How to be a master of mental Aikido

International Women’s Day on March 8 (#IWD18) inspired me to focus this article on three wise women that taught me key lessons about business and life this month. The Aikido reference will make sense shortly.

Number 1: The Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore, one of Australia’s most enduring political leaders.

Since she became Lord Mayor in 2004 there have been 5 Prime Ministers and 7 NSW Premiers. Not only was she re-elected for her fourth term recently, the vote swung 10% in her favour. Until 2012 the Lord Mayor (pictured below) was also a State MP and with the balance of power at the time she delivered a Charter of Reform, which has been called the most radical state political reform agenda of any Westminster Parliament in the 20th Century.

Geographically the City of Sydney is small covering just 25km2 and over 200,000 residents compared to the City of Brisbane which covers over 1,000 km2 and 1 million people. However the City of Sydney represents 7% of the total national economy and over 20% of NSW’s GDP, over 21,000 businesses operate in this area, and on any given day 615,000 day tourists, visitors and students come to the city to shop, be entertained or inspired, to learn, to visit friends and/or to conduct personal or corporate business.

Politics aside, anyone in any field that can hold a publicly elected seat of power for as long as the Lord Mayor is exceptional. Her journey has not been without challenge. Not only has she endured some very personal attacks by shock jocks and media outlets, there was even a bill passed through State government, some called the ‘get Clover bill’, to ensure she could not be both a state and local pollie.

The business / life lesson I took from Clover was how she responded to the external challenges, criticism and obstacles. 

She turned set back into set up. The criticism only deepened her resolve to fight for the people, for the environment, for our city. 

Clover’s response to challenge reminds me of how one of my mentors used to talk about the Japanese martial art of Aikido. Apparently the key to Aikido is using the energy of the attacker to win the battle. The more force the attacker uses the more it benefits the attacked as they are able to turn that negative energy into a positive force for resolution.

The literal translation of Aikido is intriguing given that it is a martial art. Aikido means "the way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the way of harmonious spirit". This brings me back to the Lord Mayor. Spending time with her revealed both deep conviction, deep humility and a deep harmony. She is totally aligned with her calling. She is living a purpose driven life. 

We spoke about what advice she would give herself if she could travel back in time and meet Clover at 20. â€œFrom little things big things grow” she replied. She never imagined at 20 that at 72 (believe it or not) she would have been the Lord Mayor for 14 years of one of the world’s most iconic cities and in her own right become an icon as well. 

Number 2. Dr Jane Goodall, Dame of the British Empire, UN Messenger of Peace and primatologist 

I was very fortunate to spend a day with Jane in 2014 and was going thru some video footage of that time with Jane this month. Jane, like Clover, has lived a purpose driven life with great humility as you will see in the clip below.

For those that don’t know Jane’s story she was born in 1934, in London, England, but a couple of decades later set off to Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees. She immersed herself in their lives, bypassing more rigid procedures to make discoveries about primate behavior that have continued to shape scientific discourse and our definition of what is means to be human.

She is now a highly respected member of the world scientific community, however her early observations of chimpanzees were scorned by many in the traditional academic community. Like Clover Jane channelled this negativity into positive resolution and over fifty years on she continues to be sought after for her insights about the future of the planet.

I asked Jane to consider her leadership longevity. Her response was beautiful. Such humility. She spoke about the importance of trust, walking the talk, being genuine. The insight Jane reminded me of is the importance of

prioritising in life purpose over popularity, living a noteworthy life instead of spending our lives seeking notoriety. 

Please enjoy this short clip of Jane.

Number 3. My wife Trish

This month we celebrated International Womens Day as well as World Down Syndrome Day. Not many people know that my son Benji was born with Down Syndrome. Due to a related heart condition he died during delivery. In that time of incredible pain and sadness Trish revealed to me the incredible depth of the human spirit. 

She was able to tap into a reservoir of peace and energy unlike anything she had experienced before. I believe we all have this resource within us but every day circumstances rarely require us tap into it. But it is there and the video below of mum’s and their children made to celebrate World Down Syndrome day reminded me of this power. The Greeks described this energy as ‘agape’. In English it best approximates to unconditional love.

Why might you ask am I talking about this on LinkedIn which is meant to focus on insights and wisdom for the professional community? Well if you are like me you are most likely experiencing increasing amounts of change and disruption in your worklife. As my favourite Professor David Cooperrider says

‘people don’t resist change they resist change happening to them’.

But I believe a significant part of why we don’t like change 'happening to us' is because we fear that we won’t be able to handle it. We fear that we don’t have the resources to respond constructively and ultimately be in a better position because of it. As a result most of us would prefer predictable mediocrity than responding to change in a way that realises the potential of a far more prosperous life.

However if we each knew that we have within us a deeper resource, an energy that will not only help us survive but potentially thrive in response to the biggest trials in our lives, then maybe the default fear that we feel when change ‘happens to us’ could be turned into a positive energy to find a pathway forward. Maybe we could all become Aikido masters in our own minds, using the energy of own doubt, negativity and inner criticism to win the battle and find harmony within ourselves.

Thank you to these three wonderful women, amongst many others, that touched my life this month. If you have read this far then hopefully you too have a story, if not many, about a life or leadership lesson imparted to you by the women around you. If so I would love to hear it in the comments below.

Please find below links to my previous monthly posts.

• Time to terminate HR?
• Too busy or not too busy. Is that the question?
• Who inspired you in 2017? My top ten!
• The missing link of high performance
• The future belongs to people with this skill
• Lessons from loss
• Good Grief
• 20 reasons why corporate wellness programs get sick
• Australia is still lucky... but for how long?
• Change management has become a joke!
• Are you ready for the third age?
• What matters most in a post-truth world?
• Never waste a good crisis
• Your best bet yet for a year of success
• What will your New Year's Evolution be?
• Are you ready for the 'gig economy'?
• Are you working with an energy vampire?
• From counting people to making people count
• Five novel tactics for better leadership
• Mid year reviews: Ubiquitous but ridiculous
• Talent pipelines are broken
• Australia: The innovation immigration correlation
• Time to reimagine HR
• The secret to successful disruption: The innovation colony
• How to survive and thrive in the supermatrix
• The biggest predictor of career success is...
• The secret to high performance is not what you think...
• Where are you on the digital vortex?
• Diversity does not equal inclusion
• How to catch and hold the rebound expat
• The e-factor is the new x: the ultimate growth multiplier
• Are you working with a waste of space?
• Iron Man needs you!
• Collaboration: the new super skill
• Leading innovation from the Australian subsidiary
• Insurgent or incumbent: the key to a future every company wants is...
• Why the talent war is over
• How 'the other GDP' is causing a talent crunch

Rich Hirst is a Director of Gartner's International Executive Forums, providing a range of services specifically and exclusively for the most senior executives in the Australian operations of foreign-owned multinational corporations.  

International Executive Forums operate three peer groups: the International CEO Forum with close to 3o0 CEO members; the International CFO Forum with around 180 CFO members; and the International HRD Forum with some 160 HRD members.

In addition to our peer group services, we also provide a range of opportunities for our member companies to develop their up-and-coming talent through a series of events with a particular focus on women and emerging executives. For more information please call +612 9955 2848.