Take The Inner Journey

Introduction

“A new leadership is needed for new times,” writes Parker Palmer, “but it will not come from finding new and more wily ways to manipulate the internal world. It will come as we who lead find the courage to take an inner journey toward both our shadows and our light - a journey that, faithfully pursued, will take us beyond ourselves to become healers of a wounded world.”

As we begin to take this inner journey, we need to remember the advice and perspective of 100 year old, Meridel le Sueur: “We must  re-member the dismembered.”  In such a short, yet powerful sentence, she reminds us that we must put back together that which was taken apart. We must gather the pieces of our life, both our shadows and our light, and create a unified, and heathy form of living and leading. We also must do the same thing for our families, our communities, and our environment. We must build new connections focused on support and understanding, wholeness and integration. In essence, we must remember our whole selves. 

Today, I would like to focus on three steps to putting back together that which has been taken apart. Each step is part of one’s inner journey to wholeness. 

Discern and Embrace Our Gifts

“Through the years,” writes Russ Moxley, “I have learned that using our gifts is not the hard part: what is hard is discerning and embracing them.” I agree 100%. And I believe that few people in life, and in leadership positions, can discern and embrace, let alone build on their own strengths, gifts, and talents. 

Now, the concept of building on strengths, your own and others, really entered the leadership lexicon when Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman wrote a book called First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Here, they explained that leaders and managers should focus “on what people do best and using those natural talents to grow, solve problems, and reach goals.” Buckingham and Coffman said that great managers “select for talent... Not simply experience, intelligence, or determination, define the right outcomes ... Not the right steps, focus on strengths ... Not on weaknesses, [and] find the right fit ... Not the next rung on the ladder.” For these authors, a talent was “a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied.”

Tom Rath and Barry Conchie in their book, Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow (Gallup, 2008), write: “A leader needs to know his strengths as a carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician knows the instruments at her disposal. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths - and can call on the right strength at the right time. This explains why there is no definitive list of characteristics that describes all leaders.” They note that there are “Four Domains of Leadership Strength,” namely executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.

While I find all of this literature to be quite fascinating, I believe there is a missing piece to the whole process, namely self-awareness. As Daniel Goleman explained, “Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weakness, needs, and drives. People with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. Rather, they are honest - with themselves and with others.” I believe that this degree of honest self-awareness is critical to discerning and embracing our gifts.  

Yet, Brené Brown in her book, Strong Ground: The Lessons Of Daring Leadership, The Tenacity Of Paradox, and The Wisdom Of The Human Spirit (Random House, 2025), adds another important perspective when she wrote: “I have not seen evidence of people being able to develop high levels of self-awareness without two things: a deep curiosity about their internal lives, and outside support. When I say outside support, I mean a coach, therapist, or mentor.” 

From my perspective and experience, the original and on-going Gallup research is solid about building on strengths and talents, but more recent writing about the importance of self-awareness, deep curiosity, and outside support unlock the inner journey and strengthen the capacity to actually discern and embrace our gifts, talents and strengths in an honest and productive manner. 

Create More Autotelic Experiences

Brad Stulberg in his book, The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World (HarperOne, 2026), writes: “The intimacy of excellence is a powerful antidote to modern alienation and its associated feelings of disconnection, disassociation, and numbness. When you work toward intimacy with an activity or craft, when you throw yourself into something you care about and give it your all, you experience presence, depth, and aliveness. There’s no way around it. Even if there were, it would defeat the purpose of striving for excellence to begin with: to create quality experience for ourselves and for those who are touched by our work and our lives.”

He then shares, “Psychologists call this an autotelic experience. It represents the fulfillment and satisfaction that arise from doing a job well for its own sake - something that is only possible when there is a clear standard for what doing a job well means.”

The word autotelic comes from the Greek words meaning “self” and “goal” the main reward is the experience itself, not money, prizes, or praise. When creating time and space for autotelic experiences, we find and experience a source of deep satisfaction that helps to keep us humble and grounded. 

For me, working in the perennial flower beds around our home gives me a chance to pause, step back from the rush of doing, and shift into the place of being. The weeds will be removed, and the spent flowers will be clipped. A good sweat will be experienced and the bed will look neater at the end of my work, but more than the outward results, there is the inner depth of peace, calm, and centeredness that transcends the activity of gardening, and creates insight, perspective and patience to move through the outer changes within my whole life. 

