Being a leader . . . 

What does Leadership have to do with Moods?

What "mood" is your leadership in? What "mood" is is running the show? What "mood" is steering the ship?

Do you ever feel like a dog on the end of a leash - and the leash is being led by a mood? Our moods, or emotional states are like harnesses or leashes, in that they constrain and coerce our thoughts and actions. Moods are like a fog gently and quietly moving in and blanketing the environment. Heidegger would refer to this as our "being-in-the-world". Our being-in-the-world is like a blanket of fog - there is no escaping it, it takes up residence in every corner of our world.

"Surgeon General's Warning"-  Trying to escape a mood could be hazardous to your ability to lead effectively, efficiently and compassionately. 

Embrace the mood, notice how it is shaping your thinking and doing. Ask yourself if it is producing results and ennobling others, in a way that is consistent with who you say you are and how you want to make a difference.

Leaders create moods - their own and those of organizations. What mood are you creating in your organization?

Bob Being Bob

Being a leader . . .

Being leader . . . is more appropriate. To be a leader means being many things, or said more directly seeing from many perspectives. Your perspective will define your interpretation and in turn will define who you are being in any given situation.

"I am always at the beginning" (The Buddha's response when asked what life was like)

To be leader-like one must always be willing to be at the beginning - not only willing to be at the beginning or find oneself there - but to bring oneself to always be at the beginning. Being at the beginning with no "past induced" restraint or constraint.

To be at the beginning of something is the most difficult of jobs - for there are no answers, and few believers. There is little to "hold on to" and more to "run to" for certainty is always easier to grasp than uncertainty.

To be at the beginning of something calls on us to be guided by our "true north"in the absence of support by those that have been rewarded well by the certainty of the past; when not yet able to see that the ways of the past have been made obsolete by the changing world they inhabit.

Do you trust you to be at the beginning of something, and pick yourself up when you are off course, and start over again and again, and again?

Bob Being Bob

Cleaning up when things get messy . . .

If you are acting on and inside of the realm of leadership than you are bound to make a "mess" from time to time. And I would propose that if you are not making any messes you are not leading - you are carefully managing something - aka keeping things from going out of imaginary and real boundaries.

So when you do find yourself with an intended, and sometimes not intended, mess you are obliged to clean it up as best as you can.

Cleaning up a mess is simple - simple but not necessarily easy - cleaning up a mess calls on you to be deeply rooted in your purpose or the organizations purpose.

Without an unwavering commitment to a purpose bigger than yourself or the "day to day" noise in an organization you will be thrown to drifting with the tide, and then unable to clean up the mess you made on behalf of realizing the potential of someone or something.

So here is the simple guide or formula:

Step up and own the mess.

Articulate what you were acting on behalf of.

Acknowledge how something happened that was inconsistent with your commitment. 

Do not assume you understand why others did not appear to be acting consistent with your commitment - ask for input.

Collaborate on a resolution that everyone can align on.

When all else fails - be authentic. But that is a bigger conversation for another time.

Bob Being Bob