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(Author’s note – I wrote this post in early February and delayed posting it due to COVID-19 and more time-relevant posts)

Should Tom Brady leave the New England Patriots?

While in some ways sports differs from business organizations, here are three reasons to embrace necessary endings.

Necessary endings allow for upward mobility in an organization. New leaders emerge when new opportunity is present. While one of the tenets at Bald in Business is leading without a title (because leadership is always influence, to quote John Maxwell), new positions allow people to use their influence in more formal ways. And whether we like it or not, formality is needed for the wholeness of the leader to emerge. Without the title, General Ulysses S. Grant was possibly just another soldier (this oversimplifies the route Grant took in becoming Lieutenant General, but the point remains that opportunity gave birth to the Grant we know from history).

Necessary endings also allow for a change of perspective in leadership. No two leaders see the world the same way. Not only is this healthy, it gives renewed life to the organization. Our Executive Vice President, for example, has recently taken over leading our sales team and sees opportunity in markets and geographical locations that I did not. This opened our team up to possible growth that they were missing under my leadership. No single leader can see all the possibilities, thus an ending is often necessary for an organization to reach its fullest potential.

Finally, necessary endings bring renewed energy to the organization. While organizations fight to maintain status quo with every ounce of their being, the irony is that change brings the kind of renewed energy that propels its forward. This can even push stagnant team members to greater performance because they are renewed as well. Change can also bring a lot of other stuff with it —stress, more work, and all the things that make people unconsciously resist it —but these are the the building blocks of a growing organization. Energy is needed to embrace the building blocks and grow.

Speaking of my personal necessary ending, I am already beginning to contemplate my next one. While I hope this is over ten years out at this point, it is still wise to think of its necessity, and be working at the process of growing the next successor.

Before ending this post, I have to come back to the question posed at the outset about Tom Brady: Should he leave his team? Of course, he should! I’d advise him to retire. But if he wants to keep playing, he should leave and open the door to the next generation. Had he done that a few years ago, maybe Jimmy Garoppolo would have been quarterback of the New England Patriots last year, while Tom Brady would have been quarterback of his hometown San Francisco 49ers? Such are the speculations of an avid sports fan that believes in necessary endings…

(Final Author’s Note: I did NOT see Tom Brady signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but I should have. Why? Many NFL Quarterbacks swear that Bucs’ Head Coach Bruce Arians is someone worth following…)

No one could have adequately planned for COVID-19. Not only did it come unannounced, it has changed things at such a rapid pace that what you thought you knew yesterday is outdated by the time you drink your morning’s coffee the next day. This is a crisis, which means you cannot plan for it.

But you can be prepared.

You can always prepare for the eventual disruption, recession, or crisis. You can ensure that your cash flow is positive, that your business serves diverse markets, and that your team has a plan of action for when crisis comes.

And some form of crisis always comes.

Perhaps, you can see this difference more easily in other walks of life. For example, I can be mentally and physically prepared for a golf tournament. But I cannot plan what kind of shot I am going to hit on the 13th hole. Even with the tee shot, I can plan to hit my 3-wood and come to find the weather changed. With new conditions, such as a change in the wind, do I follow my pre-round plan? Considering that I am always prepared to hit a cut shot down the left side of the fairway with my driver, the answer is that I am prepared to hit either.

Golf analogy aside, it is the leader’s job to think through situations and be prepared for anything.

You can plan for little.

You can be prepared for lots.

See the difference?

Whatever we want to call this season we are in (COVID-19, Recession, or something else), the reality is that it is different from the one that roughly ended on March 13, 2020. The previous season can almost be characterized with one word: GROWTH. Words like innovation, technology, robotics, and sustainability, all became commonplace. In return, leaders needed to “embrace change for change’s sake,” be “nimble,” and always (ALWAYS!) be “hustling.” Even on the “side.”

Things change.

The season we are in now seems to be one of SURVIVAL. While Hoffer Plastics future is absolutely secure today, we will have to adapt and survive like everyone else to excel in the “new normal,” whatever that is. To be sure, all the things mentioned above (especially sustainability) will come back quickly, but right now is all about SURVIVING until they do.

With that in mind, here are 3 qualities that your team must embrace in a crisis:

Your team needs to show up. Before you say, “duh,” and move on, think about it. Who is showing up and who isn’t? Who can be counted on, and who cannot? Every leader I am talking to right now can decipher between those they that are sheltering in fear, and those they can count on. For example, our Director of Manufacturing has been in our facility every single day since this began. Feel free to have an opinion on whether injection molding is “essential,” the point here is that we have had to maintain normal production for customer demand and our Director of Manufacturing has not missed a beat. You need people like him on your team during a crisis.

Your team needs to stay calm. It would do our team no good if our Director of Manufacturing was showing up and freaking everyone out. So, in the same breath as above, every leader I know is gravitating to those on their team that are remaining calm. They help steady the organization in uncertain times.

Your team needs to be resolute. While you would not hire anyone that you know is not, a crisis reveals one’s resoluteness. Who can work through just about any difficulty, even personal difficulties, and do good work? Who attacks problems regardless of the time of day, or regardless of the size of the problem? Who is always dependable no matter what else is going on? All this becomes evident in times like these.

These qualities are admittedly basic to understand. But your team must do them to survive in a crisis.

