Searching For Praxis - part #4

Remember That We Are Home To Each Other

We were sitting in his office after a long strategic planning meeting. In particular, we were reviewing the initial draft of possible strategic choices when he paused, put down his notes, and said to me: “I went to a funeral last week.”

“Oh,” I replied. “I am sorry for your loss.”

He paused again, and continued: “One of our employees lost their sister in a tragic accident. I’ve known this employee for many years. We do not visit often, but enough that our relationship was more than just superficial. When I got back to my office after hearing of her loss, I just sat down in this chair and thought to myself, ‘What if I lost one of my siblings? How would I want my company to respond to this news?’. I just sat here quietly and realized that my siblings are very important in my life. We have history. We are family. Their presence means a lot to me. 

So, I cleared my calendar and went to the funeral. I sat in the back by myself. I didn’t want this choice to be about the CEO showing up at the funeral. I just wanted my choice to reflect my values. I wanted her to know I cared. It mattered. This was important. 

Other people came from her department. They sat together and grieved with her before and afterwards. They were her circle of immediate support along with her family and friends. 

When it was my turn to greet her, and the family in the receiving line, I tried to shake her hand and say ‘I am sorry for your loss,’ but she just hugged me and said ‘thank-you for coming. This means a lot to me.’  

On my drive home, I realized that this choice was the right choice. I didn’t do it, because I was the CEO. It also was not some sort of symbolic gesture on my part and that it would be good for the company. I just did it because it was the right thing to do. 

No matter where we work and what our job title is, we need to stand with each other through the good times and the hard times. We need to be present. We need to show up. 

It’s been a week now, and I am glad I went. It reminds me to focus on what is important, not just what is pressing.”

“Thank-you for sharing this with me,” I responded. “When we act from our own personal nexus and then choose a path to move forward, we discover a core that does not change. We also discover a legacy perspective that is greater than just situational awareness. We come to understand that we are all in this together, and in the end, we are all moving in the same direction.” 

As Father Gregory Boyle reminds us: “We don’t just walk each other home to wholeness; we are home to each other.” When we find our wholeness on the path, we can help others to do likewise. And this makes a profound difference in the lives of all involved. 

Serve The Force That Sent You Into The World

Rather than solely rely on the past to interpret the future, these people who are dedicated to the practice of leading well, relied on the nexus of their lives and the lessons learned on the praxis to find, experience and share the wisdom learned and wisdom experienced. They did not do it for a reward, but instead saw it as a responsibility. They grasped the importance of service, and the depth of meaning found by serving others. They understood that the quality of their inner life had direct, outer implications and consequences to the way they lived, and engaged with others. 

Therefore, they routinely created time for quiet discernment and reflection. They choose to listen to others, and to learn from others. They realized that it is not what we see, but how we see it that transforms our lives, and our praxis. 

As the Dalai Lama reminds us, “I am one of eight billion people.” But even though I am one of eight billion, when I find my praxis, I discover something special, the capacity to be both centered and grounded, moving and still, connected and transcendent. 

From this place, I then grasp why I am here. “The meaning of life,” writes Leo Tolstoy, “is to serve the force that sent you into the world.” Thus, I serve. I role model. I make a difference. I do my best each and every day. And I remember that this life is a gift. This praxis also is an opportunity to serve, and for that I am humbly grateful to be here and now. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Searching For Praxis - part #3

Choose Empathy, Compassion, And Loving Kindness

Another element of the praxis is to understand, and then choose to live and lead with empathy, compassion, and loving kindness. Over many decades of doing this work, the leaders I have admired the most in my career have been the ones who have role modeled empathy, compassion, and loving kindness. This choice did not mean that they didn’t make hard and complicated decisions. It’s just that they did not strip people of their dignity in the process of making difficult or complex decisions, and they did not act in a disrespectful manner when people were struggling as these decisions, strategic or operational, were executed. They also did not tolerate anyone who choose to act in an inappropriate, or disrespectful manner with others. 

Yet, within this important choice about how to lead, is an element often missed by many people. In order to lead and role model empathy, compassion, and loving kindness, these amazing leaders embrace the journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning. They recognize that outer behaviors always reflect the inner journey. They recognize that this in-depth work takes great courage, because it requires us to routinely re-evaluate our world view and to expand our world view. It requires us to look in the mirror and out the window, referencing the work of Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don’t, (HarperBusiness, 2001). 

