A Time For In-depth Reflection

During the last 30 days, I’ve had a couple of time periods in the office when I have chosen to push back from the piles of work on my desk, and to stare out the window. Looking east, I can see that the warm winds from Kansas are turning the grass to green. I can see the daffodils and tulips pushing up through the fresh layers of mulch I spread on the flower beds a couple of weeks ago. I can see the rhubarb breaking ground and the maple trees flowering. Spring has returned to the midwest, and the land is reawakening to new shapes, sounds, and colors of the season.

I have chosen to take these moments of quiet reflection for a specific reason. With the massive amount of complexity that is taking place in the nation at this time period, I have met with numerous leaders during the last 60 days who are overwhelmed, deeply concerned, and very troubled by the current course of human events. They want to continue to make a difference as a leader and they are equally wanting their organization to make a difference in the lives of those they serve. But, between the pace of change, a rampant case of decision fatigue in the midst of uncertainty, and an overwhelming desire to work on the organization and not to get sucked into the weeds of daily crises and daily reactions to crises, they struggle to get everything done and they struggle to maintain perspective. Some have asked me privately during executive coaching sessions, “What can I do to regain a sense of balance, clarity, and focus?”

Now the typical consultant answer would be to focus on the creation of strategy, talent development, and the maintenance of a healthy senior leadership team. And, in most cases, this would make a major difference in getting the organization back on track. However, I am not always one who gives the typical answers or asks the typical questions. Recently, I have shared the following.

First, remember the famous Tolkien quote: “Those who wander may not be lost.” So, when was the last time you stepped away from your desk and gave yourself permission to wander? 

The response has always been a quizzical look to this idea, and then the asking of another question, “What do you mean?”

As I explain, back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, people were encouraged to do MBWA, i.e. management by wandering around. I’ve been around long enough that I can remember this ancient history first introduced by Tom Peters.  It was a hot trend at the time.

In simple terms, we were encouraged to step away from our offices as managers and leaders, and to get out into our organizations. We were encouraged to meet our staff, to catch them doing things right, and to build relationships with them. 

Furthermore, we were suppose to have open doors and to walk through them to where the real action was taking place, namely the interaction between the person served and the person serving. We were to get our feet on the ground and to see if the mission was being lived daily, or to discover if it was just another document hung on the walls and laminated in plastic.

Now I know that time is a major issue these days for most people in management and leadership positions. People are feeling pressed to get everything done. And e-mail surely has not made things easier. The promise of the 30 hour work week has not materialized. Instead, we are swamped by being copied on every little thing, and overwhelmed by massive amounts of trivia.

But this morning, I think we need to step away from the computers and to quit trying to lead and live at the speed of software. Instead, we need to embrace the perspective that Michelangelo had, namely that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue. 

At times like these, our jobs as leaders is to step away and go to where the mission is real.

We need to wander again with a purpose.

We need to contemplate the un-carved block. 

We need to seek the beautiful statue within the stone.

We need to witness the organization’s core purpose in action.  

We need to sit and stare out the window, reflecting on all that is happening.

We need to rediscover silence.

We need to embrace possibility in the midst of change.

We need to find our hearts, our passion, and our original love for the work we do.

And then we need to give ourselves permission to rekindle this fire.

We need to rediscover burning brightly rather than just burning out.

We need to return to carving the statue rather than simply sweeping up the dust and shavings.

We need to become purpose driven rather than simply driven.

We need to become better people committed to serving other people.

We need to find the meaning within the work and not just find more work.

This week, I encourage all of us to carve out some uninterrupted time for in-depth reflection. It is time to rekindle hope, perspective and new possibilities.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Living With Passion

I realized recently that many people live their lives like they wash their clothes. Some are careful about what colors go into which load, while others stuff it in and do not mind if their underwear is grey or their brights faded. Yet after the load determination stage, they all dump in the soap, turn on the machine, and walk away. Clothes in and clothes out. Dirt is washed away and that is all that counts.

