How Present Are You?

Most leaders are so busy thinking about what their followers are doing that they don’t consider their own mindfulness and preparation. You, however, are reading this article and doing something to prepare yourself for the demands your leadership places on you.

Life is fleeting and opportunities are fragile, and yet sometimes we tend to forget that. There is a tendency to focus on what was or what is to come. We have an almost obsessive need to reflect on our past or consider our future while ignoring the present.

All we have is right this minute. In that minute, there is every opportunity to fully live, to fully engage and to fully lead and influence those in your care. When you forsake the present in favor of the future or the past, you deny the opportunity to lead right here, right now. It takes courage to be fully present. It takes discipline to not look at your iPhone, check your email or think about tomorrow’s agenda when a person under your influence is talking to you.

I am not suggesting that you should not plan, or build a plan, for the future. I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t learn from what has already happened. What I am suggesting is that all the planning and reflecting in the world provides no guarantees. No matter what you do, you can’t be certain of the future. You are, however, guaranteed this current moment, by virtue of the fact that you are living it. If you decide to trade this moment for the memory of yesterday or the concern of tomorrow, you are likely to miss what’s happening now. Worry, anticipation, regret and hope are some of the mental processes that rob us of fully and courageously experiencing our leadership and influence on a day-to-day basis.

I can almost hear you saying, “Hold it, hold it, hold it! Did you just say that hope can rob us of fully leading right now?” Yes, that is exactly what I said. If you keep hoping things will get better, hoping that person will start performing, hoping that the plan will eventually be executed, hoping the market will shift, you will trade your current influence over those things for the anticipation of tomorrow. Instead of taking action, you continue to wait. There is simply no time to waste on that.

To what extent are you mentally and emotionally prepared to lead courageously in a time when hesitation and caution are the norm? Take a moment to think about that. When have you recently stepped out and taken action to impact the present moment?

I urge you to consider how your leadership might be different if you decided, for just a few days, to go ahead and plan for tomorrow, but once it was planned, return to the moment and commit 100 percent of your energy to NOW. What kind of results could you produce in the moment? What kind of relationships could you create if your energy was fully invested? What kind of stress could you eliminate if you stopped worrying about the next day or the next quarter? How often do you rush down the hall to the next meeting or try to get ahead on tomorrow’s work instead of seeing what impact you can have today?

The most power you possess as a leader is right here, right now, in this moment. If your leadership is primarily artistic, centered on how you channel energy and culture, then I urge you to consider the power of that energy focused in the now. For those of you who prefer the scientific approach to leadership and perhaps feel that this article is a bit warm and fuzzy for you, I encourage you to think of times when you have targeted your time and energy like a laser. How much more powerful would your results with a person or a project be if you targeted the now instead of the future?

With all of the swirling information and competing priorities being thrown at you every day, not only from the media but from friends and family and all manner of opinion sources, it is critical that YOU think. Too often in life and business, we don’t really think for ourselves. Now, before you dismiss me as overstating the obvious, let’s think about it. Do you really take the time every week to think about what you are doing? Do you take the time to ask yourself the kind of questions that require you to form opinions from scratch? Are you challenging yourself to be fully awake in your choices and behaviors or are you relying on second-hand impressions? More times than not, great leaders help their followers THINK differently. They encourage, even demand that their reports consider different perspectives and think for themselves, and they model that behavior in their own lives. It takes very little adjustment in your thinking and your followers’ thinking before huge shifts in performance start to take place. It starts with you and how present you are in your work.

Some years ago, our firm was asked by our largest client at the time to assist in a search for a new CEO. The request came from the current CEO, for whom I have immense respect. Our firm doesn’t usually do executive search work, but because of our relationship, we agreed to manage the search.

One day, the CEO and I were in his office, he at his desk and me across from him. I pointed at the chair he was sitting in and commented, “I have no idea how we will fill that chair. Your legacy and success here are significant!”

I will never forget what happened next. He said, “Mike, that’s not what you were hired to do. You are not being asked to fill this chair. Come with me.” He had a patio off of his office. On that patio was a chair. He pointed at the chair and said, “That is the chair you are being asked to fill.”

I was admittedly confused and told him I didn’t understand. He said, “The chair at my desk is easy to fill. Honestly, anyone can do it. That is the chair where I review financials, meet with VPs and make all kinds of business decisions.” Pointing back at the chair on his patio, he said, “This is the chair where I sit to think about the future of this company and how I can take steps in the present toward that future. It’s the place where I crafted my initial vision for the company. It’s the place where I sit and think! Your job is to find a person that can sit here.”

That is the point of this piece. For the CEO to leave his desk and move to the patio was not only a physical move, but a metaphorical one as well. To step away and take the time to think, he had to be present in the moment and present in his role as leader. Are you prepared for that seat? Do you afford yourself the opportunity to think, or do the duties of “the desk” shackle you? Do you take advantage of each moment of each day? Your presence as a leader relates to the heart and soul of who you are much more than it does to what you do, and if you commit to being both thoughtful and present, your leadership and vision will become much more effective and much easier to enact.

Here are some closing thoughts I want to leave with you:

1. Take time once a week to get to “the patio chair” and think about your organization. What vision do you have for its future? What can you do today to move toward that vision?
2. Commit to being fully present, without distraction, for at least one day a week. That means no rushing, no over-analyzing yesterday, and only minimal conversation about tomorrow. Stay with the now.
3. Invite someone (your assistant, a trusted friend) to hold you accountable for being in the moment and indulging in time spent in thought.
4. Channel your energy into things you can control. If you try to create certainty for tomorrow, you’ll sacrifice what you could be doing today.