Hi, I'm Kevin Eikenberry and I'm here to help you reach your potential as a
leader and a human being. Welcome to Remarkable TV. Today we're
talking about pencils and leadership. Are you ready? Let's go!
This is the second in a series of challenges issued to me. See, we went out
to social media and said hey give us an item and I will connect that item and
provide leadership lessons and so a bunch of people have given those such
things. This week's challenge comes from Anil
Calouse who said, "Kevin, how about a pencil in leadership." They also gave me the
example for next week so for both of those efforts, Anil, this is the journal
or one like it we'll be sending to you for helping us out. If any of you have an
idea and want to add to this challenge for a future episode put it in the comments
and maybe just maybe we'll do an episode and maybe, well, if we do an episode
you'll get a journal. So yes today the lowly pencil. The pencil that might bring
back to you thoughts of school and standardized tests. Maybe not always
great thoughts, but after today you might have a whole new thought about the
pencil. In fact, you might want to put one on your desk as a reminder of the
lessons I'm about to share with you. There are four connections that I see
between leadership and a pencil and here's the first one. They work best when
they're sharp. Now this was not gonna work very well right now at all but you
know what when it's sharp it is of great value and it works very well. It works
best when it's sharp and as leaders we work best when we're sharp. When we're
when we're refreshed, when we've thought things through, when we are working to
keep getting better. And the other beautiful thing about this pencil is you
can resharpen it and just like that as leaders we can resharpen our saw. We can
get better and continue to become more effective so that we can do our job just
like the pencil. Second, pencils work in all conditions. Now I don't know if this
story is true but I believe it to be true and even if it's not I love it so
here it goes. There was a time during the space race that the NASA said we've got
to have a pencil because we have astronauts gonna take notes about things
readings and all sorts of things in space and they needed a pen that would
work in zero gravity so they spent a bunch of money to create a pen that
would work in every condition zero gravity and the Russians just sent
everyone with a pencil. A pencil will work in all
conditions. Rainy foggy hot cold zero gravity upside down and the best leaders
can work in all conditions - whether it's a sterile facility, I mean
physically sterile, whether it's a dirty dusty shop floor or plant whether it's
any kind of conditions leaders can and should lead. The best leaders can lead in
any conditions. Third, pencils come in all shapes and sizes. Now I know this is the
classic number two. I have this lovely mechanical pencil that I use all the
time. When I was a little kid I had what I now call the clown pencil. It's about
this big around. Like, there are all kinds of pencils.
There are colors of pencils there are all kinds of shapes and sizes of pencils
and man the same is true for leaders right? There's no one perfect leader.
There's no one picture that says this is what a leader looks like and even though
this might be the picture we have of a pencil we know that there are many
different shapes, sizes, colors, and types of pencils. And the same is true for
leaders. No one best leadership style or approach not there's not there's not a
prototypical leader if you will and lastly, pencils allow us to make mistakes.
They acknowledge and can correct mistakes. It's this beautiful thing on
the end called an eraser. If you make a mistake with a pencil that's why I use
this one so much I like I've got an eraser if I make a mistake I can go back
and erase it. As leaders we have to recognize mistakes are going to get made.
We have to give people a way to correct those mistakes. We have to give people
the chance to not only make a mistake but grow from it improve and get better.
If we try to keep there from being any mistakes there'll be no growth. One of
the best things about a pencil is the eraser and one of the best things we can
do as a leader is provide people the chance to make a safe mistake so that
they can grow and improve. So the question that was asked of me was what
can leaders learn from a pencil? Well apparently quite a bit. Let me close with
today's tweet. As a leader remember the pencil - it works better when sharp and
knows how to correct mistakes. Two things we can learn from. Every Tuesday through
Friday I produce what I call the daily email and the daily email is a short
email with inspiration and ideas for you. If you join me there's a link here so
you can join me for the daily email. I'd love to have you and every week we're
right back here with another episode of Remarkable TV so I hope you'll join me
then we'll be right back here next week with another challenge. See you then.