Sharpen your axe

SCIENCE OF BUILDING LEADERS

By ROSHAN THIRAN
Employ your time in improving yourself by other mens writings, so that you shall gain easily what others
have laboured hard for. Socrates

Source : http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/15/business/6255605&sec=business

Saturday May 15, 2010

A few years ago, while at Lawas in Sarawak, I was told this story of a very strong and
skilled Kayan woodcutter who asked for a job with a timber merchant. He got the job with
a good salary and decent work conditions. And so, the woodcutter was determined to do
his best for the boss. His boss gave him an axe and on his first day, the woodcutter cut
down 15 trees. The boss was pleased and said: Well done, good work! Highly
motivated, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but could only fell 13 trees. The third
day, he tried even harder, but only 11 trees were chopped down. Day after day, he tried
harder but he cut down fewer trees. I must be losing my strength, the Kayan
woodcutter thought. He apologised to the boss, claiming he could not understand why.

Great leaders like (from left) Steve Jobs, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have a continuous appetite
for learning and growth.

When was the last time you sharpened your axe? the boss asked. Sharpen? I had no
time to sharpen my axe. I have been too busy cutting down trees, said the woodcutter.
He sharpened his axe and immediately was back to 15 trees a day. Since then, he
begins the day by sharpening his axe.

Most leaders are too busy doing and trying to achieve, that they never take time to learn
and grow. Most of us dont have the time or patience to update skills, knowledge, and
beliefs about an industry, or to take time to think and reflect. Many assume that learning
ends at school and so sharpening our axe is not a priority.

So, what exactly is sharpening the axe? Dr Steven Covey, who popularised the term,
believes it means increasing your personal production capacity by daily self care and
self-maintenance.

Most people fail to understand what it means and mistake it for taking a break or
vacation. If youre overworking yourself and your productivity drops off, take a break.

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However, that isnt sharpening the axe; thats putting the axe down. When you put down
a dull blade and rest, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up.

The woodcutter does need downtime to rest, but it is not sharpening the axe. The
woodcutter only becomes more productive by sharpening his blade, analysing new
woodcutting techniques, exercising to become stronger, and learning from other
woodcutters.

Sharpening the axe is an activity. You too can sharpen the axe of your life. Here are 10
ways:

Read a book every day;

Get out of your comfort zone by changing jobs (or take the challenge of
accepting a new task). A new job/task forces you to learn;
Have a deep conversation with someone you find interesting. Sharpen your
axe through that interaction;
Pick up a new hobby. Stretch yourself physically, mentally or emotionally;
Study something new;
Overcome a specific fear you have or quit a bad habit;
Have a daily exercise routine or take part in some competition;
Identify your blind spots. Understand, acknowledge, and address it;
Ask for feedback and get a mentor; and
Learn from people who inspire you. Subscribe to YouTube / leaderonomicsmedia
and watch interviews of great leaders.

You have to do it as often as possible. But if youre so focused on your task at hand with
no time for discussion, introspection, or study, youre not really moving forward. Just as
a car needs to be refuelled to keep going, we too need refuelling through learning.

The Management Mythbuster author David Axson believes most organisations still rely
on outdated management strategies. Unless we are sharpening our axe daily by
observing the changing world and changing ourselves accordingly, we risk becoming
irrelevant.

Andrew Grove reinvented Intel and oversaw a 4,500 times increase in market
capitalisation by his daily habitual axe-sharpening ritual of understanding global
changes and taking advantage of these to ensure Intel remained relevant.

Employees at Japanese organisations like Toyota believe its a crisis if they do not
create improvement each day. The Kaizen mindset means that every day, whether
youre a line worker or executive, you find ways to learn something new and apply it to
what youre doing. This forces employees to be alert, mindful and constantly improving.

Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Steve Jobs have a
continuous appetite for learning and growth. They always listen and watch in the
hope of learning new ideas and discovering new truths and realities.

Many of us do just the opposite. By staying in the same job for many years, although we
become experts and our roles become easy, our learning flattens.

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We dont like changing jobs as there is pain and struggle in taking on new roles. But the
more we struggle, the more we learn.

When a new boss with new expectations takes over, we sometimes find ourselves
struggling even though we have been in the same role for years. We try harder but still
fail to impress. Why does this happen?

Much like the woodcutter, trying harder will not yield results. This is because we did not
upgrade ourselves nor grow in the easy years. Our years of experience count for
nothing as we did not keep up with the world around us and were ignorant and mindless
of things that were evolving daily around us.

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Harvard Prof Ellen Langer, who reminded me of our
natural inclination to be mindless. Mindlessness is our human tendency to operate on
autopilot, whether by stereotyping, performing mechanically or simply not paying
attention.

We are all victims of being mindless at times. By sharpening our axe, we move from a
mindless state to a mindful state; from blindly going with the flow to thinking and
breaking boundaries.

Why then do so many people fail to sharpen their axe? Well, axe sharpening isnt as fun
as whacking away at the tree. And it is painful and tedious work.

Religious leader David O. McKay once said: The greatest battles of life are fought out
daily in the silent chambers of the soul.
Sharpening the axe is a daily inner battle. Research reveals that self-educated
presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln sharpened their axe daily by
cultivating the discipline of reading.

In a number of Asian organisations, when there is a crisis or financial situation, the first
thing that gets slashed is training programmes for employees. Yet, in a crisis, there is a
greater need for employees to have sharpened axes to deal with issues.

Crises often helps companies to become great because they finally take time to sharpen
their axe by re-looking at their current strategies and reinventing their industries,
sometimes through painful reforms.

Before the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the Korean auto industry were jaguh kampung
and known for low-quality cars with strong domestic car sales. The crisis forced them to
take a step back, sharpen their axe, become mindful to the world and move to sell the
majority of their cars outside South Korea.

Of course, too much or aimless axe sharpening can become another form of
procrastination. Many like to attend training courses and classes but end up never using
the axe. After sharpening the axe, use it or all is in vain.

How are your various blades doing? Your skills, your knowledge, your mind, your
physical body, your relationships, your motivation, your commitment to succeed, your
capacity for growth, your emotions are all of them still sharp? If not, which ones are
dull, and what can you do to sharpen them?

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Lincoln once said: Give me six hours to chop down a tree and Ill spend the first four
sharpening my axe. What are you doing to sharpen your axe? Take a step back this
weekend and start sharpening your axe.

Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming the nation through leadership
development. Sign your kids up for the leadership camps in June at www.diodecamp.com, or call 016 6559017. You can also listen to
Leaderonomics leaders every Monday at 11am on BFM89.9 or download podcasts at www.leaderonomics.com.

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