Gangway FRIDAY

Yes we have yet again reached our marker of the old normality, and for the new… well it’s Friday and possibly not a bit different than the rest of the week. If the new norm has placed you into a nullified, bland state you might consider making your own new momentous milestones.

Personal and professional life is full of ambitions. From an early age we are indoctrinated that we can achieve what we set out to accomplish. In doing accept that while we might wish instantons gratification it is unlike to happen and will require a journey that involves joy and heartaches. The backdrop to this is our timeline made up of decades, years, months and days to which Friday was a market delineating the separation between work and rest. For goal achievers rest became more a condition that was enjoyed as it came and not one relegated to a specific point in time. This is all well and good but for the present moment we need some sense renewal and setting a time, or period, would seem to be a healthy decision to make.

So get out of the way for we are going to make a shift to recharge our batteries, to stimulate our thinking, to relish the few joys that life presents itself and find perspective in clarity. I have had recent inquiries concerning what to do? At a loss for purpose people are feeling the stresses associated with uncertainty, isolation, social unrest and an overabundance of information.  You cannot separate yourself from life totally, exposure will makes its way into your routines regardless of whether you are at rest or not. We have heard people say to distance themselves but with distancing now being the norm does that mean we need to become more recluse or can we insulate ourselves from the effect from the present exposures that we are in contact with? I think of it a bit like precautions taken when we move about outside of home isolation, we sanitize and take proper steps to reduce exposure spread (even if we cannot see anything harmful). 

Part of our journey involves being selective and abstain from wholesale exposure to forces that inhibit our renewal of self. Whether you are the CEO or worker, parent or child our physical and mental health determines our life path fate.  During the last two months we have placed under the microscope various interviews conducted of CEOs. Our interest was to better understand their human response to the social events in the present day. Aside from establishing valuable face time a much closer examination revealed,

• Personal joys and happiness,
• Attitudes towards staff and customers,
• Social networks relied upon,
• Impact of disruption, and
• Degree of ‘real’ control leadership being exercised.

What we see is a profound appreciation for the impact they have on their personal life in the delivery of leadership. Before it may have been just words but now they are feeling the realities of containment within the personal sphere and not separation caused by leadership commitments. Distancing created a better understanding for the emotional element involving staff and customers. This observation created a new understanding for how people feel in carrying out their roles in a complex trade and delivery model. The peer-to-peer social networks were looked at differently because it now was personalized and not just a opportunistic outlet to produce benefit for a definitive purpose. Shifts have created empathy and cooperation, departing from the routine courteous social interaction that produced a somewhat covert agenda. Leadership has continued to maintained a demeanor of calm and control despite obscurity in disruption impact. Even the shift in work place has been treated as normality despite indications that the workforce has yet to find a state of tranquility from the transactional abruptness. Leadership regularly measured by efforts and outcomes, the pandemic has provided a cushion of permissiveness in this regard. But in looking at this opportunity it became apparent that it has become a reason to continue as was (argument: maintaining normality over addressing disruption) and not address the present with a minds eye for reaffirming directional change. Leadership is a role which is hard by virtue of responsibilities. In one such interview the CEO stated that it “would be a whole lot easier to do if they were smaller”, inferring that size comes with it complexity. But also with scale comes entangled interactions between roles, goals, dependencies, suppliers, regulators and who knows what other stakeholders that make up your enterprise role endeavors. We would also contend that small-medium-enterprises (SMEs) are equally challenged in different ways that are closer to the bone of existence. Funding, market stability and growth to compensate for shrinkage, branding sustainment, and building market confidence during trying times present formable tasks for leadership but also for each and every one of us.

Renewal of mind and body are healthy, they should not be viewed as departures but a part of our human agenda. Even a person in retirement needs to have a moment of work, parents need a renewal in being (you still retain the ongoing responsibility even while renewing) and every employee needs a renewal of clarity.

Decision Points:

• Making time for renewal
• Improving renewal time to produce value whether personal or professional
• Leadership renewal through… RE-

o  Thinking

o  Energizing

o  Visioning

o  Leading

o  Connecting

o  Exploring

o  Examining

o  Utilizing

o  Innovating

• Make your Friday purposeful
• Produce a healthy wellness through holistic care

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Clarity Group Global is an intellectual decision validation institution dedicated to the support of leaders, companies and organizations that face challenging choices. Making right decisions that produce significant value equates to less disruption and chaos, "non-tradition made exceptional".