"A Crock Full of Green Sweet Pickles and Leadership Principles"

"A Crock Full of Green Sweet Pickles and Leadership Principles"
Darrel L. Hammon

I recently resurrected my mother’s famous green sweet pickle recipe and made some! Along the way, I realized that making these pickles is a lot like some principles of leadership. So I had to ask, “What does making a crock full of pickles have to do with leadership?”

It’s about change—I remembered how good those pickles were when I was a kid. When my mother passed away, the making of the pickles died with her. I decided I wanted pickles, so I had to change the “woe-is-me-my-mother-is-dead-and-no-one-can-make-her-green-sweet-pickles-ever-again” attitude. I just pivoted and decided to resurrect the making of her famous pickles. Change and pivoting happen all the time, and we must be prepared for it when it happens or when we strive to make it happen.

It’s about reading a recipe of time past and revising it to meet the needs of today—My mother loved to write in cursive as do I, but her cursive at the time she was writing was a bit hard to read. I spent some time trying to decipher what she meant. Yes, I had to go out for a “consult” with my sister to make sure I knew what her actual directions were. It’s not a terrible thing to reach out to others, particularly experts to help us along the way. The overall outcome was better than I thought it was going to be. I was prepared for disaster, and, thankfully, it didn’t happen.

 It’s about reading between the lines—My mother’s recipe has specific things that she used to do to make the pickles. But because she knew exactly what to do, she left out a few important steps that I had to improvise and review. Plus, I had to reach out to my sister for another “consult” to make sure I was on the right track. Many times, we know what needs to be done, but we also have to read between the lines to make sure we create a holistic process or view of what we ultimately want to happen.

It’s about patience—Washing, soaking, cutting, washing, soaking, and even more soaking for almost 30 days. More often than not, we have to have patience as we wait for something to mature or allow our creativity to take shape within our organization. Success doesn’t happen immediately. It takes time and lots of patience.

It’s about scraping off the mold—At one point in the pickle-making process, I had to scrape off a little mold that had begun to grow on top of the wooden lid into the water. While the mold looked yucky and terrifyingly gross, the mold didn’t affect the ultimate outcome. Rather, it made me trust the process my mother began almost 60 years ago and understand that scraping mold was just part of the process. Processes that don’t work sometimes surface and need to be scraped off, changed, revised, and even tossed for our successful movement forward to continue.

It’s about appreciating the past and working toward the future—I appreciated that my mother had introduced me to her famous pickles years ago. While her pickles went away when she died, that didn’t stop me from looking to the future and how I was going to make those same pickles again with maybe a bit of difference. I knew she could do it, and she taught me that I could do things, too. I guess the strategic planning formula of P + F = PR (Past + the Future = the Present) works to create success.

It’s about adding a bit of food coloring—My mother always added green food coloring to her famous green sweet pickles. I decided to do the same, only I didn’t add as much. Amazingly, they tasted the same, but they looked great in the bottles. Often, we have to insert a bit of coloring into the mix to make it look good and maybe a bit prettier, but this doesn’t change the overall outcome.

It’s about taking something from its natural state and creating something incredible—Many people don’t like cucumbers (a.k.a. “cukes”). I grew cukes, nurtured and harvested them, cut them up, let them soak for weeks in a brine mixture, and then made these delicious green sweet pickles with a tinge of tanginess. It was wonderful to watch the transformation of common cukes into something uncommon and delicious in its own way. Our organizations can grow the same way as we nurture them along and turn them into something that is possibly even better.

Next time you want to make pickles or anything, think about how it relates to your leadership and how you are transitioning, creating, and pivoting along the way.

 

Learn to Grow Where You Are Planted

I have lived in a few places in my life--Idaho, Chile, Montana, Wyoming, Dominican Republic, California, and Utah.

I have discovered that no matter where you are planted, you can grow and bloom!

It was tough to grow things in Montana and Wyoming. That wind in southeastern Wyoming is perfect for wind energy, but for growing tomatoes, raspberries, and corn, it was downright challenging. Thankfully, there were some farmers who had mastered the art of growing edible things in these parts of the world.

You just need to discover where the nutrients and resources are and then tap into them and learn how to use them albeit judiciously.

That means you have to get out of your comfort zone and determine where those resources are.

They may be your next-door neighbor--yes, you probably ought to knock on their door and introduce yourself. They could be at your new church congregation. They are probably definitely at your place of work, maybe in the next cubicle or on your next Zoom call. They may even be lurking at your local library.

Tapping resources reminds me of growing sunflowers. They grow almost anywhere. The amazing thing is that their beautiful heads follow the source--the resource, if you will--all day long. As you them during the day, their glorious heads follow the sun. I never tire of watching them grow and just become something magnificent.

Once you do that, you will be able to flourish even more! That's the beauty of it. So, learn to grow where you are planted.