Interesting to note that over the course of my work, I have met many leaders who create routine autotelic experiences in their life, e.g. biking, running, weight lifting, painting, quilting, wood working, etc. All of them report to me that these activities make a major difference in their ability to lead. I also have observed that these autotelic leaders inspire and motivate their teams by fostering a culture of intrinsic motivation, and by coaching other to understand that the true driver of everything comes from within. 

Tell Our Stories And Listen To Our Sacred Stories

“From any journey or experience,” writes Chickasaw novelist, and environmentalist, Linda Hogan, “we return carrying a bag filled with nothing but the story.” In a world of fragmentation and disconnection, where shadows seem greater than light, people struggle to find common ground with others, especially people in management and leadership positions. We also often feel like our story is not enough. 

For years, people have shared with me that they have no one to talk to about what they are going through, and no one who gets what it feels like on the inside to be a leader, especially during difficult and complex change. Over and over, they want to be with others who respond to their challenges by saying “I know that place,” and “I have been there.” 

Yet, in order to hear those phrases, we need to create time and safe spaces to tell our stories. We need people who are willing to listen, and not interrupt or add their own advice and counsel. Instead, we need people who are present, supportive, and aware that being heard, and being seen and respected is a powerful experience. It also is a transformative experience. 

Along this course of action, we collectively need to gather and listen to our sacred stories from long ago. For one of the challenges of this time is that we think we are the first to have ever dealt with change of this magnitude. We also think we are the only ones who have suffered and struggle with how to cope, and how to move forward. 

However, when we gather and listen to sacred stories, we come to understand that the courage to take an inner journey, and the courage to move forward in the face of hard times, ones that include both shadows and our light, has been a perennial pathway. And when we grasp that we are not the first, nor will we be the last, we can move forward in faith and, as Parker Palmer reminds us, “become healers of a wounded world.”

Become Your Whole Self

“The point is not to become a leader,” writes Warren Bennis in his book, On Becoming a Leader. “The point is to become yourself, and to use yourself completely - all your gifts, skills, and energies - to make your vision manifest. You withhold nothing. You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and to enjoy the process of becoming.” 

As we seek to become ourselves completely, and as we seek to take the inner journey, we will need to discern and embrace our gifts. We also will need to create more autotelic experiences. Finally, we will need to create circles of trust where we can tell our stories, and listen to our collective sacred stories. 

For it is the combination of all these actions over time that gives us the capacity to re-member that which has been dismembered. Then, we will walk the pathway to putting back together that which has been taken apart. Then, we will build new connections focused on support and understanding, wholeness and integration. Then, we will remember our whole self, and acknowledge the wholeness of others, too. And this is when the inner life transforms us, and the outer world too. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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

It’s Time To Talk About SMART Goals

Brad Stulberg in his book, The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World (HarperOne, 2026), writes that “SMART goals are great - until they become too narrow or constraining.” He recommends that we “adopt a process-over-outcomes mindset.” Having spent a career helping people and organizations write strategic plans, and, in particular, SMART goals, I find Stulberg’s comments intriguing, and deeply thought-provoking. 

First, let’s unpack the the definition of a SMART goal. In basic terms, it is an acronym, where each letter represents a specific word. Therefore, a SMART goal stands for the following:

- specific

- measurable

- achievable

- relevant

- trackable & time-bound 

As Ken Blanchard in his book, Leading At a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations (Prentice Hall, 2006), explains that SMART goals help leaders measure performance frequently, and provide opportunities to praise progress. He also writes that “Three to five goals are the ideal number on which peak performance can concentrate, according to most research.”

Yet, I hear Stulberg’s comment that SMART goals are great “until they become too narrow or constraining.” This is the challenge with SMART goals at this time period. Once they are written, their specificity is both a strength and a weakness. Their strength creates focus and measurable progress. Their weakness is that they assume there are no unforeseen variables that will surface, which would cause one to reconsider the goal or rewrite the goal.

Building on this perspective, I often pointed out to groups when I was helping them create strategic plans that every strategic plan had a decay rate, namely the plan was only as good as the information that went into the planning process. If, for example, something surfaced once the plan was being executed that called into question certain assumptions that were made during the planning process, then the plan may no longer be viable, because of this new information. 

