Leadership Is A Thinking Game
“Careful attention to thinking is what sets the leader apart.”
Immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson made phone calls to two men who had given Kennedy the brilliant concepts and words that Johnson so admired. Johnson spoke to Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg first:
“‘You’re going to have to do some heavy thinking for me,’ he said. ‘I want you to be thinking about what I ought to do. . . . I want you to think . . . just think in capital letters, and think, think, think. And then—then talk to me . . . I’ve just got to have your help.”
Thinking . . . that sounds easy enough, but it is a discipline that requires hard work. Thomas Sowell has said, “We will do almost anything for our visions, except think about them.” To this, James MacGregor Burns would add his hearty, “Amen!” In his book, Transforming Leadership, Burns writes, “Thinking is difficult, as it calls not only for recall but for patient analysis.”
Thinking may be hard, but it is profitable. The proofs of careful thought are endless:
The Brooklyn Bridge. Thank you, John Roebling, for doing the hard work of thinking.
The U.S. Constitution. British Prime Minister William Gladstone praised the U.S. Constitution as “the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect . . .” Thank you, Congressional delegates of 1788, for doing the hard work of thinking.
The Suez Canal. Thank you, Ferdinand de Lesseps, for doing the hard work of thinking.
Gallaudet University (a premier university for deaf and hard of hearing people). Thank you, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, for doing the hard work of thinking.
Thinking solves problems and brings new visions to life. It is good thinking that builds bridges, wins football games, creates inventions, educates students, makes for effective parenting, and puts astronauts on the moon. Thinking is one of the ways we love God (Matthew 22:37), and what we think about matters to God:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ”
Conversely, failing to think can be catastrophic. The same Ferdinand de Lesseps whose “mind and heart” drove efforts for the successful building of the Suez Canal, failed miserably when he attempted his next great feat — cutting a canal across the isthmus of Panama.
What happened? de Lesseps failed to think! He assumed that what worked for the Suez Canal would work in building his canal across Panama. It didn’t. That failure to think created lengthy delays, but more importantly (and sadly) the death of many workers. James MacGregor Burns notes:
But de Lesseps’s failure in Panama was less moral than intellectual. He had drawn assumptions from a situation in one part of the world that fatally compromised his work in another.
Leaders who fail to think become the lid to their organization. In Boundaries For Leaders, Henry Cloud writes:
But just as much as leaders must focus on cultivating the executive functions of everyone else, they must also cultivate their own executive functions--what they are attending to, inhibiting, and keeping alive in working memory. As one CEO recently put it to me: "My biggest mistake of the last eight months is that it has taken me way too long to get the right COO in place. I have been too distracted [emphasis mine] by constantly putting out fires."
Leaders will become nothing short of organizational firefighters unless they take time to think. As Cloud notes, they must cultivate their own thinking, what they attend to, inhibit, and keep alive in working memory. There is no way to do this apart from creating unhurried times to think.
Do you Take Time To “Sits and Thinks”?
The author A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) and baseball legend Satchel Paige are both credited with saying, “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.” Careful observers have actually traced the origin of that line to earlier days. Regardless of the source, both Milne and Paige recognized the importance of taking time to stop and think.
“Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.”
Stephen Covey is another proponent of thinking time. Covey said, “Public victory is always preceded by private victory.” A vision may be birthed in the shower, but it is in drying off, sitting down, and devoting time to “think-it-out” that the vision grows.
Taking the time to think can be difficult
In my leadership tool, The Leader’s Magic Hour, I discuss the importance of devoting blocks of time (the “magic hour” or “golden hour”) for those practices that enhance one’s leadership effectiveness. For years now, in my journal, I have tracked those five “hours” I need to be at my best:
An exercise hour to keep my body (and mind) fresh.
A quiet hour to unhurriedly read the Bible and pray.
A reading hour to fuel my mind and soul.
A writing hour to process on paper what I am reading and learning.
A thinking hour to . . . well, think!
I have maintained — at least attempted to maintain — this discipline for years. As I review my journal, the hour I have missed most often is the thinking hour. That is not to say that my life has been devoid of thought on those days — we are always thinking about something — but I have often failed to carve out time to “sits and thinks.”
Creating threshold moments
Mark Miller is Vice President of High Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A Inc., and a best-selling author. In his book, Smart Leadership, Miller describes what this thinking time can look like. He writes:
What I’ve discovered . . . is the best leaders . . . choose to stand on the threshold and look into the past while also turning their gaze to the future. This is no accident—it is a personal discipline. They create these threshold moments and consciously pause in this space to consider the possibilities, weigh the consequences of their actions, and chart their courses.
In the same way leaders learn to “coach in the moment,” they must also “think in the moment.” That is a leadership essential and it happens all the time. But the discipline for which Miller advocates is more intentional, more . . . thoughtful! And while a set time and place may not work for you, setting aside time and finding a quiet place away from distractions is essential. We all need threshold moments to:
Think about our leadership
Think about our lives
Think about our mission
Think about our dreams
Think about our families
Think about how we are stewarding our God-given strengths
Mohler said, “Careful attention to thinking is what sets the leader apart.” I don’t want to be an organizational firefighter. I want to be an organizational architect, a thoughtful coach, a visionary leader, a careful communicator, a developer of people, a problem solver, a good encourager, and a guy who getting it right at work, also gets it right at home. Thinking won’t guarantee all that, but failing to think will certainly guarantee failure.
I must take time to “sits and thinks.” How about you? Do you have a regular time, place, or practice to help you “think . . . just think in capital letters, and think, think, think”?
Your leadership depends on it!
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A thinking exercise for today:
In his book, Thinking For A Change, John Maxwell shares his practice of devoting a few minutes every day to reflective thinking. Here are the questions he asks himself. Practicing this exercise can be a good step toward establishing or improving the discipline of threshold moments.
1. What did I learn today?
Leaders capture quotes, concepts, ideas, as well as gleanings from unique interactions with other people.
2. What should I share?
Leadership is stewardship. Good stewardship is multiplying lessons learned by passing them on to others. That’s intellectual recycling.
3. What must I do?
Leaders turn reflection into action. They commit themselves to applying what they have learned.
Time is a commodity God gives to every leader in equal measure. Wise leaders devote part of that time to reflection. Maxwell said, “I’ve found that asking myself these questions helps me stay disciplined and accountable for how I spend my time.”
Notes:
“Careful attention to thinking . . .” from The Conviction To Lead, by Albert Mohler. Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers. 2012. 67.
“Thinking is difficult, as it calls not only for . . . from Transforming Leadership, by James MacGregor Burns. New York: Grove Press. 2004. 51.
“Think, think, think . . .” from The Passage of Power, by Robert A. Caro. New York: Random House. 2012. 368.
“We will do almost anything” . . . from A Conflict of Visions: The Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, rev. ed. by Thomas Sowell. New York: Basic Books. 1987, 2007. Quote from 1987 preface.
“The most remarkable work known to me in modern times . . .” quoted in The Vineyard of Liberty, by James Mac Gregor Burns. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1982. 82
“What I’ve discovered . . .” from Smart Leadership: Four Simple Choices To Scale Your Impact, by Mark Miller. Dallas, TX: Matt Holt Books. 2022. 107-108.
Maxwell’s practice of reflective thinking can be found in Thinking For A Change. New York: Hachette Book Group. 2003. 76, 175.