At the same time, and because of this combination of learning, unlearning, and relearning, they gain in-depth self-knowledge which helps them be more fully present and focused when engaging with others. For in the end, these leaders understand that translating an intangible into a tangible begins with the connections we make. And it is these connections that generate the trust and the capacity to rise to the seen and unseen problems that surface each and every day. 

But, there is another element to their choice. These amazing leaders recognize that given current events and the constant rapidly changing adaptive environment that we find ourselves in each and every day, many people react by trying to move at hyper speed. The outcome of this choice is typically two fold. First, they become hyper vigilant and perceive everything and everyone as a threat. Second, they give everyone and every thing their partial attention. As a result, they miss many key elements, and many bits of information. 

However, these amazing leaders, who walk the praxis in a thoughtful manner, do not do this. Instead of choosing hyper vigilance or partial attention, they seek hyper depth in their connections and in their understanding. Because they are constantly choosing to learn, unlearning, and relearn, they do not default to just know about issues, ideas, or people. Instead, they seek depth and understanding. In essence, they focus on the hidden wholeness, rather than the default choose of living, leading and working from a place of inner and outer fragmentation. And because they do this, the integrity of their empathy, compassion, and loving kindness is true and heart felt. People always  notice this, and respond accordingly. The praxis they walk is both the path and the destination when this happens. 

To be continued tomorrow. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Searching For Praxis - part #2

Face The Current Reality 

When we step back right now, and look at the larger picture, many people and teams are struggling to maintain a sense of commitment and love for the work they are doing. They have lost touch with the praxis and with the nexus. I know this, because many have shared with me that they feel a sense of isolation in their life at work, and at home. They also feel the weight of difficult decisions that need to be made, often with incomplete information, and having few opportunities to talk with others who understand the challenges of making these kinds of decisions. The result is a rise of cynicism and despair that is crowding out any sense of optimism and hope for how to move forward. 

I think this problem reflects the convergence of two elements, creating what Thomas Beech, former CEO of the Fetzer Institute, called chronic sincerity. One element is being “overwhelmed with the seriousness, the weight, the importance of my work” and, at the exact same time, being “convinced that I alone carry the responsibility to make all things right,” i.e. a default to thinking that perfection is the solution to all problems, and that I am the only one who can create the perfect solution. I believe this is a common problem for people who care deeply about the mission of their organization, and about the people they work with each and every day. From my perspective, chronic sincerity reflects a loss of understanding that the fulfillment of the mission is a commitment to a collective process, not something that is going to happen because of an individual effort. 

Given this reality, I believe we need to commit to gaining greater perspective, and investing more time in reflection and renewal. These three elements, perspective, reflection, and renewal, are critical choices one can make along the praxis. Furthermore, the discipline to continually choose these three elements generates faith, courage, and perseverance. Then, the praxis becomes a path of hope and optimism. 

Nevertheless, it takes great courage to lead and to manage the known and unknowns of our current reality. It also takes courage to face reality, and to acknowledge that some days just “suck.” It is hard to keep moving forward when the problems keep expanding and the solutions feel nearly impossible to find or create. 

Often now, I meet more and more people who are consumed by the inputs of their life, namely meetings, people, problems, news alerts, text messages, and e-mail. It’s a daily, if not hourly, tsunami of information, all calling for their time and attention. In particular, I hear it when they tell me: “I spend all my time doing paperwork,” and “I don’t get enough time with my direct reports or the people we serve.” They also share: “I don’t get enough time with my family,” or “I am not getting paid enough for all the stress this creates in my life.” The outcome of all these statements is best summarized by this statement: “I just feel drained, empty, and defeated by it all.” Thus, my call for the importance of perspective, reflection, and renewal seems idealistic, if not a comically absurd choice in a world that feels burdensome and cumbersome. 

Furthermore, when people are in pain, confusion, and feeling powerless, the message they hear, consciously or unconsciously from others and the message they give to themselves is “get your act together and all will be well.” The reality is that we can’t always get our act together, because we don’t even know what our “act” is, let alone where to find it. This is why perspective, reflection, and renewal are so important. For by choosing these three things, we can create the time and space to find our act and come to understand our act, i.e. we understand ourselves, and we understand our own inner, hidden wholeness. 

