I did something remarkably stupid the other day.
It was so ridiculous I can’t believe I not only did this, but also that I’m about to tell you about it.
I had just completed a 10k run along Okanagan Lake, and returned home feeling great. I went to the freezer to get ice to put in a glass of water and was confronted with a left-over ice cream birthday cake from Dairy Queen.
I ate it. I ate it ALL.
I sat down on my deck, admiring the view of where I had just run, and ate a thick slice of ice cream cake.
As I wiped the last bit of chocolate icing from my chin, it was only then that I paused to consider the absurdity of the situation. Here I had done something reasonably healthy in completing a good run, and had basically nullified its effectiveness by wolfing down a million calories and a boat-load of fat from this ice cream cake.
Now, at the risk of hammering an illustration pretty hard, I think we sometimes do this in our leadership. I’ll call this the Ice Cream Cake Syndrome.
I’ve noticed, for example, that a lot of people attend The Leadership Summit every year, get all fired up about their leadership, but immediately afterwards put their conference binders on the shelf, never to refer to them again. They then plow back in to the grind of daily life.
It’s kinda like eating ice cream cake after a run. By not paying attention to ongoing leadership development, it nullifies a lot of the benefit of the Summit experience itself.
At a recent gathering of our Summit host pastors from across Canada we asked them how they place the Summit in the context of an ongoing leadership development plan. Check out their answers in this 2 minute video and see if it sparks some ideas for you.
Let me know how you develop your own ongoing leadership development plan and I’ll share these with other leaders. And let’s commit to avoiding the Ice Cream Cake Syndrome!
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