Evan Renaerts

Less can be More

February 13, 2008

Early morning sunlight kisses the top of a big Cedar tree and lays a golden band across a rooftop. The mist has burned off to reveal blue skies; the Magnolia flaunts its early blossom buds. Change keeps happening slowly, slowly and then all of a sudden.

Somebody once said that we are not human-doings but human–beings, emphasis on the verb, to-be. But study yourself, the people around you and the organizations you are a part of, and see what we all do the minute we’re not sure what to do – we do more. It seems that we either are not comfortable with “being” or that we have little faith in our being-ness to lead us in the right directions.

The workers in the construction industry used a little ditty that went, “When in trouble or in doubt run in circles scream and shout.” This tended to describe one typical management response to a plan gone wrong – look busy even when you have no idea where you are going.

The trouble with the headless chicken response (and there are a few) is that those who are counted on to do the work lose faith and respect for the leaders, all the running accomplishes very little, and the decision makers have kept themselves too busy to take the time they need to regroup and re-discover their direction.

I use the term re-discover because I believe that the best directions we can take arise from a knowing of who we are, what guides us (core principals) and how we prefer to work – all aspects of our being-ness. Sometimes when things are becoming chaotic the best thing the leader can do is go for a walk, either figuratively or literally.

It can be powerful to assume that whatever project or group or task we are responsible for is the one we are meant to be doing; there is no mistake that we are where we are. Each of us sees and understands life differently (even if only a very little) and this means that our response will be just a little different than anyone else’s.

If we can trust that the reason we are where we are is because that “different” personal response is the one that is needed, then we can begin to act with a deeply experienced sense of confidence. This is exactly the opposite of spending a lifetime trying to figure out how to act like someone else because we perceive that they alone have what the world needs.

If there is any real value in leadership trainings and break-through workshops it will be that they have been structured in such a way as to inspire the participants to, first know themselves and then trust themselves. Self-knowledge is a core leadership and life skill.

To honestly know who we are means that whenever we have the experience that the project, career, life, are on the line and awaiting a clear decision from us we have a touchstone. We look for the most powerful way to express our particular unique being-ness and then go with it.

This isn’t a path for those who won’t move without a clear set of operating guidelines or a memo from someone further up the food chain. This is a path of self discovery, courage and accountability, where you realize that the one thing that is always on the line is your own integrity.

Evan Renaerts 604 314 0835 evan@evanrenaerts.com posted by Evan Renaerts at 13:07