Our work as leaders has always been holistic and organic more than it has been mechanical engineering. We are in the business of creating outcomes and relationships, not just outcomes and getting more things done. For being “done” implies a termination and/or a conclusion rather than an on-going and holistic evolution and transformation. We need to understand and remember that our wholeness is always changing, growing and evolving. It is never a static equilibrium with no ongoing movement or motion. In short, our personal praxis and our collective praxis are interconnected, and each has the potential to strengthen the other. 

Create A Circle Of Trust

However, if we want this to happen, we need to enter into dialogue about the inner life of our being, and the outer life of our doing, which is another vital part of the praxis. In order to do this, we need to find our people, and to gather with them in a circle of trust, respect, and listening. We do this not to be fixed, but instead to acknowledge where we are broken, and where we need to re-center our life in order to reclaim and maintain our hidden wholeness. For as we do this, we understand the timeless wisdom that Gandhi shared: “As I change, the world around me changes.” And right now, we need to change ourselves in order to change the world. 

Still, as Fr. Bruno Barnhart reminds us, “We humans prefer a manageable complexity to an unmanageable simplicity.” The praxis to changing our lives requires us to create a circle of trust, and then to step into it. I was reminded of how hard this is for many people when I read a sign at a restaurant in Door County, Wisconsin: “There is no Wi-Fi password. There is no Wi-Fi. Act like it is 1995, and sit down and talk to each other.” 

The challenge of sharing at this level requires us to be vulnerable, which is not something we like to do, or often choose to do. Yet, Brené Brown in her book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (Avery, 2012), explains: “We can’t opt out of the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure that’s woven through out daily experiences. Life is vulnerable.” And the praxis will always involve uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Moving forward on the praxis also involves vulnerability. Thus, the building of safe spaces, i.e. circles of trust, to confront these feelings, and to engage in sharing about them with others generates the capacity to be centered, and to be grounded in clarity as we move forward along the path of translating the abstractness of the strategic nexus into a workable reality for all involved. 

To be continued tomorrow. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Searching For Praxis - part #1

Always Return to The Strategic Nexus

Recently, I was reflecting on why an organization could not execute their strategic plans very well when I realized that the senior team was discombobulated. This is not a common consulting term, but it was the best one I could think of because all the leaders on the team were confused and unsure about what to do, and how to proceed given current events. From my perspective, they had loss touch with the core of their organization, i.e their strategic nexus, and they also were not using it to figure out how to move forward. 

In review, a strategic nexus is the sum of a company’s core ideology, namely the vision, mission, and core values of the company, and the strategic plan, namely the goals and metrics or KPIs of the company. The former is to preserve what should not change over time, and the later is designed to create progress, i.e. forward momentum. But, the problem with this company was that the senior leadership, and as a result many managers and supervisors below them, did not understand the nexus and how to use it. In simple terms, the company had a core, i.e. a nexus, but people did not know it’s importance or relevance. 

So, in the beginning, all involved needed to recognize that the amount of time and energy needed to create clarity about the nexus within the company was on an order of magnitude greater than the time and energy it took originally to create the nexus. Furthermore, they needed to understand that an effective strategic nexus centers the organization around purpose and progress more than egos or personalities. In short, the nexus needed to become their guidance system. 

Now, creating this level of clarity is based on an understanding about what is vital and essential vs. what is not within a company. A unified and understood strategic nexus is vital, and mission critical to success. Over time, it creates the ability for people to measure progress, to know their job matters, and to feel fulfilled in their work. 

One difficulty for this discombobulated senior team was that they did not unpack and explore the meaning and purpose of key phrases and words within their nexus. As we know, words can create understanding and perspective, but first, people have to understand what they mean. They also have to understand what behaviors go with the words to make them real.