#work #energy #beauty #art #leadership #understandingyourself #choicesmatter #becoming #lifecoaching

Pivoting to a New View and Perspective

Pivoting to a New View and Perspective"
Darrel L. Hammon
July 2022

The word pivot can be both a noun and a verb. When I was growing up in Idaho, home to probably the best potatoes on the planet, many potato farmers began to expand their farms and convert large chunks of land into huge potato fields as well as a host of other crops. They needed a way to control water irrigation of these large tracts. Thus, the “pivot” was invented to create a mechanized way to manage a consistent irrigation pattern that could irrigate hundreds of acres at a time, thus increasing their production to feed the growing number of people in the world.

This “pivot” monumentally changed the way farmers irrigated potatoes and other crops in their ever-growing production chain. Now, instead of scratching their heads and fretting about consistent irrigation methods, they could irrigate thousands of acres of crops by installing massive pivots throughout their farms and grow enormous amounts of hay, grain, potatoes, beans, corn, and a host of other crops that feed the world. They did all this by planting pivots and learning to pivot in a variety of ways.

In my younger days, I loved to play basketball. I learned the hard way that you cannot hold the ball and move both feet around. It’s called “traveling,” and you have to give up the ball to the other team, thus losing possession of the ball. To be able to move around while holding the ball, you must keep one foot—the pivot foot—planted on the floor while you moved the other foot, which can pivot around in any direction.

In our lives, we experience some of these same challenges, perhaps more similar than we can imagine. We, too, stare out into our fields of dreams and wonder how we are going to make our dreams grow and come to great and life-changing fruition. Repeatedly, then, we need to plant a pivot in our lives so we can pivot to make the changes, hopefully in a direction that we need to so we can improve and enhance our lives.

So, how do we pivot in life? Let’s discuss six principles of pivoting.

Pivoting is merely learning how to make changes in our life.

Often, we suffer from the paralysis of doing something different. We feel comfortable in what we are doing, but we don’t like what we are doing. We feel stagnant in our jobs and/or our lives. But the thought of change frightens us. What we must understand is that pivoting simply means that we make incremental changes. Changes don’t have to be giant steps to one side or the other. Rather, they just need to be big enough to move us in a different direction. Thus, we pivot to a new direction, a new view.

Pivoting does not mean you are quitting.

Frequently, when we find ourselves in a situation that we need to change, we believe we have to quit our job, whatever we are doing at the moment, or the direction we are going. Sometimes we do have to stop what we are doing and contemplate our next move. More often than not, it is merely pivoting in a different direction. We don’t necessarily have to quit, just pivot.

Pivoting requires foresight mixed with hindsight.

One of the equations in strategic planning is F +P = PR (Future + Past = Present). We need to know where we have been, know where we want to go, and that decision becomes our present. Once we know where we are going, pivoting comes into play, so, we pivot to where we want to go. The amazing part of pivoting is that even a slight pivot can change our direction and give us a new perspective and view because we see things differently, thus helping us see the future more clearly.

Pivoting is a natural way of changing directions.

Throughout our lives, we have always had to pivot in some way. I started first grade in the same house and lived there until I was 19 years old. For the first three grades, I went to one school. For 4th through 6th, I went to another school and a brand-new school for the later part of 6th grade; for 7th-8th grade, I traveled seven miles to another school; for 9th grade, I attended a different school; and then for 10th through my senior year, I traveled seven miles in a different direction—all the time living in the same house. I had to pivot every school year. Granted, many of the same students did the same thing. Sometimes, we went to a different city, and students from other communities joined us. Environments changed; some friends changed. Pivoting happened almost daily. Then, when I was 19, I served a mission for my Church in southern Chile, thousands of miles from my home in Menan, Idaho. Population 596. Talk about a major pivot for two years—a new language, new culture, new country, new friends, new food, and big black boots for the rain. Pivoting is what we all have done throughout our lives. It’s just what we do.

Pivoting allows you to see life in 360-degree mode.

The best part of pivoting is that we can ultimately see ourselves and the world in 360-degree mode if we choose. Seeing our lives in 360-degree mode may be highly influencing, enlightening, and refreshing. Seeing the 360-degree mode allows us to become more holistic so we can see and feel the whole view, not the narrow focus that disallows us to be in tune with everything around us. We must see all to be able to see ourselves in the true light, our own best selves.

Pivoting can be pivotal in your life.

Pivoting periodically in our lives can produce the results we have always desired. It is essential that we pivot. If we are not progressing and growing, we are retrogressing. There really isn’t such a thing as stagnation. Each pivot can be a pivotal step in our lives. Even members of our team can pivot and help us see differently and gain a new perspective. Together, we can learn to change. We can change to become what we desire to become. Pivoting will change our lives and our organizations for the best if we choose well and positively change our future.

Sometimes you have to pivot to capture a better view and position yourself for the success you want and deserve. Don’t hesitate. Begin pivoting now!