What most people don’t think about is that a SMART goal assumes, to a degree, that  there is a technical solution, i.e. one that falls within the range of current problem solving expertise, to any and all current problems. Thus, once the problem is clearly defined, the goal is to implement known solutions with current know-how using existing skills, resources, and processes. In short, a classic SMART goal restores order, maintains norms, and protects the company from external threats. 

However, given current events, most problems that are trying to be solved now require new expertise and new solutions. Many problems are adaptive challenges where defining the problem may require learning, and may call into question fundamental assumptions and beliefs. If one were to create a SMART goal to solve an adaptive problem, the goal itself may not support a change in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties. It also may not tolerate the emergence of conflicts, and the challenging of cultural norms or systemic norms. Furthermore, many solutions to adaptive challenges evolve over time. 

And yet, a classic SMART goal, as defined above, does not tolerate a “We will just have to wait and see what happens next” mentality. However, this is a standard mindset when dealing with adaptive challenges. We plan and move forward. We pause, and re-evaluate what has worked, and what has not worked so far. Then, we scan the environment to see if anything new or different has shown up. If not, we proceed. If so, we modify the goal and move forward. In short, strategic intent more than a strategic goal defines the direction and the progress when dealing with an adaptive challenge. 

Nevertheless, I think Stulberg is right in his recommendation that we “adopt a process-over-outcomes mindset.” SMART goals are outcome focused, and there is a time and a place where this is exactly the right thing to create and execute. But, when working within a VUCA environment, borrowing a term from the US military, we need to realize that instability is chronic, uncertainty feels permanent, change is accelerating, and disruptions are common. Therefore, the goal setting process along with routine strategic reviews becomes more important than ever before. The combination of the two create time and space to make better decisions, and to write more adaptive, rather than rigid goals. 

In summary, SMART goals work, but they are not always best when working through a time period of high uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. At periods like this, I advise we clarify strategic intent, and then design and implement highly flexible goal setting systems which include routine and in-depth strategic reviews to make sure our goals are still the right goals as events unfold. 

As Jim Collins and Morten Hansen in their book, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (HarperCollins, 2011), pointed out so many years ago, “Given this rise of complexity, globalization, and technology, all of which are accelerating change and increase volatility, we must come to accept that there is no ‘new normal.’ There will only be a continuous series of ‘not normal’ times.” And when that happens, we need to be very mindful about how we choose to create goals, and execute them over time. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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

It’s Time To Explore Strategy In A New Way

It was a breakfast meeting and I was being brought up to speed about a diversity of fast moving changes taking place through out the company. Some fell into the categories of people and structure. Others related to systems and culture. All were being influenced by both major internal and external factors. 

As part of this update, he outlined how current events had direct line of sight to strategic decisions made 8-9 years ago. He also noted that subsequent decisions during the intervening years had given rise to many technical problems within specific systems, and how certain teams had begun to become operationally inefficient and dysfunctional. 

I was impressed by this summary, because it is rare to encounter someone who could summarize the big picture in a concise manner, and notice the primary and secondary impacts of past and current decisions. 

Then, he asked me a question: “So, given all of this, what should we do?”

Now, the standard answer would be to engage in one of three things.  First, many would default to creating a new strategic plan. Others would see this as a people issue, and coach certain people in, or out of the organization in order to create more focus. Finally, there are some who would say this all reflects a systems and process problem, and begin an in-depth analysis, which would lead to a redesign of core systems. And for the most part, these are all viable and reasonable options. 

However, I suggested a different pathway, namely it was time to gather people together in small, in-person meetings for a combination of inter-strategic dialogues, and intra-strategic dialogues. The former is to bring people together from different teams and divisions to explore some key questions. The later is to gather people who are on the same team, and to explore the same key questions. Once both groups had gathered, the subject that needed to be explored was strategy.

Now, classically, these kinds of inter and intra meetings would revolve around two key questions. The first is “What is our strategy as an organization?” . The second is “Do you understand our strategy?”. And lots of time and energy could be devoted to answering these two big questions. And yet, experience tells me that this only shifts awareness a little bit, because strategy ends up being nebulous, academic, or highly abstract. 

