My Battle with a Tractor: Tools Make the Job
Yesterday I wrestled our garden tractor into submission. She almost pinned me until I called a friend for help. There’s always one nut or bolt that laughs when you try to loosen it.
Joe had the impact driver I needed. He offered to come help, but I refused. When you’re in a battle of pride, winning with another’s assistance is defeat. But borrowing tools is acceptable humility.
The old girl trembled when she saw the glint in my eye. She surrendered when the red Milwaukee cordless impact driver spun into action. Just the sound made our 17-year-old Craftsman riding mower shiver. Success came in the time it took to pull the trigger. My wife mowed the grass after dinner.
Tools make the job:
Skills are tools.
Skills are learned. The beautiful thing about skills is anyone can learn them. Lousy communicators learn to provide clarity. Think of kindness, gratitude, and humility as skills. They can be learned.
Skills, used well, are the only way stuff gets done.
Skills get in the way when they don’t fit. The first law of the instrument is we tend to overuse familiar tools.
A Phillips screwhead mocks a flathead screwdriver. Fixing a garden tractor’s drivebelt isn’t the same as replacing a well pump. Stay humble after success. You can always learn new skills.
Abraham Kaplan said, “Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.”
Skills are often acquired through others. You learn to use body language to indicate you’re listening by seeing a skillful listener do it.
Notice people who achieve things you aspire to. What are they doing that produces results? Find ways to emulate their skills. Let yourself feel like a fraud when you pick up new tools.
What skills are most important for leaders today?
What leadership tools do you love using?
Still curious:
The Skill Leaders Neglect to Their Peril
7 Ways to Master the Most Important Leadership Skill
A little book about humility.
John David Mann and I give readers an opportunity for structured self-reflection in our new book, The Vagrant. There’s hope for you if you occasionally see yourself in the story.
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Dan a good leader also knows when to rest and refuel their mental and physical energy. Thus your wife mowed the grass!
Great, fun and helpful post.
Brad
Brad, she loves mowing the grass. I think she’d be mad if I did it. Thanks for the good word. Heres to a great weekend.
“Notice people who achieve things you aspire to. What are they doing that produces results? Find ways to emulate their skills. Let yourself feel like a fraud when you pick up new tools.” – Can you tell me more about the last sentence? I’m puzzled by it.
Thanks for asking, Julie. When we try on new behaviors sometimes we feel like a fake. New behaviors are like new jeans, a little uncomfortable.
I started using questions that included language of “on a scale of 1 to 10,” because my coach used it. I felt uncomfortable for a while. It doesn’t feel natural. As time passed, it fit like old jeans.
Sometimes we don’t grow because we won’t tolerate the awkwardness of new behaviors. Hope that helps.
Love the imagery of the shivering lawnmower. Accepting and offering help, observing and emulating positive skills and modeling them for others. All in all a nice summary of the leadership/coaching dance. Thank you.
Thank you Robin. I learned about giving life-like qualities to inanimate objects from EB White’s his way as ascribing human qualities to animals.
Recognizing when cultural norms in communication are shifting is an important but difficult skill to practice. The use of outdated metaphors is a common trap. The tractor story is a good example. It is becoming less acceptable to refer to inanimate objects as “she”, particularly when paired with words like “surrender” and “shiver”. Many women in the work force deal with some level of discrimination and occasional blatant misogyny. The use of mildly condescending language will generally illicit a mental eye roll, and possibly a reduction in trust of the leader delivering the message along with missing the intent of the story. Change the tractor to an “it” or “beast”, and the story works for everyone.
Great point, J. Thanks for jumping.
What skills are most important for leaders today?
1. Diagnostic Skills–being able to read the room, collect the relevant data, determine what’s working well and the major problems as well as finding out what people are thinking and feeling.
2. Providing the right amount of what’s needed. Too much coaching is as bad as too little. The same “too much–too little idea” applies to communicating, delegating, providing feedback, and establishing rules.
Love the too much – too little idea. So true. Too much help and people return to infanthood. Too little help they disengage.
Love your story about wrestling with the garden tractor! Having the right tools can totally make all the difference in getting the job done. And the analogy of skills being like tools is spot on – they’re something we can learn and develop over time. Staying humble and open to learning new skills is key, even after achieving success.
So glad you added the “H” word, Donna. A person who knows can’t grow.