The Game is in Play...

I read on a wise man's blog this week something that has had me contemplating my own leadership strategies and energies.

The sage post (in partial form related to chess and life comparisons) was "Playing defensively and simply trying to protect your king is a weak strategy compared to an aggressive strategy where you get the pieces in positions where you can use their mobility as an advantage. Thus it is with life. If you spend all of your time and energy protecting what you have, all you are doing is postponing the time when you will recognize that you never gave yourself a chance to truly succeed."

Fundamental to my own leadership strategies is a natural bent toward engaging staff in recognizing and putting their strengths to work in order to achieve outstanding performance. My greatest satisfaction is rarely about the tangible product as much as it is about the intangible maximizing of human capital. It literally chokes me up.

The point where someone turns a corner they did not even know existed. Or to borrow from this person's analogy, the moment someone stops playing small and risks... only to find personal mobility in terms of vision, achievement, dreams... is my "win" as much as theirs.

I see a lot of shifting lately in some of my staff. Less guarding of the tiny personal/professional square that might have been perceived as their own turf. Much more looking out several moves. An abundance of calculated risks that lead to learnings.

And that makes me feel like the queen of the world (okay, just my little world anyway!) - able to go in several directions, to protect the mission of my organization, to empower our different people to capitalize on their unique moves, to build a learning culture where a team thinks a number of moves ahead and gathers as much information as they possibly can.

Not quite check mate. But the game is in play...

Fasting

I am going to fast this week. And I do not mean a food fast.

I am willingly abstaining from viewpoint offering for the week. An opinion fast so to speak.

I will instead use the time as a period of listening, reflection and prayer. A spiritual and occurpational recuperation time.

Refresh and reinvigorate is the intent. I'll strive to make the necessary readjustments in my inner-life in order to better listen, learn and lead.

Since so few know of my blog, this fast's purpose is purely personal, symbolic only to me in its significance. No political statement. No leadership challenge to others.

Also no weight loss strategy. Although I expect letting the weight of the world off my shoulders may be an anticipated benefit!

Let the therapy begin!