Month: April 2013

When the alarm went off this morning it was a song I was familiar with and reminded me of a song I had been awakened to the previous morning. I worked through my morning routine, poured myself a cup of coffee and drove to work. Entering the front door of the office I spoke to the same people as I do most every morning and began to fight the “fires” that needed attention for that day. At some point I recalled the quote most often credited to Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja-vu, all over again”. How often do we allow ourselves and most importantly, our leadership to become the same thing over and over again. The movie “Groundhog Day” is a great example of a professional that is stuck in what appears to be a time warp and relives the same day all over again. At first he uses this to his advantage to experience excess’ in every area of his life and survives outrageous behavior including suicide only to awaken to the same music and life every morning. Eventually he identifies what he wants in his life and uses this to improve himself and gain the one thing he could never before achieve. As we consider our days and responsibilities of leadership in our organizations and our lives, we must not allow ourselves to experience this phenomena of routine, excess in behavior or indifference to those we lead. Leadership on Groundhog Day requires that we consistently strive to address each issue and every event with new vision and concern that brought us to the position of leadership with which we are tasked. As we relax at the end of our day and listen to John Fogerty sing that It’s like deja-vu, all over again, we can be satisfied in the fact that those we lead were spared from that.