Earlier this week I posted on leadership albatrosses. Today, I’m flipping that discussion on its head and posting on a phenomenon that might be able to be called a “reverse albatross.”
While an albatross is a burden or commitment that really prevents leaders from leading in the direction and manner which is needed at a given season, a reverse albatross works much the same way though for different reasons.
A reverse albatross is when you are not bound or stuck in a bad situation or are limited in your decisions by an external force, but you choose to bind yourself anyway because there are reasons, usually material, that lead you to choose safety and security over making a hard call that frees you up to lead.
The best example of a reverse albatross is connected to events or programs that some of us affectionately refer to as “cash cows.” There are those events – conferences or programs or something else – that generate so much money for you that even though it’s the smartest thing to go a different direction you keep doing it because you can’t walk away from the money. So it functions the same way as an Albatross in that you are not free to lead, but the reason lies in your own psyche and capacity to say no to money and easy material gain.
Doesn’t matter if you could do the same thing for free because of technological advances – you keep doing it because you can’t bear to part with the easy money.
Programs and conferences and events that make money, but that are not serving ultimately where you are going ultimately function as a leadership albatross if you don’t have the courage or fortitude to say no to them when wisdom and vision and mission is calling you to change and go a different direction. There are at least three significant conferences or events that I can think of right now in my own general context that I think could be eliminated – but it would force a major financial shift if they were and I don’t see much change on the horizon.
Are we free to adapt and change to what is needed today? I say – probably not when you can’t eliminate events that aren’t worth the money that is put into them as it relates to the bigger picture of where you are really going.
Of course I have a non-profit perspective in this and a ministry perspective at that, but the central premise is that whether you are truly bound by something out of your control or whether you psychologically bound by money or control and safety or security, you’re still bound to an albatross and you need to “get yourself free.” And as I quote that, the song “50 ways to leave your lover” becomes entirely appropriate for this post. In fact, that could be the anthem for liberating your leadership from antiquated cash cows and things that function like leadership quick sand.
So here are my quick tips for cash cow albatrosses:
Just Say No.
“Slip out the back Jack, make a little plan Stan, drop off the key Lee, and get yourself free.”
– the great leadership consultant known as Paul Simon
How would you advise people to transition from events that they might be financially dependent on, but that they aren’t serving the mission like it needs to other than funding corporate expense and travel budgets?
How do you keep yourself and your ministry or organization free from getting sucked into the trappings of financial security and gain to the degree it hinders or slows you down from leading towards the vision?
Any other Reverse Albatrosses you see out there besides Cash Cows?
