deadwood – From the desk of Adam Thomas

You Scab. It is a part of life.

As a leader, you deal with both deadwood and scabs.

We come from a lifetime of “unfair,” “disappointment,” and “expectation.” These things create deadwood over our growth.

“Action” is your fire to clear them out.

So if you tend towards action, you are more likely clearing deadwood. We don’t win all the time.

We don’t win all the time.

Every time we make mistakes, we “cut and burn” ourselves. This creates a scab. We make mistakes. Through them, we learn how to distinguish which is which.

Let the scab heal, and get back to business.

The good news is the more reps you get, the stronger the instinct becomes.

The human mind is very adaptive. We figure things out.

Chances are, there is a lot of deadwood to clear.

Get to work.

Fire isn’t just our toy. It clears deadwood

Ever since we humans controlled fire, there is an inclination to think of it as purely our pet. We even talk about it as that way in our stories. In the story, we receive fire from Prometheus. Fire isn’t a force of nature, but a gift to humanity to spite the gods.

Fire, however, is a naturally occurring thing.

Forests last a long time. Fire is a big reason.

Forests accumulate deadwood. Deadwood, once it accumulates, chokes away the forest because it takes resources. That’s where fire comes in. Fire eliminates the deadwood. It clears the ground so that new things can grow. If there is no fire, then the forest dies.

When we cut ourselves, we get scabs. They look ugly. We shouldn’t however, scratch them off. Scabs are necessary; they keep the body safe from infection.

One of a leader’s most critical skills is the awareness and understanding of deadwood and scabs. The treatment for one (deadwood) is the exact cause of death for the other (scabs).

Tomorrow I am going to talk about how different styles tend to one or the other. For now, think about experiences in your life where you needed to burn things off or when you needed to let things “sit.”