So, over breakfast, I proposed a new question: “How do you experience or encounter our strategy on a daily basis?” The question invites participants to look for strategy within daily operations. Rather than focusing on the what or why elements related to strategy, the questions asks all involved about how they are translating strategy into actionable experiences, or choices on a daily basis. It shifts the leader from the doer who fixes all problems to a leader who sees, supports and builds on right actions that are in alignment with strategy. 

While this is a subtle shift, it is nonetheless a powerful shift. It recognizes that the primary purpose of having a strategy is to guide the organization through challenging times, and to develop and support a strategic management mindset in each and every person in the organization. In it’s most basic form, the goal of strategy is to have one that is owned and understood by the people who have to execute it. Then, the what and the why can be translated into the how.

As we wrapped up our breakfast meeting, and each headed out the door, we both were smiling. A new perspective had been created. A new beginning was about to take place. It was time again to explore strategy in a whole new way. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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

Choosing Phronesis - part #3

Recognize The Relationship Between the Outer and Inner Experience

Third, leaders need to recognize the relationship between their outer, social and positional roles at work, and their own inner, personal journey as it pertains to meaning and purpose. Currently, so many people now are living a highly fragmented life, and suffering from the paradox of success. At work, they are achieving, or attempting to achieve external markers of success, and, at the same time, they are failing to experience any sustainable level of inner fulfillment or meaning to it all. In short, their winning at work and loosing at life, especially at home. 

When this level of internal emptiness occurs, people need to recognize that doing more, and taking on more is not going to change the emptiness. They also need to recognize that they suffer from an achievement addiction, which has a hidden and destructive cost. Leadership consultant John O’Neil in his book, The Paradox of Success: When Winning at Work Means Losing at Life (Penguin Random House, 1994), explains that the positive traits of dedication and perseverance can turn into workaholism, which has a high cost to one’s professional success, and to one’s personal life. 

For me, this is why we need to choose phronesis, which begins with finding a new balance between action and reflection. It also includes a recognition of the need for community outside of work, which can generate perspective and support. This, in combination with the need for solitude and introspection, can generate a new level of internal balancing and healing. As leadership and business strategist, Greg McKeown reminds us, “Whatever has happened to you in life. Whatever hardship. Whatever pain…. They pale in comparison to the power you have to choose what to do now.” And now is the time to choose a healthy inner life journey and a healthy outer life experience in order to create and maintain a good life.

Find A Place To Stand

Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”  When we choose phronesis, we are seeking both the lever and a place to stand in order to move the world from hubris to clarity.  The first step in the entire process begins by offering respect and hospitality to all we meet. We also need to understand the difference between narrative and interpretation. Finally, we need to recognize the relationship between our inner and outer experiences. 

As we focus on these three actions with conviction and courage, we come to understand what author and educator, Parker Palmer was saying when he wrote that the “heart in its ancient sense, [is] the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self.” Utilizing the aforementioned heart skills during a time of discontinuity will always place us on solid ground and always provide us a lever to change the world. And clearly, this is what is needed at this time period. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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

Choosing Phronesis - part #2

Offer Respect And Hospitality

First, leaders need to offer respect and hospitality to all they meet. In our fragmented society, bombarded by unrealistic expectations about work and life, many people find they are locked in a conflict between their inner beliefs and their outward lives. The result is a complete loss of empathy and compassion. 

When we are caught in a pattern of fracture and disconnect, we rarely turn to respect and hospitality as a solution. We don’t think it is a good choice. And yet, I believe we need to rethink this decision, and focus on this course of action. 

Years ago, I remember meeting with a CEO who was going to fire someone on his team. As our meeting ended, and the head of HR came into the room, the CEO said to the head of HR, “Whatever happens in the next meeting, let’s be respectful of their service to the company, and maintain their dignity throughout the entire process.” I just smiled as I headed out the door, because this was an impressive moment of clarity. 

Furthermore, having traveled for 35+ years, I have witnessed my fair share of hospitality. Some locations were friendly, and others were generous and treated me like a guest. But the best hotels, and the best companies went one step further. They made me feel comfortable and valued, safe and welcomed. For at it’s core, hospitality happens when we make connections based on respect, kindness, and care. When this happens consistently over time, good will is generated, and this makes a profound difference during times of constant change. 

Understand The Difference Between Narrative And Interpretation

Second, leaders need to understand the difference between narrative and interpretation. Narrative is a structured accounting of events before one can make sense of one’s experiences. On the other hand, interpretation is the action of explaining the meaning of something like a series of connected events. It also is the act of explaining, reframing, or otherwise showing your understanding of something. 

