Toy Box Leadership (Part 2) Slinky Dogs

Continuing in the series on TOY BOX LEADERSHIP, today we'll look at THE SLINKY DOG (the metaphor for Vision in leadership)

"The lesson is to pull and then be patient"

This was the most marked up chapter in the book for me and one that I could resonate with. With any organization, you must have vision of what can, could and should be and that vision must be cast by a leader who knows where it should go and how to get there. All of that seems to be most easy-we've seen countless books and seminars on vision casting.

I've seen little emphasis on the patient part. IT TAKES TIME for vision to find its way into the deepest part of any organization. Vision can't just be stated once and then understood. It must be repeated, reposted, discussed, dissected and directed to all parts of the organization for it to take hold. THIS TAKES TIME.

"Until a communicator with a passionate vision challenges us to do something great together, many times we struggle to find a meaningful purpose."

I wrote in the margin of the book at this point "REAGAN WAS GREAT AT THIS" because that is what came to mind as I read it. Reagan cast a vision of what America could and should be and called for America to rise to that vision. I believe that is why we keep hearing about Reagan some 6 years after his death and long after he left the stage of leadership.

"Many times you can't move fast enough and it seems as though you are crawling. When you think you are crawling others think you are traveling at sonic speed. It is all perspective but a person's perspective is his reality"

I’ve always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team. Lee Iacocca

This maxim is true as the organization will only move with the leader's pace and being too slow or too fast is not beneficial. However, the leader must always be aware of the pace of the organization. The leader must know timing so well in the process that they become the keeper of the time and pace. Again, the tendency is to go to far, too fast and leave the organization in the dust.

I loved the last line of this chapter--"It is your job as the leader to find the string, pull it and then be patient." I think that says it all.