Thoughts on leadership

I haven't written in a bit, life seems to be moving along a little quicker lately. I love the questions of the day- I read them every day and they at least make me think even if I don’t take the time to write. When life kicks into high gear I love it but I also feel the drain on my body, mind and spirit. The ‘realness’ of life really smacks us upside the head now and again. Just incase you were not paying attention, sometimes even when you are. Whether it is happening in your life personally or is someone’s near you it affects everything and everyone around you.

I have two good mirrors in my life, people who have been on similar paths. One who is now the Chair for his organization, he is more like me = now in a place he never thought he would have been 10-15 years ago. Another who is now President of her organization, she was very straight minded and had it as a goal, planned out over the years. Both have been great resources and cohorts. I am glad that we can talk and share mutual experiences and discuss strategies. It is good to hear about how someone else handled a similar struggle, what worked and didn’t. I learn much faster from the latter.

One of the things that I am struggling with right now is the movement of my group into an upper tier level of work and thought. In particular today: when to move a conversation on; has everyone ‘heard’ what needs to be said; are the green memes feeling as if they have been heard. How can I not to let the conversations get bogged into the dreaded green meme circle of going nowhere slowly? I tend to put things together really fast – hence I get bored easily – that is not a good thing when one is to be ‘running’ the meetings now is it. In the past, I have multi-tasked or daydreamed while others talked on incessantly about whatever is on the docket. Balance is a tricky thing both in treating my clients and in running a meeting.  

Nowhere…no-where… now-here… hum. There’s a thought. A lot of times when conversations go around and around people get lost in their own shit and thoughts; they are no longer really ‘here’ in the group. Perhaps that is where to start - make sure that all are present. 

How does one do that? I know it is polite in today’s world to listen to everyone’s opinion but let’s face facts, not everyone is worth listening to on everything. Not every one is right or needs to be heard. On the other hand, not everyone can ‘put it together’ as fast as I can either taking the scenario out to its natural and unnatural conclusions, determining what will and will not work. So there must be a middle ground. How does one know when they are there? Now-here.

Some people are more specialized in a topic, knowing when to defer is a good start. Some like to micromanage this is usually a problem in any group as they tend to be the most opinionated and be stuck in the ‘my way is right’ mentality, I am not sure how to handle this – perhaps that will take me learning to be the heavy. Some are just so far out of their personal comfort zone that no matter how much they hear about a topic they will never understand it, I have learned say we will talk about it latter. Some want to ‘make nice’ so badly that they will always feel that you are mean for moving the conversation on for any reason, I have learned to let that go. 

But letting something go without letting go of expectations is the balance that must be maintained in order to keep a board functioning. There are things that must be done, some need to be pushed and some need to be pulled back. Sloth can pay off.  The Tao is a trick place to work from: the monkey brain tends to second guess, especially when you have the time to let it as others blabber on and on.    Nowhere = now-here. Is there a better example of non-duality then this?