VIM Executive Coaching is well aware that in the past two years our society has dramatically changed – and who knows where 2022 will lead? We have passed from in-person, to somewhere virtual, to now, somewhere hybrid.
In the midst of these changes, society has never been more polarized and at odds with its past – and future. The executive leader faces major challenges of a society painfully awakening from its past. VIM Executive Coaching is hardly “political,” yet to ignore the issues of the day is to perpetuate naivete and to avoid reality.
Within all of those contexts
Within the changes and some overdue upheavals, we coach many executive leaders across the country, and internationally as well, who have expressed sentiments such as, “I feel like we are all losing our way,” or “There is no blueprint for what we’re going through right now.”
And, it is understandable, the confusion, the indecision and the mistakes that are being made. Executive leaders are afraid of what to do, what to say and where the current confusion will lead them.
While our immediate solution may at first appear simplistic, our advice is to advise executive leaders to start by breathing; to momentarily put down their cell phones, tablets, computers and any other gadgetry and breathe. It might also be a great idea to disconnect from social media for a bit, as well as cable news and whatever apps, podcasts and unnecessary frills and to turn inward and meditate on a daily basis.
Our lives, the executive leaders’ life, has become so cluttered that it is no wonder the “authentic self” has been lost. In the frustrations of the moment, many executive leaders feel doubly stressed and on-edge. It is becoming common in our business coaching sessions to hear executive leaders expressing their regrets over reacting to employees rather than responding to their needs; to allowing their biases to dictate management decisions; to shut down conversations, requests for assistance and to snap at employees who are having difficulties.
With regrets – and unfortunately, those reactions have little to do with COVID-19, “monkey-pox,” hybrid offices or any other external factors. They have everything to do with the mindset executive leader who has neglected personal mindfulness in favor of mechanical response.
Let’s be honest
No matter what many executive leaders believe they are going through, the template for troubled times and for response rather than reaction, has been well established. What era has not had troubled times? What executive leader of any era has not faced down difficulties?
It has become generally acknowledged at this point that the seeds of the sweeping changes to our present workplaces were in development for quite some time. The pandemic may have clearly accelerated change, but no one should be the least bit surprised that hybrid offices, the demand for social justice, virtual meetings and the everyday clutter of the internet and social media would come to dominate our thinking.
Nevertheless, the way in which we authentically respond to one another, the way we interact as executive leader to employee, the mindfulness and compassion toward the need for inclusivity has not changed. If these changes were too slow in coming, it is a societal fault that should not have come as a surprise to anyone.
Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation are concepts that can guide executive leaders back to the place they fear they have departed. Mindfulness is a way of turning inward and seeing things for as they are, not how executive leaders may wish them to be. If an executive leader knows themselves, then situations may be fully addressed be in the current challenge of the hybrid workplace, or deeper issues of bias in their workplaces and the need for inclusion or dealing with employees who are at odds with one another.
VIM Executive Coaching works to help executive leaders re-focus and to see “their work worlds” in-the-moment and with truth and focus. Our approach is at once up-to-the-moment and ancient as well. Our mission is to help you succeed.