We at VIM Executive Coaching readily admit English can be a confusing language. As we are business coaches who anchor our philosophy in the world of mindfulness, we also admit that sometimes a deep meditative breath; a responsive pause, can be wiser and more effective than a whole bunch of words. Lots of executive leaders are guilty of “saying a lot” in moments of reaction but in the end, saying nothing.
So, not too long ago, we encountered an executive leader whose favorite expression and strong reaction seemed to be, “I try to never let my people take me into unchartered waters.” It appears no one ever wanted to correct him. However, the subtle difference in the English of uncharted versus unchartered, is significant.
Magellan’s Voyage
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer best known for making his way to the West Indies around 1520 (no, he was not the inventor of Jell-O!). In any case he and his navigator made their way across the globe through uncharted waters. They made their own map, which was pretty darn impressive. They had navigation tools and knew a thing or two about tides, the moon, the stars and such. The crew had to be courageous and inter-dependent. For in the end, Magellan had only an inkling of where he was going, and it was necessary for he and his crew to be mindful of everything from sea monsters to falling off the edge of the earth.
Suppose Magellan decided to hire out (charter or out-source, if you will) a suspect crew in a wooden tub that had once sailed to Sevilla for Paella or to the Canary Islands for birdseed, but had never actually sailed into uncharted territory?
To get serious for a bit, the differences between charted and chartered are massive yet each day, executive leaders defer, delegate, relegate and bypass being mindful in favor of having someone else do the necessary, moment-to-moment acts of mindfulness.
Executive leadership training can – and should be – a mindful process of self-reflection, responsiveness, authenticity and flexibility. Mindfulness can be a moment-to-moment adjustment whether it is a case of being open to change when a product trial appears to be successful or unsuccessful or there is strife between an employee and manager. Such problems often lead executives into uncharted waters and in those instances, the best tool (much like a compass that always points to magnetic north), is mindfulness. We are told the ancient navigators kept super-private notes, guidebooks. It is an interesting thought, for executive leaders who reach a sense of awareness and responsiveness might have totally different personalities and yet reach the same location.
How many oxcarts of barley for doing that?
Throughout the ages, executives of all stripes have been all too happy to pay others to do the heavy lifting. Sometimes the executive leadership charter works, most times it doesn’t.
In modern times, there are hundreds of quick and easy courses and throw-away road maps offering mindfulness and rapid, executive awareness. The offices of thousands of executives are decorated with an impressive array of diplomas. The diplomas are pumped out of offered courses that promote mindfulness in a one-size-fits-all pattern.
The recent upheavals we have all seen in workplaces are reflective of the fact that mindfulness as it applies to executive leadership must be more than a word. Executive leaders who use the right buzz-words but fail to live up to the intention such words imply.
There are no shortcuts to authenticity and mindfulness. In the moment, the executive leader must ask themselves if they have the courage to pursue a personal uncharted course or pay the price to have a disinterested party navigate them to an unproductive place.