Seasons Greetings and Reflections on Reflecting

Happy Holidays! I am writing this note to you on my way to Maui, a place I am grateful to call a home away from home. I have spent many holidays over the years in the Hawaiian Islands, and have family and friends who live there. For me, I return again and again because it's a place of grounding and feeling fully alive, of both connection and solitude. I wrote much of my book there, came up with the name Azure Leadership Group there, and if you know me well, you know how much I love the sun. I feel very fortunate to be in this holiday season feeling both physically warm and feeling the warmth of family and friends.

I'm also thinking about?how our world continues to be complex and challenging in many ways, for many of us. Wars and disease continue, and worsen.?Protests and assaults ?on my own City Council member in front of his home in my New York neighborhood just this week and another recent LGBTQ nightclub shooting remind me about how much more we have to do to build a culture where everybody feels included and safe. Many former colleagues and friends are still reeling from the sudden news this fall that they were out of jobs, others taking on new work they didn't necessarily sign up for, many unsure of what the new year will bring.

Like you may be, I am holding both the tension of sadness and angst and a sense of joy and gratitude for so much. One of the great things about being human is that we can hold all of these feelings simultaneously...and to reflect on them.?

This season is a time of reflection, to take stock. I write this note on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. This point, when the darkness comes to its greatest point, before the light begins to grow, is a time of turning inward. In turning inward, we can better understand the inner terrain of us, and how we hold in tension sadness and joy, angst and contentedness, how we think about questions without the need to come to a complete, or perfect, or quick answer.??

A recent quote shared by a leader in the Hudson Community of Coaches really resonated with me:?“An answer too soon smothers the question.”?In turning inward, in asking questions without needing to resolve quickly, we can more finely attune ourselves to what we want to get up to in life.

This holiday as I reflect, I aim to sit with my questions a little longer. To resist the urge to fix, answer, perfect. And ask bigger questions of myself in ways that expand possibility, widen the aperture of how you experience the world, and allow myself to be with what is. My wish is the same for you.

Lastly, I remember that the world also needs meaningful action and attention.?This year I'll be supporting?Planned Parenthood , a national organization that provides much-needed health services, education and advocacy around family planning and reproductive health; the?International Rescue Committee , helping people affected by humanitarian crises globally recover and rebuild their lives; and the?Ali Forney Center , protecting LGBTQ+ youth from the harms of homelessness and empowering them with tools to live independently.

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I am grateful for your support and partnership these last few years. Working on communication, leadership and culture has never been more important for leaders and organizations going through so much change, and it's been a joy to do so with you.

Seasons Greetings to you, and all my best wishes for health and happiness in the New Year.

Andrew?