Leadership at the Tour de France

We may have witnessed a turning point in leadership at the Tour de France this week. It did not come from Tour officials. It was not instigated by the French media. It was not the result of a drug test. Rather, the leadership moment was siezed by a team captain who decided a team member's refusal to play by the team's ethics rules was enough to expel him from the team. The reason: he allegedly (protecting my backside with that word...) lied to his teammates about his whereabouts, saying he was in Mexico while he was observed in Italy just before the Tour.

The implication, of course, is that he was doping (taking performance enhancing drugs), and that is a major no-no at the Tour de France. (As it is in American baseball and Olympic sports, too.) And that is important. Why? Because the magnitude of the infraction is related to the level of leadership courage and skill required of leaders. The subject of doping in cycling is, arguably, larger than cycling itself. The sport's integrity (and by transferrence that of everyone involved in it) has been tarnished by the fact athletes and their aides have engaged in unethical, and as it turns out in France, illegal acts.

It's an important point to make - about the gravity of the offense to the team. Big offenses deserve big responses, as in this case, expulsion. Don't mistake me for saying, however, that every team rule and norm should be enforced with an iron fist. I'm not saying it's the team's way or the highway, per se. I see managers and executives every day who lacerate their people with the seemingly high-minded and productivity-inducing rules of teamwork. In such cases the collective team is elevated to too high a level above the dignity of the individual and her or his genuine and specific needs.

In this instance, what struck me as a potentially watershed moment was that it was the team that decided to expel its leading rider and not Tour officials. They did not need Tour officials to mediate the conflict. They did not need to look at the question of whether what their teammate did in hiding his whereabouts was illegal. They said it was wrong from a team values standpoint. And they took a very unpopular decision to leave the Tour entirely.

That's courage. That's acting on one's values. That's taking a stand for what is right against what is wrong. That's willingly accepting the downside consequences for the upside of integrity.

Bravo! I say again...Bravo!

A Learning Vacation

I started planning a summer vacation recently. Like many Americans I know, vacations are sort of stressful events, mainly because slowing down and walking away from work is hard to do. Americans are addicted to work. We equate personal power--and, dare I say, our self-esteem is tied--to work productivity. I'm no exception. While my friends in Europe take several weekly breaks throughout the year without any guilt or concern about not working and truly enjoying their preferred recreational activities, I think I should keep working.

Like many of you, I have a backlog of work that needs to get done in order to achieve my annual goals. I have two big engagements coming up, both of which require that I learn new material. Plus, there are a couple subjects I want to brush up on and add to the services I provide clients later this year.

So I've been thinking about this low-grade tension between about taking a break and my desire to keep preparing for my upcoming engagements. The solution? Give up the struggle and build learning into my vacation.

Since I will have many hours alone in a car for many days, I have decided to bring several books on tape and one major physical book for the evenings. That way I can have two enjoyable experiences at once: driving in the heartland of America and learning.

You may think me crazy. Conventional thinking says vacations are to be total breaks for mind and body. But, I'm not made that way. I read a lot and want to keep going along the path to mastery in my work. I love the subjects I work with and don't want a total break from them. So, I have given up the struggle. I have relieved the tension about not being productive by making some of my driving time learning time. I have harmonized two ideas that were in conflict.

When I imagine forward how I will feel by making my summer holiday a holiday with learning I feel a new level of excitement. I know I will have a nice holiday and get back to work feeling closer to my goals. I feel relieved and uplifted.

So, this upcoming vacation is a learning vacation. And I can't wait! Great scenery and great ideas. For me it's a great combination.