Being Aware of What Remains
VIM Executive Coaching recently had an encounter with a potential business coaching client who started with a simple declarative sentence: “I feel like leaving my job and opening a coffee shop.”
“Is that what you really want to do?”
“No,” he assured us. “I want to stay in my world, in this job, but everything has become so confused, so political, so stress-filled and tentative.”
We understand. It does seem that way, but life goes on and we just adjust.
But what has really changed?
The day-to-day, week-to-week changes that have apparently overwhelmed so many executive leaders were a long time in arriving. However, the fact that they arrived does not mean tragedy. The world is certainly not the worser for them and indeed made better.
How long should the world have waited on equal rights under the law or equity in salaries or a recognition of the continuum of sexual preferences or the right of someone to practice their faith? How many decades into the future should we have expected that companies would give up polluting or finally committed to ethical governance or simply, that an employee’s health should also include their mental health?
In candor, VIM Executive Coaching recognizes that the same issues affecting co-workers, also appears within our own families or among friends or within our social settings. If everything has lately become so confused, so political, so stress-filled and tentative in the work place then it is equally “confusing” for parents or leaders; friends or neighbors. Executive leaders are part of this world, not a-part from it. This is a wonderful proposition.
So again, we question what has really changed on a human level?
On the surface
On the surface, the societal changes may appear to be overwhelming to executive leaders, but are they really overwhelming at heart? We at VIM Executive Coaching think not.
Is it wrong that that an employee wants to be included, given equal opportunity and respected? Is it erroneous that the environment should be respected or that a parent should be empowered to care for their child or shareholders should expect that the CFO or COO or EVP must be driven to be ethical in the reporting of financial data? Obviously not. If changes are finally here, it does not mean they were always wrong.
While on the surface things have changed, the deeper and more human values, those that have endured through respect and dignity and purpose have never changed. The basic needs have always been with us and the most mindful and authentic leaders have understood this. That set of facts are the keys to all of these concerns; that the most mindful and authentic executive leaders understand they are the agents who can help bring about change.
Being aware of what remains is understanding that employees no matter how diverse, have the same basic desires, be it a safe work place free of judgment and bullying, recognition that they matter as people and equally worth payment for the same job. It is not a hard concept if executive leaders accept that the mindfulness of situations are equally valid to everyone professionally as well as personally.
If “I” want to be seen, then there must be respect that “you” want to be seen as well. It is truly elegant in its honesty. The most mindful and authentic must, by definition also be good listeners and compassionate in understanding. In short, we are all in this together and our common ground is the human experience. That is what remains.