An iconic commercial rolled across the VIM Executive Coaching music feed last week. And, bless this senior woman’s soul, she was right where we last saw her a decade or more ago, exclaiming “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
No, we are not making fun. In fact, we hope her residuals from making the commercial have comfortably ensconced her on a lush island in the Caribbean complete with a staff and yacht. However, the phrase has present day applicability to executive leaders whose careers wobbled and fell in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Getting up when you’ve been down
Many of us, as adults, have tripped and fallen. It can be scary. Even those of us who trudge off to gyms, ski slopes and go on vigorous hikes, have a fear of taking a nasty fall. Losing an executive position, much like tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, can unexpectedly occur and can lead to injury. If either has recently happened to you (a physical fall or career fall) we are sorry. We can help with the career fall if you need a helping hand but first, we need to explore the subject in a bit more detail.
Unlike the physical fall, most of us – thankfully, get up, brush off our embarrassment and go on our merry way. The career fall, especially in an age of constant change, hybrid workplaces, the need for greater equity, heavier emphasis on corporate social responsibility, new technologies and social media, have a choice: to simply get up and then try to re-establish the same patterns or to understand what happened and ask for assistance.
As an aside, we at VIM Executive Coaching recently saw an elderly person fall on a Northern California street and within seconds several really wonderful people rushed over to help and made sure she was alright. The same is true of a career misstep. If you need help, there is no shame. In fact, it is far better to ask for assistance than to reject support.
In the executive ranks, there are figurative cracks in the career sidewalk. We have yet to work with a business coaching client in any field, who did not see, or suspect, or fear that something was wrong far in advance of the fall. The career fall can occur for a myriad of reasons, just as there are a thousand ways to physically trip and fall however, if we had to pinpoint but one reason, it would be a lack of mindfulness.
The mindful executive
For we have heard the stories of many who fell literally or symbolically and surprisingly the same phrase (or a quite similar phrase) flashed across their consciousness as they fell: “My whole life flashed by me.”
For most executives, as they fell, it is in that review of their insensitivity, or reaction, or inappropriate comments, or “bending the financial rules,” or other unethical behaviors that they understood the consequences. Very few of us would intentionally want to trip over a physical obstacle if we had a choice. Similarly, very few of us would elect a career fall.
VIM Executive Coaching is not in the promising business, but the executive leadership coaching business. Nevertheless, with our mindfulness training, helping with personal exploration, learning response over reaction and developing authenticity, we can assist you in seeing those metaphorical cracks in the sidewalk on the leadership journey.