Understand The Difference Between Connection and Knowledge Deficits

Furthermore, when a senior team is not unpacking the meaning and purpose within the nexus, they, and many others, experience connection deficits and knowledge deficits at the same time. Using the world of medicine as an example, a connection deficit is when one can see the symptoms related to an illness, and can describe the problem, but is not able to connect the problem to the knowledge they already have about how to solve the problem. Therefore, there is a connection deficit. A knowledge deficit, on the other hand, happens when an individual or team is missing critical knowledge, i.e. they do not understand how the symptoms and the problem are related, and thus are unable to solve the problem.

As this relates to the strategic nexus, a connection deficit happens when people are not making the connection between core ideology and strategy. Thus, they experience the “tyranny of the OR”, referencing the work of Jim Collins, and try to figure out which is more important. 

On the other hand, a knowledge deficit happens when people don’t know what is core to their company and thus, they do not know what is essential vs. non-essential. Therefore, they are not preserving the core. At the same time, they also do not know the strategy or strategic intent of the company. Thus, they are not making progress or supporting on-going mutations or variations of the strategy to happen given changes within the current operating environment.

Once this discombobulated senior team gained a sound understanding of the purpose of a strategic nexus, and once they understood their own strategic nexus, then they could pursue a praxis to create the desired outcomes they were seeking. 

Find The Path

Praxis, derived from ancient Greek, means “action,” “doing” or “practice.” It refers to the the actual practice one follows to translate an abstract idea or concept into a physical reality. I like to think of a praxis as the path we take in order create the results that we are yearning for over time. 

A big part of finding a praxis is to create a union of clarity and commitment, and a convergence at the point of origin. In mathematics, a point of origin is the starting point on a grid where the x-axis and the y-axis intercept. In shipping and logistics, it is the starting point of a package’s journey to a destination. 

Given my age and experience, I have had the honor and privilege to be present at the point of origin when a new strategic nexus was created. Referencing the musical Hamilton, I was in the room and at the table. I listened to the sharing, and facilitated the discussion as clarity was discovered, and the right wording was generated. 

At that moment when all involved said “That’s it!”, there was an aha moment, but even more so, there was a convergence, namely they were all “on the same page.” They also were committed to making the nexus a viable core. 

But, from my perspective, when this convergence happened, something bigger also happened. We accessed the “hidden wholeness” within the nexus, referencing the writings of the late American Trappist monk, mystic and poet, Thomas Merton. In essence, we discovered the intersection between the strategic nexus and the praxis. In short, we had found a path by which we could translate the abstract into a day-to-day reality. 

To be continued tomorrow. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

How Do We Meet Each Other?

Recently, I came across a deeply thought-proving question by Parker Palmer in a book edited by Sam Integrator called Living The Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer (Jossey-Bass, 2005). As Palmer writes: “How do we meet each other in a way that allows each one of us to meet ourselves?” For me, this is an important question as we move into this new season. 

Currently, we live in a world that places immense pressure on us to be something, or to be like somebody else. We also live and work in spaces that do not welcome our wholeness, and instead expect us to push harder, longer, and faster in order to get more things done. Furthermore, these same expectations do not honor or nurture our souls or our spirit. As a result, we feel pushed, stressed out, and overwhelmed by this constant pressure, and by all the turbulence this pressure creates within us. 

In simple terms, we feel flooded by life, and the continual deluge of people, problems, and paradoxes that present themselves each and every day, if not each and every hour. Therefore, the resulting pressure drains us, and it shuts down our desire to keep moving forward. As a former client said to me one day, “If this is life and leadership, it just sucks.” 

However, Parker Palmer’s question (“How do we meet each other in a way that allows each one of us to meet ourselves?”) calls for us to re-examine this dysfunctional way of living and leading. It reminds us that we do not need to loose our wholeness, truth, and integrity as we move through each and every day. It reminds us that our life matters, and that our life can be one of meaning and purpose in spite of the hustle and bustle that is happening all around us. 

Arthur Brooks in his book, The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose In An Age of Emptiness (Portfolio/Penguin, 2026), writes “What the data show - and what everyone has seen with our own eyes - is what we social scientists call a psychogenic epidemic, a phenomenon that causes tremendous suffering but has no organic cause, meaning the onset is social or psychological, not biological.” This epidemic is based on people feeling the overall loss of meaning, purpose, and significance in their life. As he continues, “What is missing was the one thing that can never be simulated: meaning. Again and again, people said that life was busy but not meaningful. That experiences and relationships felt meaningless. Or that they didn’t know what they were meant to do in work and life.”

