Thinking back, we at VIM Executive Coaching were not certain if it was 78 or 108 “things,” but the sentiment is the same. It was another one of those online business magazines with many guest posters and expert management instructors.
“Wow, 78 things? That’s a lot of stuff we didn’t know we needed.”
However, it didn’t take us long to realize that what we supposedly couldn’t live without, were quite frivolous. Scrolling down the extensive list, we saw several hand-held digital gadgets, custom golf shoes, yet another payment platform and a post-pandemic, three-dimensional vacation planner.
“Oh, I See”
A while back, we knew a fantastic executive leader who was market researcher and statistician. Not surprising, he had a hilarious, droll and dry sense of humor. He could be presented with a completely preposterous report or proposal, look up and say, “Oh, I see.”
It is the same reaction we had after reading, “78 Things No Executive Can Live Without,” for virtually nothing on the list were truly needed. In fact, and to be as kind as possible, most everything on the list was irrelevant. We believe it to be one of the major problems of the current era; the idea that the more social media savvy we are, the more we can find “hacks” and gadgets to simplify our lives, the better off we will be as executive leaders.
In fact, VIM Executive Coaching has found that the more clutter and the extraneous the leader can remove, the better. The goal, of course, is to always reconnect with the person who stands before you in the unadorned, non-digitized mirror.
If we were to compose a list of things that no executive leader should live without, it would look decidedly different than the on-line list. We would include mindfulness, meditation, authenticity and compassion. We would value self-awareness, responding rather reacting and always, people skills.
The question, of course, is how did the business world allow itself to get so far afield from the short list we presented above and the 78 or 108 things?
“Oh, I Don’t See”
Unfortunately, many executive leaders love to see the quick fix, the easy fix, the latest digitized something or other, the 280 keystrokes of Twitter or the rapid-fire “insta-this and that or TikTok response.”
What many executive leaders, unfortunately, would rather not see is what they discover when they must take the time to sit, to breathe, to respond and to be authentic. Yet, if they would allow themselves that quiet calm space, they might see the gateway to some of their must troubling problems. For example: “Why am I not connecting with my subordinates?” or “Why do I avoid personnel issues?” or “Why do I sometimes blurt out opinion before I spend the extra two minutes to think about it?”
This is simply a sampling, but the key lies not in filling your computer, home office or office with “stuff.” For ultimately, that “stuff” will wind up in landfills – either physically or virtually – and will be replaced by the next big thing.
The most ancient of the ancients understood that mindfulness, “knowing thyself” was the greatest gift of all gifts.
We were amused when looking over the list of “78 Things No Executive Can Live Without,” that mindfulness and authenticity appeared nowhere. Ancients and “moderns” alike, would have found that tragic.