW! Closely related to “I want it all” is its sister, “I want it now!” In Cloud’s first book, Changes That Heal, he points out that the shortcut is always the longest path.
Wanting it now keeps you from having it. Taking the long road, one tiny step at a time, will actually get you there faster because you will not lose time by trying shortcuts.
Crash diets and get-rich-quick schemes usually waste precious time that could have been invested in a longer, more fruitful process. By obeying the natural growth order that God created, you will get in step with the universe, one grain of sand at a time.
Thing Six: Earn a Black Belt in Hate
Déjà vu leaders develop the ability to hate the right things well.
Hate is one of the most important aspects of being human. It is one of the most crucial ingredients of a good person’s character. What we hate says a lot about who we are, what we value, what we care about. And how we hate says much about how we will succeed in business and life.
What would you think, for example, about a person who said that he hates the following things: arrogance, lying, innocent people being hurt, harmful schemes, evil practices, telling lies about others, and things that stir up dissension among people?
Our character is in some ways formed through a process of what we hate and move against. Hate benefits us is that it causes us to protect what we value. Hate moves us to destroy bad things, which are often the things that threaten the good.
Successful leaders move against the problem and show love and respect to the person at the same time. The person who does not hate well uses his hatred in a way that hurts things he cares about, such as his coworkers, his home, or even himself.
Mix hate with love and respect. A déjà vu leader shows up with what we call integrated character. In other words, when he brings his hate, he brings his love as well.
Whether you are going to hate is not an option. You have been created in the image of God to stand up for life and stand against things that destroy life.
Thing Seven: Forget About Playing Fair
Déjà vu leaders give back better than they are given.
Here is Thing Seven expressed in three different Scriptures:
- Luke 6:32-35 says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
- Romans 12:17-18 says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
- Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
People who succeed in leadership and life do not go around settling scores. They do not even keep score. They “run up the score” by doing good to others, even when others do not deserve it.
Giving back more than you were given will improve the relationship for both parties, not just for the offending one. Their goal is to do well by them regardless of how they are treated. They don’t play fair; they play right. Revenge is for immature people.
Thing Eight: Quit Self-Exaggerating
Déjà vu leaders do not strive to be or to appear more than they really are.
Webster Dictionary gives these definitions for the word humble:
1 : not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive;
2 : reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission (a humble apology);
3 a : ranking low in a hierarchy orscale: insignificant; unpretentious;
3 b : not costly or luxurious (a humble contraption).
Humility is not having a need to be or appear to be more than you are.
An important quality of déjà vu leaders—they are not surprised that they make mistakes; as a result, they can identify with others who do, give to them, and not judge them or wrongly judge themselves.
Successful people show kindness, understanding, and help to others who fail. In addition, successful people are not derailed by their own failures; they accept them as a normal part of the process.
Déjà vu leaders do at least two things very well that build success, foster good relationships, and encourage learning, growth, and wisdom:
- They admit it quickly when they are wrong.
- They receive correction and confrontation from others well.
Humility means giving up thinking that we know it all, giving up thinking we can do it all, giving up thinking we have to do it well all the time, giving up thinking that we are better than others when they do not do it well, giving up needing to be seen as right or good all the time, and giving up defensiveness. In all these cases, the way of the déjà vu leader is basically to be real.
Thing Nine: Ignore the Popularity Polls
Déjà vu leaders do not make decisions based on the fear of other people’s reactions.
Successful leaders are sensitive to the reactions of others, but when weighing whether or not a given course is right, whether or not someone else is going to like it is not a factor that carries any weight. Concern, yes; but weight, no. Déjà vu leaders decide to do what is right first and deal with the fallout second.
Déjà vu leaders go against the odds if the odds are against what is right. They are willing to be the odd one, risking loss of approval in order to do the right thing.
The key is not to count your critics, but instead to weigh them. Forget the popularity polls. Don’t try to avoid upsetting people; just make sure you are upsetting the right ones. If kind, loving, responsible, and honest people are upset with you, then you had better look at the choices you are making. But if controlling, hot and cold, irresponsible, or manipulative people are upset with you, then take courage—it might be a sign that you are doing the right thing and becoming a déjà vu leader!
Conclusion: Becoming a Déjà vu Leader
Recognize these four keys, as you put the Nine Things into practice:
- God is there to help us if we ask Him.
- He not only helps us directly, He gives us others to help us.
- He designed life to work according to certain truths and principles.
- As we practice those truths and principles, good things are given.
Take These Twelve Steps
- Do Not Go It Alone: Look to wise, loving people to help you. Find a support group, a counselor, or a coach.
- Receive Wisdom
- Receive Feedback and Correction
- Find Models
- Review Your Patterns
- Deal with Impediments
- Add Structure: Remember the axiom: If you have not had the discipline to do it on your own, you will not gain it by gritting your teeth and making one more try. Add the structure from the outside.
- Practice, Practice, Practice, and Fail. Growth is a process. A successful leader is one who steps out, fails, regroups, learns from the mistake, and tries again.
- Change Your Beliefs
- Quarantine Your Weaknesses
- Put Your Vision and Goals on Paper. If you have no plan or goals to get you somewhere, you will end up nowhere.
- Pray, Pray, Pray