Oven cleaning as a leadership story
Cleaning an oven takes vision, initiative, planning, determination, resilience, some level of physical ability and skill, plus the right tools and time. These are also the typical leadership requisites described in textbooks and expounded upon by consultants and leadership gurus.
Yet, do we ever ask our students in our leadership programmes how they approach oven cleaning, or whether they have ever cleaned an oven? Maybe some leaders would say “I don’t do ovens”; “my people clean my ovens”; or some other high level response.
A Hurricane of Ideas
While walking in the high winds of the side-end of Hurricane Arthur I realise important things about life that I believe are generally applicable. Such as not to shrink from challenges, to maintain humility and to practice gratitude every day.