I write these words from my home office. It is Tax Day, or was supposed to be Tax Day. The view I have is to our backyard and the ground is covered with a thin blanket of snow. A week ago, the temperature approached 80 degrees in Chicago. Now winter has reminded us that it always has the last laugh.

Mother Nature often reminds us how uncertain life is. Well, so has COVID-19.

Can

One

View

It

Dutifully?

The leader has to. To be someone worth following you have to keep going no matter the cost. Every single person reading this post knows this, and so do I.

But will we?

There is a small nook on our front porch that is partially hidden from view thanks to the overhanging roof. Expecting birds defy any attempts we make to keep them from building nests there. This spring, however, we did not even try to dissuade them. Shouldn’t they have a spot to shelter in place as well? As I write these words a future mother bird awaits dutifully on her nest in our nook. I would imagine she did not welcome last night’s snow. But the sun has come out which assures the snow’s inevitable demise. She will outlast the cold weather, but will she persist through the perils of spring thunderstorms, and the unknown predators lurking in the surrounding field? Her toughest days may be ahead. If she could talk, would she view this dutifully?

Similarly, this crisis is fraught with uncertainty that will extend into the warmer months and possibly beyond.

Do we, leaders, view it dutifully?

Late yesterday morning I made my way out to our plant. This opportunity has taken sole possession of my “number one task” in my daily planner. But it is not a task. It is opportunity to see the eyes and feel the hearts of our team. It is a reminder of the covenant that we have together. This is what sustains me during times of difficulty. And it is the lifeblood to my leadership. Their strength spurs me beyond what words can adequately capture here.

Every leader needs strength from those around them. Doing this alone will not work.

Each day when I get back to my office, I ask myself the question, can one view it – COVID – dutifully?

Because of them, absolutely!

Like the bird, we must!

Harder times may or may not be on the horizon. I suspect they are. But, people like us will persevere through the snow into the sun because that is our duty.

We will persist.

We will survive.

We will because that is our duty.

Much of leadership content these days is about hustling, doing more with less, increasing productivity in general, and on and on and on. There is even discussion about “side hustles,” “plus time,” or “google time.”

The reality, however, is that no one can do everything.

Conversely, have you noticed that there is a natural rhythm to life? Day becomes night, summer turns to fall, fall turns to winter, and eventually —eventually? —winter gives way again to the rebirth of spring. What’s true in nature is also true in human beings. Human beings develop, grow, age, and eventually pass away.

Limits are part of life.

This probably won’t be one of the most popular posts I have written because limits remind us of our fallibility. We, unlike God, cannot go on without limits because we are human. We get tired, are mistake prone, and have a host of other issues when we push past natural limits. This is why we need to embrace limits for our own health, and the health of our organization.

I have come to realize that my lack of respect for limits is due to my distrust of God’s goodness and provision. If I am not chasing “more,” regardless of what “more” is (work, leadership, parenting, etc.), I feel like a failure. So, I am tempted, and often give in-to the temptation of, blowing off the natural limits set before me. This means I work extended hours, blow the Sabbath off, and suffer health issues because of all this. But “more” is never “enough.”

More problematic to my leadership —and being someone, WORTH following (my emphasis) —I become short with people, and even unloving when I blow past limits. If leadership is awakening the possibility in OTHERS (my emphasis again) than my leadership suffers when my refusal to embrace limits impacts how I treat others. To that end, I have been asking myself lately whether my demeanor, attitude, and attentiveness to other people is characteristic of someone I would want to follow? While this may sound like a lot, remember that leadership is always a privilege and it always comes with a cost. Leaders should be held MORE, not less, accountable for their actions. And we should also be more focused on other people than we are on ourselves.

This brings me back to the statement two paragraphs above about my lack of respect for limits being tied to my distrust of God’s goodness and provision. Regardless of your belief in God, the lack of adherence to limits points to something deeper happening inside the heart of an individual. Could it be that you, the leader, are blowing past natural limits by working more hours, more days, absorbing more content, and overall doing more simply because something inside you is not content? Is it that enough is simply not enough?

While I cannot speak for you, the truth about me is that I blow past limits because I have low self-esteem and am an “achieve-a-holic.” I distrust a loving Father who assures me that he will provide what I need when I need it. Notice that this does not mean my wildest dreams will come true. I may never shoot under par consistently, write the New York Times’ Best-Selling Book, or have a hair like Brian Urlacher (just kidding, I want to stay bald). It also might mean that I am unrecognizable in the injection molding space, our business is good but not great, and I am largely forgotten in fifty years.

The contemporary advice continues to be “blow past limits” so that you assure the things mentioned in the last sentence are not true of you.

Limits, however, are necessary because blowing past those limits, as good as your intentions may be, eventually cause irreparable damage to you, others, and especially those you love most (family and friends).

It simply is not worth the cost.

Hence, I am embracing limits, embracing less, and letting the chips fall where they may.

I am also increasing my trust in God and his provision.

Even if that last statement does not jive with you, I am imploring you to consider the natural limits in your own life and leadership.

My conclusion for this post is that in order for you to be someone WORTH following, you need to embrace limits so that you have the emotional health to positively impact the lives of other human-beings. Leadership is always about doing this work, the work of enhancing lives of OTHERS.

We can only do this through the embracing of our natural limits.