Awareness of the five forces can help a company understand the structure of its industry and stake out a position that is more profitable and less vulnerable to attack.

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, however, managers define competition too narrowly, as if it occurred only among today’s direct competitors. Yet competition for profits goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces as well: customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. The extended rivalry that results from all five forces defines an industry’s structure and shapes the nature of competitive interaction within an industry.

An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. The premise is that good management practices are good management practices. Tried & true, they work, and are timeless. The ‘Same Old’ Is Actually Good Enough for Many

I’m sitting outside at a lovely eatery, enjoying the beautiful summer morning, eagerly anticipating the breakfast that I have ordered, when I look over at a nearby bush and notice a representation of nature that is sooo cool!

An abandoned skin of a cicada remains, still clinging to the branch. I am captured by the visual, get up from the table, and carefully break off the branch.  My mind begins whirling with the whole idea of the necessity of the shedding process within nature.  Although humans shed skin continually (we shed 1.5 million skin cells every hour with a new skin surface every 28 days or so) we don’t go through the physical process of emerging from our entire “structural” skin.  Now I’m not advocating that it would be a cool process as a human to live underground as the cicadas do, at depths as far as 8 ½ ft, feeding on root juice.  I wouldn’t call that “bon a petit” and it is too close of an image to the nightmare of being buried alive!!  Neither would I adopt their workout of digging out an exit tunnel to the surface just to emerge as a tasty dinner to some bird!  Yet, I have to admit that there have been times that I have wished to either climb out of my skin, shed pounds of my skin, or at least be able to reduce it to the point of having the ability to fold it up and neatly tuck it into my jeans!

You ask, “How does this relate to leadership”?  Well, leadership at its core is a transformational endeavor.  Leaders don’t just manage what is, they attempt to produce what should be.  Leaders don’t just guard and steward what they are given, but genuinely create amazing results of lasting “what’s best” impact on the lives of people they lead.  Leaders don’t just crawl out from somewhere and emerge, complete in leadership excellence.  A molt, a skin shedding process, a spiritual journey of continual learning and developing is a necessary ongoing aspect of truth within faithful leadership.

Now shedding can be painless, or it can have its challenges.  Environmental conditions, physical health, and psychological stress are all possible contributors to behavioral changes that produce cranky, hissy, or snappy reactions to being touched.  And I’m not just referring to snakes and reptiles here!!     Yet the reality is that most human beings naturally seek safety and comfort and try to avoid risk and challenge as much as they can.  However, challenge is often the way to real accomplishment and a deep sense of personal fulfillment.  The easy way is very seldom successful.  Successful leadership led from the heart confronts conflict between integrity and inertia.  Integrity is about doing what’s right; inertia is about doing what’s easy.  It takes a lot of energy and conviction to ask the right questions, uphold high standards, and show how much you care about those you lead.

There is an overall picture here that constructs a pathway of reflection, a pathway of truth-seeking, a pathway of integrity, and a pathway of what leaders should exemplify as they shed and emerge from the up and out process.  We are never going to accomplish faithful leadership if we can’t embrace the concept of “shedding” and the nature of continual growth.

You know…we really do need to shed some myths of leadership; especially when it comes to being more concerned with creating the right impression than with producing the right reality.  Why do we expend energy protecting the status quo and guarding our own reputations when what we really need is to be aware that although status and role can coincide, they never trump the relational task of a faithful leader! We need to shed some of the old misconceptions that leadership can’t be developed. Leadership is a relational, interpersonal role…it’s a function that any one of us can perform!

Although the whole process of emergence may be painful, it may be uncomfortable, it may even eliminate things that we think of as “good”, we have to commit to shedding some of our old skin, to allow the new skin to feel the sun, to encourage and motivate others to “dig through the dirt”, and to join us on the up and out journey toward faithful leadership.

A pumice stone followed by a mud bath may be wonderful physical attempts to slough off some skin today as I muse about what to do with this “shedding process”.  However, the real challenge is to put thought to what may need to be sloughed off within my life as I lead; what does it look like, what are the realities of where it will take me, and how will I sustain the emergence of what’s new as life allows other circumstances to try and ‘best me’.  And the final consideration…what will my leadership look like… sacrifice and struggle to do what’s right or rationalization of consciousness when choosing the easy way out? What kind of leader do you want to emulate…callused, dry and hardened…or fresh, energized and renewed? As always, it’s a choice we each make.

