I haven't fallen off the planet - well not quite, anyhow. Had a home and office move just before the last posting and settling in to roughly less than half the previous space has required significant simplification. Not a bad thing at all. It's actually quite horrifying how much 'stuff' we think we need to keep going. So it was quite a refreshing feeling being able to let go of a whole bunch of goodies. Try it some time! 'twas a bit like a spring-clean for the soul.
I gave Leadership some serious thought a while back - having watched some real frauds in action in 2006. Their private lives and their PR 'spun' business lives have what Microsoft would quaintly call a 'disconnect'.
Dunno how they live like that. So I wrote the accompanying article for RISKsa - a magazine for insurance intermediaries. The plain text version of it's here as well, so you don't have to maximise and all that stuff if you don't feel inclined. Give the concepts some thought. D'ya think they're too idealistic? I'll be interested in your views.
Are you a fraudulent business leader?
- Be someone who lives what they talk and appear to espouse.
- See every other aspect of creation on the same continuum of consciousness as themselves. This will culminate in a genuine respect for diversity.
- Spend time getting to know themselves in order better to know others.
- Be deeply mindful of both the privilege and the obligation to exercise influence, power and authority with caution, respect and humility.
- Have a high level of emotional intelligence (self-understanding) and certainly be some way along the scale to spiritual awareness.
- Be an intuitive mentor, coach, nurturer of talent, and enhancer of self-esteem in other people.
- Have highly developed ‘Sanchin’ – the Japanese word for a 360˚ bubble of awareness of what’s going on around them.
- Move consciously through life and frequently be ‘in the moment’. Referred to by my good friend Miles Crisp as ‘attentiveness’.
- Have low ego, based on a genuine and combined appreciation of their strengths, weaknesses, motivations and intentions.
- Be good listeners.
- Be empathic and compassionate.
- See themselves as a catalyst for change and also as the glue holding together sometimes very disparate views, approaches and stances in those around them.
- Avoid discussing or saying something about others, unless it’s constructive. As philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ‘Taking to pieces is the trade of those who cannot construct.’
- Never do or say anything that they wouldn’t be proud of or at least be comfortable to share with best friends or family.
- Understand that life is inherently purposeless if it’s only about accumulating money, status and power.
- Run to a script of personal ethics, governance and morality that is a beacon and inspiration to others seeking direction in business and life.
If you think this all sounds excessively idealistic, I disagree. Just cast your mind back over just the last few years in global business and recall the increasingly large wave of politicians and business people who have sailed in grey waters and come a cropper.
Global communication and media scrutiny today means that there’s a discomforting and inexorable transparency demanded of someone in a high profile position. Their projected image is tested against what she or he purports to represent. Former US President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal saw the origin of the ‘deep throat’ (dish-the-dirt) concept. However, there’s no shortage today of people willing to talk off the record to the media about your personal life or how you do business. So if you wish to be a leader, not just as perceived by the public and outsiders, but by those closest to you, examine the authenticity and congruence with which you life your life and walk your talk.
Even if you’re not religiously or spiritually inclined, here’s a sobering thought: My spiritual preceptor, Swami Shivapadananda, put it most succinctly: ‘God will not forgive you if you are bluffing. He is the one who hears the heartbeat of the ant. Do you mean to say he doesn’t know what you’re saying and doing?’ In scientific terms, the universal consciousness is a witness to whatever we say and think. Perhaps more importantly, so are we.
Remember the twins who tried cheating in the Comrades Marathon? One ran half the race, disappeared into the bush, his brother emerged and completed the second half of the race. The question to toy with is this: The medal may be there alongside other trophies – both physical and perceived. But you’ll know that you didn’t win it fairly or ethically. You’ll know it represents a perception of you rather than the reality.
Is your leadership ‘trophy cabinet’ filled with bric-a-brac accumulated on the backs of other people’s damaged ego, their shattered sense of self-esteem, and the ruined confidence of those beneath you in the pecking order of life and business? If so, sir, madam, perhaps you are not only a fraud, but not a leader after all.
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