A CALL FOR MORE DEEP LEADERS

I was sailing with a few friends in the San Francisco Bay a few years ago with the intent to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the open seas. Before reaching the iconic bridge, suddenly a huge gust of wind hit our sails and we heeled over so far the water was rushing into the cockpit. It felt like we were going over.

Until we didn't.

A sailboat is designed to have more weight below the waterline than above it. Thank you, keel. That huge "weight" attached to the bottom of the boat is what provides a counterbalance to the force of the wind. It takes an uncanny amount of wind to knock a sailboat completely over. And even then it can often right itself. More weight below the waterline. That's called ballast.

Richard Foster, one of the great spiritual writers and teachers of the 20th century, made this statement (quoted in my book "The Strategic Stop: Taking Back Your life in a World Obsessed with Busyness").

“The desperate need today is not for a great number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

He's referring to the importance of paying more attention to what is "below the waterline" of our lives than to what's above. His call is for leaders to intentionalize personal development, character depth, integrity, wisdom; rather than a mono-focus on the things people can see--the outward appearance. We create more ballast and internal weight with this strategic focus.

Our positive impact on the people around us--our teams and peers, our families and friends--is directly determined by our personal ballast and depth.

Character. Wisdom. Vision. Integrity. Honesty. Compassion. Kindness. Empathy. Courage. Persistence. Authenticity. These are developed first on the inside and then revealed on the outside.

What practices do you engage in regularly to deepen your internal world, your character and authentic self?

Your Character is Your Competitive Advantage

Character matters. It’s what I call soul ballast.

In sailing, ballast (weight with its corresponding stability) is created by a very heavy keel attached to the bottom of the boat. For stability in heavy winds and waters the boat must have more weight below the waterline than above the waterline.

Why does this matter? I ran across a powerful statement by AdamGrant, organizational psychologist at Wharton Business School, as he refers to the importance of leadership character in today’s world:

“As we strive to overcome a global pandemic and an economic recession, the character of leaders will matter as much as their competence. In 2021, servant leadership will be a competitive advantage, giving [those leaders] an edge in recruiting, motivating and retaining talented people.”

It’s what people cannot always see that matters more than what people can see. Character depth. Soul ballast. The leaders that prioritize personal and professional ballast are the leaders that have a loyal following at work and at home. Those that don’t, as sailors say, are recklessly courting disaster.

Michael Plant and the Importance of Ballast

As you know by now, I love sailing!  And this sailing story caught my attention.  In the autumn of 1992, Michael Plant, a popular American sailor, set out on a solo crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean from the United States to France.  He was an expert who had circumnavigated the globe alone more than once.  And his midsized sailboat, the Coyote, was state of the art constructed and equipped, from hull to mast to sails to navigational and electronic equipment.  As far as colleagues and friends and family were concerned, Michael Plant had everything necessary to achieve success on his voyage. Eleven days into the trip, all contact with him was lost.  A massive search was launched.  Days went by – no sightings, no radio contact, nothing, even from his top of the line emergency position-indicating radio beacon.  And then the news that no one had ever expected:  the Coyote was found, floating upside down, 450 miles northwest of the Azores Islands.  No sign of Plant, relayed the crew of a freighter who had made the discovery.

The sailing community was surprised that the sailboat was discovered upside down in the water.  Sailboats don’t normally capsize.  They’re built to take the most vigorous pounding a sea can offer, and even when knocked over on its side or even upside down, they naturally right themselves.  Why this anomaly?

Sailboats are designed for maximum stability in strong winds by having more weight below the waterline.  That’s one of the purposes of the keel.  Alter that ratio and strong wind poses a serious threat.  So when the Coyote was built, an eight thousand pound weight was bolted to the keel in order to provide far more weight than even normal below the waterline.  That amount of ballast should assure stability.

But when the Coyote was discovered on that fateful day, the four-ton weight on the keel was missing.  Obviously then the boat’s stability had been seriously compromised.  So the first wave or wind of any magnitude became the probable deathblow.  And a very capable, experienced and much admired yachtsman lost at sea.

Not enough weight below the waterline.  A storm blows.  Life lost.

In a culture that puts so much emphasis on what people can see rather than on what can’t been seen, is it any wonder that so much personal instability results?  We worry more about what we wear, what we drive, what we live in, what we possess (money, wealth, power, position), than about what’s on the inside (character, spirit, heart issues).  So when the storms of life blow (and they always do at some point), we don’t have the necessary ballast to ride it out safely.  We become compromised.  We fold.  We capsize, and sometimes don’t recover.  At best, we simply live life trying to survive and function at minimum capacity, as opposed to really living and flourishing and being fulfilled at every level.  Sailboats need heavy ballast to perform well.  And so do we humans.

I'm looking forward to continuing this blog's conversation about what developing soul ballast looks like on practical levels and in tangible ways.  What are you finding that works effectively for you?