Therefore, Brooks proposed the following perspective: “Meaning = Coherence + Purpose + Significance…. The first element of meaning is coherence, or how the events of your life fit together. This is an understanding that things happen in your life for a reason…. The second element of life’s meaning is purpose, which is the existence of goals and direction in your life. This is the belief that you are alive in order to do something…. The third element of meaning is significance. This refers to the inherent value of your life to yourself and, even more important, to others…. It simply means that the world would be worse for someone you love if you didn’t exist.” Each of these three elements are part of our interactions with others, and, at the same time, how we meet ourselves in the process. 

Editor Sam Integrator, in the aforementioned book, explains that from Parker Palmer’s perspective “our outward work in the world is a projection of our inner condition.” I think this is a very important insight and one worth exploring on many different levels. If our focus is on creating an inner and outer life that are in alignment, or congruence as Parker Palmer notes, we must “hold the tension … between what is and what is possible.” 

This happens when we expand Palmer’s perspective that “… learning happens between persons and not simply within the learner.” From my perspective, living and being in relationship with others, and where we meet ourselves in the process, happens when we grasp that learning and living happens between people and not simply within a person. In essence, referencing the work of Collins and Porras in their book, Built to Last, it is the “genius of the AND, not the tyranny of the OR.” In short, it is what is happening between us and within myself that dramatically impacts how we meet each other at work, at home, and in the community where we live. 

Therefore, we need to create a network of people in our lives with whom we trust and with whom we can share. This network helps us stay centered and grounded in midst of what is happening and what might or could happen. This network also gives us time and space to stay in touch and attuned to our individual, and our collective sense of purpose and meaning. 

At the same time that we are building and maintaining this network, we also need to build and maintain a life pattern that allows us to have the time and space to do the inner work related to life’s journey. Here, we create a pattern of living that supports routine reflection, learning, and reading. This important time and space helps us to grow as individuals, to gain new insights, and to become, over time, better people. In essence, this time and space creates, maintains, and expands our inner wholeness and integrity. 

For in the end, it is the combination of our outer networks of trust, and our inner journey of reflection and learning that helps us meet each other in a way that allows us to meet ourselves in the process. Then, we do two things at the same time, namely welcome the souls of all involved, and nurture the community that honors the soul of all involved. 

My challenge to you this fall is to build that network of trust, and to create regular time and space for touching base with, and expanding your wholeness and integrity. The people you love need this and so does the world. Remember: your life matters. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

How You Think Impacts Everything

It is strategic planning season, and teams all around the country are deep into the process of planning and preparing for the future. Important meetings are happening at all levels, and people are engaged in sharing, analysis, and the development of timely and effective strategic plans. 

The challenge is that most people are focused on changing systems, structure, and even the culture of the company at the operational level. But few people are stepping back to examine how they think, i.e. the mental models and frameworks they hold, which are, and will continue to impact all that they do. As Justin Howe, the director, consultant, and leadership coach at trailyst.com remind us: “Arguably, everything is downstream of the thinking. The thinking is the place that generates the greatest leverage for change, because it goes values and beliefs deep. Thinking lives beneath the systems, structures, patterns of behavior and ultimately the actions that drive movement.” In short, our thinking directly impacts our ability to consistently deliver operational excellence, and our capacity to strategically innovate. 

However, we rarely pause in the midst of our strategic planning processes to define what new ways of thinking are needed given the future before us, and what old ways of thinking need to be let go. We get so wrapped up in analytical models and projections that we miss this fundamental truth: “Every action begins with a thought,” explains Jack Canfield. So, if we change, expand, or our adapt our thinking to include new perspectives and insights, we fundamentally pave the way for new ideas, strategy, and action. For in the end, it is the mental models and frameworks we hold that are guiding the operational, and strategic decisions we are making each and every day. 

So, this week, and during the coming weeks, sit back, and reflect on this insight. Then, go out and engage with others to explore the old ways of thinking, and some potential new ways of thinking. For in the end, this action will be vitally important as we all move forward through the current complexities in the world around us. 

© Geery Howe 2026

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change