{"id":8324,"date":"2025-02-27T20:38:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T02:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/?p=8324"},"modified":"2025-02-27T20:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T02:38:20","slug":"stop-drifting-a-line-in-the-sand-can-make-all-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/stop-drifting-a-line-in-the-sand-can-make-all-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Drifting- A Line in the Sand Can Make All the Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If your leadership values haven’t caused you some pain or discomfort, they may not be values. They might just be good ideas. A value doesn’t become an integral part of your leadership until you’ve drawn a line in the sand.<\/span><\/h3>\n

A line in the sand where your core values intersect with tangible leadership situations.<\/p>\n

Several years ago I was called in to help turn around a non-profit organization which had been in a financial tailspin.<\/p>\n

About three months into this journey the Chief Financial Officer came into my office and delivered some very bad news. \u201cScott, it looks as though we\u2019re not going to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that there was not enough money on hand to meet the next payroll. At the point where an organization misses payroll, you are basically finished.<\/p>\n

I asked him for options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he began, \u201cWe are sitting on a trust fund containing more than enough money. To be clear, it\u2019s not our money, but we do have access to it. If we were convinced that things would turn around, and that we\u2019d be able to replace those funds later, we could dip into that account and cover our shortfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie to you. This was tempting.<\/p>\n

But then, almost in unison, the C.F.O. and I said, \u201cWait, what are we doing? This goes against everything you and I believe in. No, we won\u2019t violate our principles and use funds that are not really ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

This encounter had reminded us of three vital \u201cline in the sand\u201d leadership truths.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0A line in the sand must be drawn before you need it.<\/h3>\n

When you\u2019re in a moral dilemma it\u2019s too late to start figuring out your principles.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0A line in the sand must be shared.<\/h3>\n

Being able to say, \u201cI won\u2019t cross that line\u201d is good. But it\u2019s nothing like the power of an entire team saying, \u201cWE won\u2019t cross that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0A line in the sand must be absolute.<\/h3>\n

A line in the sand must be peppered with words like \u201calways\u201d (\u201cWe will\u00a0always\u2026\u201d) and \u201cnever\u201d (\u201cWe will never\u2026\u201d). Not \u201csometimes\u201d or \u201cusually\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, the following week an unexpected donation arrived which covered our shortfall, and the turnaround went on to be a success.<\/p>\n

But maybe more important than salvaging the organization was the satisfaction of maintaining our own integrity.<\/p>\n

Do you have clear core values? Good. Now, put them to work in real-life situations.<\/p>\n

It starts by drawing a line in the sand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your leadership values haven’t caused you some pain or discomfort, they may not be values. They might just be good ideas. A value doesn’t become an integral part of your leadership until you’ve drawn a line in the sand. A line in the sand where your core values intersect with tangible leadership situations. Several…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1015,1018,1016,7,704],"tags":[984,825],"class_list":["post-8324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-character","category-decisions","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-value","tag-leadership","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8324"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8327,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8324\/revisions\/8327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}