One element of this understanding involves discerning the difference between knowledge and opinion about the events that took place, or are taking place. Many times, senior leaders get second hand, or even third hand information or reports of actual events. At this point, it is hard, at times, to tell the difference between the narrative and the interpretation, because the person reporting may or may not have the full knowledge of what happened, or the technical expertise to explain what happened. Therefore, they may report their opinion or interpretation, and consider it a factual narrative or explanation. 

I have encountered this many times. For example, having worked with banks and bankers for 30+ years, and facilitated many meetings and strategic planning sessions with them, I would routinely get asked for an analysis of certain key data. At this point, I had to remind all involved that I am not a banker, and I have not gone to banking school. I can give my perspective, i.e. interpretation or opinion based on my understanding and experience, but I can not provide an analysis of critical information about the data or the actual events that generated the data. 

When I pointed this out, many senior banking executives thanked me publicly and privately for understanding the difference between being a banker and working with bankers. For me, it all comes down to knowing the difference between knowledge, narrative, interpretation, and opinion. 

To be continued on Wednesday. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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

Choosing Phronesis - part #1

Introduction

In 1969, management consultant, educator and author, widely known as the the father of modern management, Peter Drucker wrote a book called The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society (Harper & Row, 1969). In the book, he describes how major shifts in technology and globalization were transforming modern society at an exponential rate. In particular, he said we were entering a period of disruption and discontinuity in which the structure and meaning of our economy, politics, and society would be radically altered, and that the historic linear progression of things would no longer apply. Fifty-seven years later, Drucker’s analysis is still applicable, if not more relevant than ever.

Currently, I believe many people in leadership positions can say that the age of discontinuity is still happening. For them, the world feels too volatile, complex, and ambiguous. And in the midst of it all, they are seeking a path forward that will create some sense of security, continuity, and predictability.

Watch Our For Hubris

Nevertheless, there are some leaders who believe they are doing just fine, if not better than fine. They believe they have figured out what to do and how to proceed, no matter what is happening in the larger context. When I meet these people, I am reminded of Jim Collins and his book, How The Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In (HarperCollins, 2009). As he writes, “Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 [Hubris Born of Success] kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they loose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place.” And as Greek mythology pointed out so long ago, hubris, i.e. excessive pride, always brings down a hero. I would add the same for “great enterprises.” 

Collins notes that the markers for Stage 1 are the following: “success, entitlement, arrogance; success is viewed as ‘deserved,’ rather than fortuitous, fleeting, or even hard earned. On the face of daunting odds, people begin to believe that success will continue almost no matter what the organization decides to do, or not to do.” 

Collins also notes that the hubris born of success happens when the company neglects their primary flywheel, i.e. when “what” replaces “why”, and the rhetoric of success replaces understanding “why.” Furthermore, it takes place when there is a decline in a learning orientation, specifically when leaders “lose the inquisitiveness and learning orientation that mark those truly great individuals who, no matter how successful they become, maintain a learning curve as steep as when they first began their careers.” These same leaders discount “the role of luck” as it relates to their success. As he concludes, “our research indicates that organizational decline is largely self-inflicted, and recovery largely within our own control. Note: For more information on the hubris born of success and institutional decline, please read  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don't (HarperBusiness, 2001). 

Make An Important Choice

With all of this in mind, I believe it is time to choose phronesis, which is an ancient Greek word meaning practical wisdom, practical judgement, or prudence. It describes the ability to act rightly, and make good choices in complex, and continually changing situations. Aristotle defined phronesis as a virtue that guides moral action, helping individuals determine the best means to achieve a good life. In simple terms, choosing phronesis involves knowing the right course of action, but also understanding why it is the right choice. 

Given we are in a continued age of discontinuity, and witnessing multiple examples of the hubris born of success, I also believe leaders need to engage the skills of the heart, more than just the mind. This will translate into three specific actions, which, over time, can result in practical wisdom, judgement, and the making of sound choices based on “why” more than “what.” While these are skills of the heart, and often considered very “soft” skills, I believe they are critical to short and long term sustainability in the midst of the current volatility, complexity, and ambiguity.

To be continued on Tuesday. 

© Geery Howe 2026

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