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The Time To Cross a River is Before It Gets Too Wide
One Leader’s Perspective
By Greg L. Thomas
I
am fortunate to live in the great state of Ohio. Anyone who has traveled the
state or studied geography knows that much of this beautiful land is encircled
by the Ohio River. This majestic river is formed by the confluence of the
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at Pittsburgh, it flows northwest out of
Pennsylvania, then in a southwesterly direction to join the Mississippi River
at Cairo, Illinois, after an expansive course of 981 miles. It marks several
state boundaries including Ohio-West Virginia, Ohio-Kentucky, Indiana-Kentucky,
and Illinois-Kentucky. The Ohio River contributes more water to the
Mississippi than does any other tributary and drains an area of 203,900 square
miles. The river's valley is narrow, with an average width of less than
1/2 mile between Pittsburgh and Wheeling (W.Va.), a little more than 1 wide mile
from Cincinnati (Ohio) to Louisville (Ky.) and somewhat greater in width
below Louisville.
Geographically,
the river starts out rather narrow and continues to widen on its grand journey
toward the great Mississippi River. Hundreds of years ago members of the Erie
Indian tribe traveled this part of the present United States. I am sure their
journeys often required them to cross the Ohio River. They must have discovered
something that is important for leaders to remember even today. The time to
cross a river is before it gets too wide.
One of the most
remarkable things about our lives is that there are times when directions can
be easily changed. This is true of our business, or our personal
lives. American poet and essayist James
Russell Lowell once said, “Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to
decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side.” Life
is a series of choices and alternatives. Often, usually early in the decision
making process, there are numerous opportunities to change one’s course or take
another direction. In the early stages the options often remain open to reverse
one’s decision. As with my earlier analogy, it is easy to cross the river
before it gets too wide. As time goes by our actions and habits tend to become fixed
unless we are on guard against this human tendency. It becomes far too easy
for us to become fixed in both our thinking and our methods and to dwell on one
side of the river long after we should have crossed. We can cross it by
changing the things we do, or by doing the right things today.
We
can all learn a lesson from the recent presidential election of 2000. The
problem with indecision 2000 was an incredible vacuum of
leadership on the American political scene. In the 30 plus days it took
to decide the presidential election there were few real winners and perhaps
permanent damage was inflicted on our State and Federal judicial systems, as
raw partisanship appeared to prevail. In what seemed like the “election
from the netherworld” most Americans were appalled to see the results of a
Presidential election turned over from the voters and into the hands of
lawyers and judges. In the December 10th edition of Time.com, Nancy
Gibbs wrote, “The judges were humbled, at war with one another over whose
vision of justice would prevail. The lawyers were as well, when they were
reduced to citing rulings against them in one case to help them win
another. The commentariat that had
confidently scripted a coda to this long chorale were practically speechless by
Saturday night. Even the Constitution itself seemed more like tissue than
stone, as people peered its text to find the meaning they sought.” What went
wrong?
Everyone
knew the election was close both nationally and particularly in the state of Florida.
Even the television networks called Florida early for Vice President Gore and
later retracted the prognostication as election night hung in the balance. The
morning after is when leadership should have boldly arisen. Within the
next few days leadership was required from both political camps to meet
together and agree on a rapid resolution to an important and potentially
damaging process. Both political parties could have met together and agreed how
they would request votes to be counted statewide in a fair and consistent
manner. This could have occurred before numerous deadlines would close options
and opportunities for fairness to all Florida voters. The time to cross a river
is before it gets too wide. Sadly, no senior elected official appeared to even suggest
such a process! Not a single congressmen or respected elder statesman was
willing to step out of political self-interest and offer a vision of rapid
resolution and fairness for the voters. Instead, partisanship ruled the day and
real political leadership was replaced by talking heads and media
commentators.
The
result of this void of political leadership was to remove the election
process from the voters and their appointed representatives and give it to a
few hundred attorneys and judges. I don’t mean to be critical of the Supreme
Court of the United States. It was forced
to constitutionally break new ground and I am convinced its members would have
rather avoided the entire murky situation brought before them. In reality, the Supreme
Court actually did demonstrate leadership not because they necessarily
wanted to, but because little real political leadership occurred before it
reached them! The country had been put through enough and it was time for
decisiveness to avert a Constitutional crises. From their perspective in
viewing the complex case presented to them, it was time to cross the river before
it got too wide. This recent political event has many lessons for
us in both our business and personal lives.