I remember the first week I lead a work camp for teenagers in rural northern Mexico [back in the early 1980’s]. After three days of digging trenches for the first septic system and flush toilet for a small community school, the students in the work group approached me and the upcoming weekend fiestas with a big problem and an even more important question. Their clothes were dirty.  “Now, what do we do?” they asked.

There were no washing machines, not even electricity. The amount of running water from the pump depended on whether or not the community generator had enough gas and working parts to get started that day. I handed each group member a bar of soap or a box of soap flakes and said, “Go find a bucket of water and start rubbing.” That first weekend was pretty difficult for them because they had not thought ahead about how hard it was going to be to get the dirt out of their clothes after all their digging. They went to the party wearing some very wrinkled and not very clean combinations of work pants and shirts.

Yet, if you have ever washed a week’s worth of clothes by hand, you learn the importance of thoughtfulness and mindfulness. I, too, became very attentive to how I treated my clothes and how hard it was going to be to wash them out after a hard day’s work.  By the end of the week, I remembered that dirt didn’t just wash away - one had to work hard and carefully at it.  Richard Bach wrote that you are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however. My own level of awareness of how I choose to live my life started to come into focus. Dirty laundry can be a good teacher.

When it comes to learning practical stress-management skills, the quality of our lives needs to be redirected to living from a place of passion. When you are washing a pair of well-used and very dirty blue jeans by hand, and you want them to come clean because you have been invited to dinner by the town mayor to discuss further work camps with the community, you have to rub hard and be consistent. The issue of what is important is very clear, namely, that clean clothes are a statement about caring for yourself and others. It is a sign of commitment to the process. The “dump in and walk away from the machine” style of living is not even part of your reality. In short, as with the process of cleaning clothes by hand, awareness is central to handling stress more effectively.

Along with living one’s life with passion and awareness, there is another important aspect to health and wellness. As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote: “A man or woman with outward courage dares to die; A man or woman with inward courage dares to live.”

Walking the pathway to health requires us to acknowledge, that all our experiences in life are catalysts for growth. Furthermore, what we accept, think about, and keep foremost in our minds will be the basis on which we live. If we choose to live with passion, we must have the inward courage to live fully in each moment. Stress has to be handled and handled at the moment it occurs. We can not put it off or forget about it.

In stress-management workshops, people regularly ask me where they should begin. I always remind them of the following words from the Bible: “As you sow, so you shall reap.” To have inward courage to live passionately means to become more attentive to the process of living. We do not need to start washing our clothes by hand, but we do need to become more awake to the process of what we are choosing to do and in what kind of spirit we are doing it.

On the same trip to Mexico, one day one of the light-hearted young men came up to me and asked if he and others could go down to the river to wash their hair and their clothes with bio-degradable soap. I conferred  with the other leaders since they had been in Mexico more times than I, and we said “yes” to the request. With bags of dirty clothes, we all hiked to a nearby waterfall in the river. While some washed their clothes along the bank, others washed their hair with buckets, the light-hearted one had a most unique solution. He put on his dirtiest clothes and walked into the river with soap. First he washed his clothes while wearing them, and then his hair. He ended this very funny “wash cycle” by singing at the top of his lungs while standing underneath the water fall. His clothes came out cleaner than those of the other students, and the afternoon ended with all of us standing around wearing and washing our dirty clothes and then singing under the water fall. It had to be one of my most memorable and enjoyable clothes-washing experiences. 

Living passionately can be fun and rewarding. Dealing with your stress by being aware of how you choose to live is a continual process of mindfulness. Being light of heart and playful in spirit is a good place to start.

From Listen to the Heart The Transformational Pathway to Health and Wellness by Geery Howe published back in 1991. For more information about the book, please click on the following link:  http://www.chartyourpath.com/Listen-to-the-Heart.html

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257