Daily Inspiration: “Build pathways. Not barriers.”

“Build pathways. Not barriers.” – Futurist Jim Carroll

There should be a roadmap to the future – not obstructions in the path there.

Your path to the future should not be so devoid of ideas that all you can think up are methods to block anyone from getting there. Your plan to get to tomorrow should involve a clear set of directions, rather than so much obfuscation that no one will no which way to go. Your route to opportunity should involve a pretty good idea of what they will look like, rather than a track that leads to failure. You should give people a road to success that will inspire them to succeed, instead of a passageway that will doom them to perpetual failure.

The art of leadership is a complex one, particularly when it comes to tomorrow. Many leaders fail to provide the proper environment that encourages innovative thinking, adaptability, and an open mind –  with the result that they not only destroy whatever opportunity they might have individually but also drag down countless numbers of other people with them.

Study any great leader, and it is pretty clear that they spend a lot of time giving people a map that defines how to get to the opportunities of tomorrow, rather than the steps that they can chase to certain failure. And yet, study the failed leadership teams of the past, and you see the opposite. The leaders of Research In Motion never provided a clear roadmap of what the future of the Blackberry might look like once the iPhone arrived – instead, they told everyone on their team to pretty much keep focused on the current reality. On the other hand, Steve Jobs inspired his team with a vision of how to get to the next disruption of the technology industry – not a series of technological inventions that were likely to become barriers that would prevent Apple from ever getting there.

Every day involves a choice as to what type of leader and innovator you want to be – someone moving forward or back. Providing a vision of opportunity or a mindset of failure. One that presents ideas, not excuses. Someone who inspires, rather than deflates. One that is focused on tomorrow, not yesterday.

In the same way, every day, an organization or nation has a choice of who it wishes to be. One that continues to trailblaze its way into tomorrow with ideas and opportunities. Or one that devolves everyone around them into a mindless cult of conformity in which yesterday is celebrated and tomorrow is to be feared.

We live in interesting times.