The
price of crossing the river gets higher as the river gets wider. If we
go down one side of the river too far the principle of inertia will take over
and direct our lives for us. A small problem can be solved or overcome with
little effort or attention. However, a large problem will require a great
amount of time and effort because conditions allowed it to feed on itself and
its misdirected energy. For most of us there is a need to often rethink
our priorities. What events are occurring in our careers that we have
allowed to go on far to long? What decisions in our professional roles have we
avoided? What opportunities in our personal lives have we either missed or
neglected because we have become too distracted? Remember, the time to
cross a river is before it gets too wide. In the 21st century it is
far too easy and common for individuals to spend their lives on roads
that go nowhere. Sound leadership requires honest self-reflection and humility.
Every leader makes mistakes and errors. The mature ones realize and accept
this fact without blaming others or creating scapegoats. They are also willing
to change course or direction when they realize a mistake has been made. As
leaders we must be vigilant in understanding that action early on is far
easier than a reaction later on. The farther we go without addressing an
issue, the more difficult it is to cross the river.
As
I look over my career I can see many situations where I walked down one side of
the river far too long before crossing it. I can remember as a young salesman
in my mid-twenties I was asked to quote on a large sub-station transformer. The
factory I represented under-quoted the transformer and would have lost
money on the order. Being afraid of losing my largest order of the year, I was
reluctant to go back to the customer immediately and tell him the factory made
a big mistake. Our new quote would be thousands of dollars higher than the one
we originally signed and committed ourselves to. Beside, I felt ethically responsible
to honor our original quotation. However, I didn’t respond quickly enough and
allowed far too much time to pass before I contacted the customer in an effort
to solve the problem. I kept the order at the new quotation price but the end
result of waiting to cross the river was very negative. The factory was angry,
the customer was angry and no one was really satisfied, including me!
Look
at your present career situation. Are there individuals, issues or programs you
have been unwilling to address? Or on a personal note, are there troubles or loving
relationships that need more of your nurturing? Ed Oakley and Doug Krug point
out a significant understanding. They write, “Though we may not always be able
to choose the circumstances ourselves, we can choose how we respond to
them. We have a choice every moment of every day about how we look at
circumstances, about what attitude we will have in reference to them. Though it
may not always be easy in difficult situations to maintain the most effective
attitude, or respond effectively, we do have the choice.” One of the
duties of leadership is to bring out the best in others, and that includes
ourselves. We are at our best when we are willing to cross the river by
changing the things we do or how we think!
So
what if you are now facing a raging river at its widest possible point?
No situation is totally hopeless. We can’t always start over but we can start
from where we are now! The river never gets too wide to cross it if we are
willing to pay the price. However, instead of crossing the river with
one step, it may require building a bridge of steel and concrete. It may not be
easy to solve a complex problem or heal a gaping personal wound, but if we take
a new direction…tomorrow will be slightly better than today! It may take
more time, investment and effort but starting from where we are now is
better than not starting at all. Remember my earlier comment about the Supreme
Court of the United States. A political powder keg had come before them because
a broad lack of political leadership had allowed it to get to the point of last
resort. They had a difficult and potentially divisive decision to make among
themselves. They couldn’t start over again but they could start from where they
were! They paid the price and crossed the river. The legal constitutional
fallout may haunt our nation for many years to come, but they were willing
to pay the price.
In
conclusion, as leaders we all have a tendency to become distracted by seemingly
urgent problems and to dismiss other problems or situations as trivial and
unimportant. We tend to travel down one side of the river stream in a fixed
direction because it is comfortable and we are all creatures of habit. But the
farther we travel down one side of a river, the more likely we are to continue
on that side. Don’t forget…the time to cross a river is before it
gets too wide!
Comments to: gthomas@leadingtoday.org
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About
the author:
Greg has over 25
years of sales and marketing experience within the electrical manufacturing
industry. Some of his positions have included being a National Sales Manager,
National Marketing Manager and Regional Sales Manager. He also has an extensive 35 years experience
in public speaking and has written articles for various publications. Greg has
a Master of Arts degree in Leadership from Bellevue University, where he has
served as an adjunct professor. He is the founder of weLEAD Incorporated, a
nonprofit organization chartered to promote personal and organizational
leadership. Greg's personal site is located at http://www.greglthomas.info
References:
Gibbs, Nancy. (December 10, 2000).
Before honor comes humility, Proverbs says, and last week seemed designed to
bring everyone to their knees. Time.Com
Lowell, James Russell.
(1925). The Complete Poetical Works Of James Russell Lowell: Cambridge Edition.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Oakley, Ed & Krug,
Doug, (1994). Enlightened Leadership – Getting to the Heart of Change.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster.