At VIM Executive Coaching, we often believe that we have learned as much as we have taught. As executive leadership coaches, we have certainly learned about the nuances of everything from engineering, M&A activity, manufacturing to professional sports. As an unintended, but delightful outcome of knowing our clients, we have picked up on an entire array of business philosophies and interesting quotations.
One of our incredible clients told us, “I am always prepared for real life.”
At first, our thought was, “Well, isn’t everyone?”
Then we realized the absolute wisdom of her words.
Having a bad day?
It was the same executive leader who later said, “Having a bad day? Wait, it’s about to get much worse.”
It’s not that the executive was a pessimist, only (quite frankly) that in her successful career she worked under a few, not so pleasant or mindful executive leaders.
Frequently the rosy pictures or neat outcomes painted in business management books or classes, are not real life. The one-liners thrown away in podcasts e.g., “Joe was assigned the task of telling the division that the merger was about to make them redundant,” never quite seem to cover the obvious: executive leaders must deal with people. People have emotions.
Yes, we must be ready to face “real life” and certainly, bad days can, and do take turns for the worse, however in all ways, it is how we respond to those challenges that define us. We are reminded of leaders we have met who – facing similar situations – were mindful or not. Those who were mindful had better outcomes.
For example, if an executive has just discovered that they are tasked with having to end the employment of a group of employees due to a merger, the situation can be handled within the context of a choice. The choice can be to relate the news, calculating and flippant (“Well, it looks like we’re all getting the axe, folks.”) or it can be mindful and authentic (“There is no easy way to say this, but I am with you and here to help.”)
At the end of the day, the outcome will be the same. And, while we realize no situation is ever completely one way or the other, we have experienced and heard enough of the unmindful approaches to understand that there is nothing positive or pleasant about the experience. There is little wisdom in the old, “ripping the bandage off approach.”
Mindfulness is never weakness
There is no way around bad news. We know this from our personal lives and we should know this in our corporate lives. The executive who related “Having a bad day? Wait, it’s about to get much worse,” heard the news of her termination at a luncheon with 120 other employees.
It was a fancy luncheon indeed, with hors d’oeuvres and a slick PowerPoint presentation delivered by the HR person of the acquiring company. Why the HR department? Because they invited those among the 120 to submit their resumes for future openings. Of those 120 souls, several had been with the company being acquired for decades. The scene was ugly and contentious. They deserved much better.
Mindfulness is not weakness, rather a human-to-human response, an authentic response that at least mitigates what is the unavoidable.
To her credit, the executive came to VIM Executive Coaching to become more mindful. For as she was climbing in her own organization, she wanted to ensure that if she was faced with delivering bad news, she would not lose herself nor the hearts of the people she led.
It is why we admired her and clearly, her employees were loyal of her as well. She has since become CEO.