When leaders are pressed for time or resources, it’s easy to fall into the trap of a scarcity mindset. It’s true that sometimes what we want to prioritize really does have to wait until we get some wiggle room in our calendars or our finances…but oftentimes we just can’t perceive the options we have because we’re too focused on the limitations that are blocking our way.
When I was learning to rock climb*, I got stuck about 35 feet up a cliff and couldn’t see any options for where to take my next step. My face was about an inch from the rock and my weight was distributed among each point of contact: two hands clinging to their tiny holds, and feet lodged into a crevice. If I let go with one hand to feel around for another higher hold, too much weight would fall on my other hand and I’d buckle. I was alone in the air, but the rest of the class was on the ground below me. “Help?”
The instructor shouted up to me, “Hang on with your hands but straighten your arms.” It was terrifying to push myself away – hard to trust the rock and hard to trust my muscles in these awkward new positions – but as I slowly straightened my arms, my toes became my fulcrum. My face was now arm’s length from the rock instead of right next to it. “Now look around,” he yelled. From a couple of feet off the rock, my eyes could spot a much wider view of possibilities. I caught sight of both hand holds and foot holds that I hadn’t been able to see when my nose was right up against the rock wall. Up I went.
From then on, I knew to straighten my arms to get a better view of my options on the rock. And from then on, I looked for ways to metaphorically straighten my arms when I would get stuck in other situations where I was, so to speak, between a rock and a hard place.
Our to-do lists and obligations often feel like a wall we’re climbing, with tiny footholds and places to just barely lodge our fingers for a moment before the muscles in our arms give out and we fall or fail. Straightening our arms—giving ourselves a slightly broader perspective on all we have to do and the itty-bitty amounts of time we have to do it—may just show us more options than we knew we had.
What are your tricks for straightening your arms when your face is pressed against the rock?
I like to talk things out with a trusted friend, or even better, five trusted friends. Another strategy I use is to write about my challenge for a few minutes even when I think I don’t have time. And one of the best things for me is to literally step away when I need perspective.
My Leadership Council members have regular times in the month where they “straighten their arms” against whatever they’re climbing and gain more perspective, and therefore more freedom, about the things they’re working on. It can sometimes seem like taking the time out is too risky, but the time spent stepping away and gaining perspective is always rewarded with the ability to move forward in ways they couldn’t see before.
I very rarely give my Leadership Council members any homework because life is just too dang busy. When they have an LC presentation coming up, I tell them to think about the issue they want to bring to the group for about three showers. (I used to say three commutes, but not during the pandemic.) In the shower, you can’t do any other work; you can’t make a phone call or write anything down, you can’t look in a file or on the internet for more information. So it is a perfect time to let their topic simmer and daydream about the issue they want to present. Most of my members do jot down notes before they make their presentations to the group, and then when they do present, the perspective pans waaaay out. Calling “help” from the rock face is a great practice.
That day at Devil’s Lake, I remembered to straighten my arms and look around when I got stuck; and I usually saw where I could put my feet and hands. But as solo as I was on that wall, I wasn’t really alone: the rest of the rock-climbing class below were all watching me. They each had their own view of the cliff. Some of them could see hand-holds that I couldn’t see; the shadows looked different from down there; the shapes of the crags were defined differently for them. And they told me what they saw so that, if I wanted to, I could reach for it.
Together, as a group, Leadership Council members examine the walls we each climb, the journeys we are on, the obstacles we each face. We share our perspectives, we encourage each other, and we support each other while we straighten our arms and move up.
* When I was an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, I took a “mini-course” one Saturday through the university! We drove out to Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin for the class.