“If it was so easy, everyone would be doing it.”
~Who Knows?
It is impossible to trace exactly when the first book of leadership (executive or otherwise) was “written.” We at VIM Executive Coaching are not historians but business coaches. Whether the first account of leadership was written on papyrus, fashioned from beads, molded into a clay tablet or sent up as a long smoke signal escapes us.
Our guess, however, is that the overriding thought of such communication included the sentence: “If you think leadership is easy, you’re doing it wrong,”
There are many shortcuts
Given the many challenges of leadership, we are amazed at the great numbers of “easy guides,” “no hassle programs,” and “step-by-step,” videos, podcasts, books, courses, cheat-sheets, retreats and guides that promise sweat-free transformations.
The problem with these many shortcuts is that they are external. The shortcut method makes it sound as though we humans can effectively learn by assimilation. It is the same mindset that believes that if we watch enough medical sitcoms, we will transform into the chief of surgery at Harvard Medical School or if your daughter watches Caitlin Clark WNBA games, she is assured of becoming a professional basketball player.
Ironically, we at VIM Coaching do know a professor emeritus (and former pediatric surgeon) at an extremely prestigious medical school, and also an athlete who was in line to play professional basketball.
The road for our surgeon friend required (of course) great intelligence and the earning of credentials but more so (by their admission) humility, study, commitment and failure. For our surgeon friend, there were many long and painful days and nights. Triumph did come, but not without sacrifice.
Our friend, the basketball player, not only reached the peak of the high school and collegiate ranks, but sacrificed body and soul in competitions, trials, try-outs, injuries, the evaluations of professional scouts, coaches and franchises.
The battles that both of the above, true life, examples faced were more than battles of intellect and potential, but of the internal.
Why work for anything?
We are not averse to technology. Clearly, you would not be reading this if we rejected the digital world. However, would-be executive leaders often fail not because they lack the digital tools or “credentials,” rather that in rejecting the internal, they cannot relate to subordinates, peers and higher executives on a person-to-person basis.
AI, for example, has a multitude of useful purposes, but there is no program that can replace mindfulness or authenticity. Digital devices, various platforms and programs cannot replace the opportunities and success that effective interaction can bring.
There will always be those who reject working for an outcome in favor of shortcuts. Not surprising, there will always be entire industries that exist to create shortcuts and so-called easy “hacks,” or quick routines to by-pass work. They typically fail.
Mindfulness recognizes that like it or not, we are all flawed. The greatest executive leaders have freely admitted they were flawed. Their challenge and triumph were to look deep within to change, to rise to personal challenge and to overcome.
In a sense, the easy approach to executive leadership celebrates mediocrity. AI is elegant in its own way, in that in creates rather predictable outcomes to the majority of certain problems. And, we must admit, most executive leadership programs and coursework are somewhat effective in dealing with a broad spectrum of problems. Nevertheless, it is authenticity and effective, human response that separates the mindful from the unexceptional.
Our outstanding surgeon and professor did not prove to be brilliant in mediocre procedures, but in a mindful and introspective response to major medical challenges. Our basketball player did not become celebrated because of routine lay-ups, but amazing 3-point shots at the buzzer.
Executive leadership will never be easy however, the best of those leaders will always be mindful.