Oh…if only life was one big spa.

With the end of the summer I tend to develop routines to help me cope with a busier and busier schedule. In the midst of my routines I find it difficult to be creative or create new experiences. Here are a few ideas to stimulate creativity during your work day from the folks at Herman Miller.

• Pursue learning.
• Question assumptions.
• Challenge yourself outside your comfort zone.
• Don’t be afraid of taking risks.
• Devote time to creativity - including disconnecting from the phone and email.
• Capture your ideas somewhere useful.
• Interact with others.
• Get a good night’s sleep.

http://www.jugglezine.com/CDA/juggle/0,1516,135,00.html

It’s the last one and a half miles of the eight mile walk and the sun is out and the heat is on! As I lean into the slight incline of the sidewalk, I notice the swing of arms, the stride of legs, and the bouncy swish of hair in a pony tail. Who is that I seem to be chasing but never quite can catch? You guessed …my shadow! I walk a little faster…it walks faster…my shadow always staying one step ahead. Is it mocking me? I stop…it stops. I turn around and “walla”!! No shadow!! But alas, it has not left me. It waits patiently behind me…waiting for me to move another step…and yes, it attends my person as it reminds me of what shadows can represent within our growth as leaders. I turn around to complete my last leg of the journey (no pun intended) and my shadow accompanies me home.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?” I saw it…clear as the sky that day. My shadow appeared, apparent on a surface that was concrete. However, what about the shadows that I try to “screen” in the attempt to protect or to shelter my fragile ego from harm? Or is it that I am really trying to conceal, to hide those things that I don’t want to put under the heading of “truth”? Ah, truths…why use my energy to look at that when white lies are so much easier to swallow? Because as the old adage says, “the truth will set you free”; truth erodes all rationalization and leaves the shadow standing and waiting to follow. Shadows should never lead leadership!

Hence, it’s best then that I acknowledge my “shadow”, just as Plutarch did when he said, “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better”. In addition, I would include “I don’t need a friend who conceals the truth, inhibits growth, and keeps me from becoming the very best I can be”! My need is for growth that stretches and creates a tension whereby my shadows are bound by awareness and truth. It is so easy to keep in obscurity shadow areas that inhibit becoming and living who we are…the best of who we are! And we believe that in shading those areas from our view (and from others) we can go through our daily lives and not let it “ghost” our leadership. Sounds like silly behavior as I look into the mirror of my own insecurities and fears.

My question then is…”has anyone seen Trudy?”…or have I revealed only a shadowed phantom as I have tried to construct a life of perfection? I have this idea that people will only fall in love with the real me if I leave behind my bumbling ineptness and my painful vulnerabilities. Do they see my “shadow” as I walk…or the pain that I try to avoid…or the sense of belonging I crave?

We have the strange idea that we are loved and accepted only for our superb strength, mystical powers, or far-reaching competencies. How self-righteous we are to try and turn ourselves into mini gods. I am, continually, surprised as I go through life that real, undying loyalty to “truth” as a leader can never be legislated or coerced. Faithful leadership comes from a courageous vulnerability.

I am tired of the “cloak of invisibility”; tired of observing the aloneness that constrains….the avoidance of activities that could engender opportunities to give instead of take…the human relationships we waste that could enrich life. We are so misguided if we believe that work is the be all and end all of life…even with the obsession of the glamour or rewards we think it brings. After work, whatever humanity we have hidden in our work returns again for reconciliation. We all have shadows that we must face and attend to in the light of truth.

My private kingdom isn’t perfect, and coming home to family and to the intimacy required is full of constraints of time and energy. However, I believe that we forget the privilege of marriage, of the person we wooed; we forget the responsibility of raising children, of the quality and quantity of time to interact and guide. We walk through the door of our homes, hindered by the shadow that hides behind the lies that to place our needs above others is the right thing because it makes us “feel” better. After all, we deserve to be happy too, right? Choices made today, tomorrow, and a week from now may not always be perfect on the scale of faithful leadership. However, my shadow will not lead; neither will it be the anchor to what I know is right and true!!

What about you and your shadow? Go take it for a walk…reflect on what you see…and then choose, light to illuminate or shade to cloak your fears. It will define who you are, how you live and lead…and that will be visible.