Our focus at VIM Executive Coaching is on coaching executive leaders. We are quite proud of our organization and the level of service we are able to bring our trusted clients. Our program is tested, unique and embodies compassion and authenticity.
Unfortunately, VIM Executive Coaching does not purport to a be a master of dream interpretation and fortune telling. We bring that point to light as we will sometimes have a client who complains of having recurrent “visions and dreams” of past employment situations. The dreams are almost always unpleasant and linked to terminations.
Sack of regrets?
It is one thing to leave a position, but as we all know, it is quite another feeling “when the position leaves us.” There is a myriad of reasons for that kind of separation and they are almost always unpleasant. Anecdotally, we have encountered clients who come to us bearing grievances, regrets and often, repeating dreams of old offices and employees.
The loss of a job ranks far up the list for painful feelings. Nevertheless, executive leadership coaching as practiced by VIM Executive Coaching, while highly sympathetic to the pains and personal scars of the past, emphasizes the present moment and being mindful in that moment. For as executive leadership coaches we cannot change the past, we can only work with our valued clients to appreciate the present in all things and to act in the present.
Learning to be mindful in the moment is the best way to lead. Carrying the past (and past executive leadership mistakes) around with us is a heavy weight. Of course, we should learnfrom past mistakes or errors in judgment, but to continue to punish ourselves for those errors are counter-productive to going forward.
More than that, there is nothing to be gained from lugging around a sack of regrets or mistakes. In fact, we would ask how long a period should that sack be carried? Should it be for weeks or months or five years, perhaps?
Breathe, don’t regret
Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation care about the present moment. If an executive leader continues to lament a mistake made weeks, months or years ago, chances are the mistakes might be repeated or serve as a filter for all future actions. Mindfulness stresses that we honor the right here and right now, and to be fully present.
An executive leader who might have mishandled a personnel issue in the past should not then over-correct for a situation in front of her or him now to make up for what is perceived as being similar to past mistakes.
Mindfulness dictates that what we see, hear, feel and respond to are authentic in their “reflections.” Who an executive leader is, in a moment of responding to a situation is precisely the best place to be in order to make a clear and responsive decision.
Mindfulness meditation starts with the breath; of being fully present to others, and most importantly, to oneself. Keeping tight hold of the past is a reaction to a memory, but it isn’t the same thing as responding to the here and now.