Leading Like a Guide

Video Transcript

These have been generated by robots and may not be 100% accurate.

SE 6 (Guide)

Hey I am down at the Oklahoma City white water rafting course that we have. That is Olympic certified. And there are only two of these kind of places in the nation. I just spent this afternoon on the rapids. It’s a bizarre idea. Rafting in downtown Oklahoma City. But that’s what I did today. Welcome to another episode of shaping environments where we stretch an idea discovering new dimensions that expands our capacity. Today I wanted to speak with you about the role of the guide and being a leader like the guide. As you know the guide sits in the back of the raft. Unlike formal normal leadership where people say I’ve got to be out front where I am showing and modeling. The guide sits in the back of the raft with the team out front leading effectively and what I have discovered is there is four characteristics that really make for a great God. First their role is to steer their paddle. They can put it on this side and go this way and we’ll all go that way or they’ll turn it this way and we’ll all go the other way. And all of our energies. The guide in the role he or she plays directs. We’re all of those energies get us the role a leader plays when they steer effectively magnifies what are the results of all the work that people are doing. So as a leader you may be tempted to jump in and paddle don’t stay where you’re at steer guide and make sure we’re benefiting from all of the work people are putting in. The second aspect that makes a great guide and really what helps them get us all where we need to be is they convey instruction with authority. What I love about guides language is it’s very brief and minimal they say forward backward stop. Sometimes they’ll say one two three forward one forward one two three back one. But their brevity in communication is because they have authority in where they see us all needing to engage and with that authority. It creates a lot of security because we feel like if we just forward one like our guide says it’s going to get u s where we need to be. Another aspect that a guy brings that is really helpful is that they see the best paths to take with rapids. When you’re in it paddling you’re kind of living in that rapid. What a good guide really. What a great guy does is live in this moment and also recognize the rapids coming down and that we’re positioning ourselves coming out of this one to hit the next one best. One of the things a guide will do is pull over to the side. Park the raft when we’re in a class five rapid generating go over some big ones. Scuse me they’ll invite the other paddlers to come and look at the different routes they can take and invite them to participate in choosing kind of what route we’re gonna choose to go down and so not only are they excellent at seeing how this move will affect that move they can play that move. They’re also really awesome at bringing the team together and saying Where do you think we should go. In light of what’s coming and so that’s a really excellent aspect of amazing guides and leaders and then the fourth one we did it here. We do it in real Rivers every time we get through a rapid. The guide will say everybody Lift up your paddles and we’ll clank our paddles together celebrating small wins. As a leader it is one of the most critical roles we play. Listen I want to encourage you to consider leaving like a guide. Love to hear your comments whether you’re white water rafting being a guide or lead in a way that borrows from that that a guide models. My name is Greg Hawk’s reshape environments where everyone gets to contribute their best daily. Thank you for letting us serve you.