Leadership Lessons Raising a Guide Dog Puppy

“A blind bloke walks into a shop with a guide dog. He picks the dog up and starts swinging it around his head. Alarmed, a shop assistant calls out: “Can I help, sir?” “No thanks,” says the blind bloke. “Just looking.”

Tommy Cooper

As a long-time puppy raiser with a great organization called Guide Dogs of America (we have done a total of 5 puppies), we are well aware of the volunteer cycle.

You get a new puppy at about 8 weeks old and say goodbye for their technical training when they are a bit more mature at about 16-18 months old.  It is at this point they begin their formal training as they climb the goal ladder to hopefully become a guide dog for someone with a sight disability.

Formal training takes about four to six months (or longer if the Guide Dogs of American professional trainers see promise). There is no visiting during this time but the volunteer puppy raiser family can call to see how their puppy is doing while in training. The ultimate reward for the puppy raisers is to meet the blind recipient of the dog they raised at the Awards Ceremony where they hand the harness to them to begin their new life together.

I guess the question most frequently asked of us as others see us with our guide dog puppy is, “how hard is it to say goodbye?”  As William Bridges suggested about life transitions, we all move through three stages: 1) Endings (saying goodbye); 2) Changes (exploration); and 3) New Beginnings (moving forward).

Our latest puppy Indy has been a wonderful symbol for the coaching and talent development work that I do as all of us from time to time truly needs a “guide dog” to help us see ourselves and our world more clearly.  What helps us cope with saying goodbye is keeping the goal ladder of success for what we are doing along his journey to become a partner with someone who will rely on his training and skills to do the very things each day that many of take for granted.

Indy has offered to me many lessons that are useful and practical for leaders and talent at levels of organizations.  Saying “goodbye” has made me reflect on how we all move ahead on the “goal ladder of success” and his journey ahead certainly will be inspirational to me.

Here are some suggestions for moving up the goal ladder of success:

1. Focus on the Long Term

The “best of the best” have a long-term focus but certainly celebrate short term accomplishments ((Jones, G. (2008).  How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better.  Harvard Business Review)).   Doing so allows you to cope with minor set backs and defeats and focuses where the end of your journey might take you.  With Indy, we have always kept our “eye on the prize” of becoming a guide dog.

2. Focus on Becoming Better, Rather Than, Just Winning

Previous research suggests that when people hold learning goals to increase their competence and skills they seek more challenges than when they hold performance goals to master their performance ((Dweck, C & Leggett, E. (1988).  A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality.  Psychological Review, 95, 256-273)).  “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” is a well-known quote in sports but those who focus on the journey seem to be even more motivated.

3. It Takes Two to Know One

To become good or the “best of the best” you have t be open to constant “feedforward” so that you leverage what you do well and make sure you sharpen the skills in your “blind spots.”  Insight is a gift but without feedback from others and an openness to solicit it and truly try to understand and accept it, you will always need a guide dog along the road of life.  Asking what I can do more, less or differently from those we love and respect at work and home will help us to grow and develop to become as successful as our genetic set-points will allow us to be.

4. (Deliberate) Practice Makes Better

There is a lot of popular writing about how practice makes the difference between being an expert versus having expertise (e.g., 10,000 hours).  However, recent research tends to suggest that expert performance isn’t solely a reflection of deliberate practice but dependent on the possession of certain base line abilities ((Meinz, E. & Hambrick, D. (2010).  Deliberate Practice Is Necessary but Not Sufficient to Explain Individual Differences in Piano Sight-Reading Skill The Role of Working Memory Capacity.  Psychological Science, 21, 914-919)).  I can’t tell you how many times we have practiced the basic commands (e.g., sit, down, wait, etc.) with Indy but watching his brothers and sisters at our puppy raiser classes always gave us a glimpse of his genetic DNA.

5. If You Want to Facilitate Success as a Coach, Focus on the Activities in the Goal Ladder that Have Not Been Done

Focusing on remaining tasks/actions influences the success of moving up the goal ladder compared to celebrating actions that have been completed.  In two studies the authors found support for this hypothesis and found that a focus on completed actions increase satisfaction derived from the present level that one is at but not that helpful to move to the next level ((Koo, M. & Fishback, A. (2010). Climbing the social ladder: How upcoming actions increase level of aspiration.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1-13)).

Monitoring remaining actions signals a need for future progress–people feel more committed and have a higher level of aspiration to achieve more.  In contrast, focusing on completed activities signals that the current goal was important but those who do seem to express a lower interest in advancing to a higher level of goal pursuit. Progress oriented people want to move up and ahead in their life and careers and tend to increase the level of challenge, rather than, receive external rewards and disengage from the goal.

I already miss Indy but will always remember what he taught me and how he helped enlighten my life….I will keep you posted about how he does with his formal training over the next few months on his journey to become the change for someone special who will rely on his training and skills that we a very small role in shaping.

Note to Indy: If you avoid stealing socks on the floor, I think you will graduate and become a great guide dog…Be well….

 

Ken Nowack

Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)