All of us face challenges from time to time, and I’ve grabbed hold of an important principle that we should apply in those kinds of times. It’s the Anti-Deer-in-the-Headlights Principle.

When difficulty comes, sometimes we stop—frozen in our tracks—and the difficulty becomes DANGER!

When I was a kid we had a large field of alfalfa behind our house. The groundhogs loved it. From our back window I could see them crawling through the alfalfa and I’d sneak out into the field with my Dad’s single-shot .22 caliber rifle and crawl on my belly until I was in position. Then I’d whistle loudly and it would startle the groundhog. He’d stop. Then he’d raise on his hind legs to look for where the sound came from. BANG!

Imagine if you started to drive across the railroad tracks and your car stalled on the tracks. Would you just sit there wide-eyed? Or would you get out and get moving? Then why do we so often stop in the swamp when we get bogged down by stuff?

Forward momentum is of utmost importance. There’s a song on the radio that says “If you’re going through Hell, keep on going, don’t slow down, if you’re scared don’t show it, you might get out before the Devil even knows you’re there.” But not if you stop.

It’s a weird quirk of humanity that in times of trouble we stop, frozen in the headlights, dead on the tracks facing the oncoming train.

Next time you find yourself in difficulty, hit the gas! Don’t stop. Accelerate through the problem and let the forward momentum carry you to safely to the other side.

Do you ever “sleep nervous,” awakening in the middle of the night with important things you forgot to do, or need to be sure and remember to do the next day? Do you ever come to the end of the week feeling like you’ve worked hard, but haven’t really accomplished much? If you do, here’s a technique I use, that might be helpful to you.

Every Sunday night I sit down with a legal pad and spend a few minutes thinking about what I must accomplish in the next week for it to be successful. Once I’ve identified the week’s achievements, I figure out which one’s are the most important for Monday and write them under the MONDAY heading. Those are the things I do on Monday. The whole process takes less than 30 minutes.

On Tuesday I’ll take the next most important things and put them under the TUESDAY heading.

I think you see where this is headed.

I always work from the same pads. Some items flow from day to day, or week to week. But that’s OK. Something that got bumped last week because of an unavoidable delay, can get picked back up in the week to come. So these lists become a diary of accomplishments—-completed and remaining to be completed. They help to focus my week, and my day. By writing them down on Sunday night I sleep well because my mind can “let them go” knowing the items are “captured” and I’ll deal with them in the daylight.

Recently I’ve taken to emailing my key team members each morning with the day of the week and the word “priorities” in the subject line. On Monday they’ll get “Monday’s Priorities” and a quick note of what I am working on, what I am concerned about, what I need help with, etc. It helps them to stay on task with me, and helps all of us to be “pulling together in the same direction.”

These tools aren’t magic. They are just tools that increase my effectiveness. I used them daily. If they help you, great!

What kinds of tools do you use to be more effective? Would you be willing to share those with me?

NFL Referee Jim Tunney says: “If employees don’t understand their company’s goals and its game plan, these goals won’t be achieved,” he says. “Football doesn’t make this mistake. Its goals are always clearly defined. At the end of the field is a goal line. Why do we call it a goal line? Because 11 people on the offensive team huddle for a single purpose—to move the ball across it.”

What is the single purpose for the team you lead? How will they know when they’ve achieved the goal?

Maybe that’s why they aren’t achieving more. Just a thought.

(This is a little test of sorts that applies to the team I lead in Springfield. It will certainly give clarity on who reads the bosses’ blog—and really, if the leader of your team blogged fairly regularly wouldn’t you want to read that? I thought it might also be a useful idea to others seeking to make a difference in the world, so I decided I’d post it as a blog article for you, and a test for my team.)

Next Tuesday is the first Driveline meeting of 2011. (For those who aren’t on our local team, Driveline is the name of our monthly team training meeting. It comes from the fact that the driveline is what transfers the power (ideas, concepts, principles, truths, values) from the engine (that’s me) to the rear wheels (that’s where traction occurs—–no smart remarks about front wheel drive please—its where the work gets done; you might say “where the rubber meets the road.”).

In preparation for Driveline I’d like for you to pause and write down all of the things you “shipped” in 2010. Shipping is what Linchpins do, so I know you’ve shipped. I’d just like for you to capture what you’ve shipped and share it with us on Tuesday.

My guess is that when you see what you have shipped in black-and-white, ink-on-paper, it will provide great clarity and energy so you can ship more, better, faster, in 2011.

I was reading in Proverbs today, something I try to do everyday–you know there is a chapter of Proverbs for every day of the month–and I pray for wisdom. In chapter 18, verse 18 it says “Casting the lot settles disputes, and keeps strong opponents apart.”

Some observations:

1. It’s not about who is right or who is wrong, winning or losing, its about deciding. There may be a clear right or wrong. There may be many shades of gray. Or it may just be a mess that we can’t really untangle. Whichever the case, the “issue” has everybody frozen. All forward motion has ceased, and when the herd isn’t moving forward the individuals in it tend to stand around and pick on each other. The objective is to move forward, and the rendering of a decision—right, wrong, offensive to all or none—at least gets it over and allows everyone to move on. I’ve won cases and I’ve lost them. The important thing is they are in my past.
2. Casting the lot doesn’t really require much skill. You just have to roll the dice, or flip the coin. In ancient thought there was the idea that God controlled how the lot fell, and certainly I think He could, and sometimes does, but I also think that sometimes the lot just falls the way it falls. It is not ours to control how the lot falls, it’s ours to cast it—to make the decision—so that everyone can get unstuck and move forward.

Personally, I get stuck sometimes. I want to win. Particularly when I am sure I am right. And, I try not to get “at issue” with someone unless I think its a big deal and I am sure I am right. Sometimes I even want to punish someone, because frankly, I think they deserve punishment and I can even create a very valid Biblical argument that well justifies our meting out punishment to an erring brother.

My guess is that many people get sucked into this quagmire of right and wrong and punishment. And that’s rarely the point.

We’d all be better off if we could let go of winning and losing, of right and wrong, and focus instead on making the decision that allows everyone to move forward. Forward motion holds the reward. Whether they like it or not, Wisdom moves people forward.

Cast the lot. Settle the dispute. Make the decision. Say “Earl, you pay me to give you advice. Should I give you advice that will make you angry, or only advice that you want to hear?” If he says he doesn’t want advice that will anger him, that’s forward motion. You have now discovered someone who should not be your client. YOU can move on! But if Earl says he’s willing to hear, then tell him it’s time for him to move forward and not waste time and energy on what happened back there. “Settle the dispute” in his MIND. That may be the only place it exists. The opposing party may not even know there is an issue.

Ultimately, the best thing you can do for a client is provide them leadership that gets them unstuck and moving forward!