Stewardship

Week before last I was a participant in the ICCO (International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations) Symposium on “Coaching Excellence for Sustainable Leadership. We looked at the terms 'leadership', 'sustainable leadership', 'coaching excellence' and what that is exactly, and why do we WANT leadership to be sustainable? To what end?

As you can imagine, the conversation could have continued forever, so half the difficulty was to synthesize it in a way we could all move forward in our work in the time available to us.

For me, my interpretation of stewardship is “Being responsible to future generations for their condition; that we do not own the world but we pledge to do no harm in the world.” To be stewards is very humbling.

The question I always ask of me and others is, “Are you paying attention to your level of impact on people, situations, your world and the world as a whole?”

In the symposium the easy part of our discussion was looking at sustainable leadership for the greater good, not the greater bad. For some a no brainer but for others, well, it’s a thing to consider, is it not? Like many other topics of conversation and focal points in our lives, the meanings continually change. What the symposium did for me in one instance was help me wrap my head around the implications of sustainable leadership for the world and what failure would mean. Being a leader and what it might mean to drop the ball in the role of leader, and I’m not talking level of responsibility in an organization, I mean a leader in any meaning of that term, is a lot of pressure and the implications are huge and yet many people do take on that responsibility. Whether it’s to our kids, our peers, family, friends, colleagues, it doesn’t matter. What matters is we’re paying attention to the impact everything we do has on others and the ripple effect that might create.

Right after the symposium we dove into an ICCO Board meeting where I was voted in as Vice President. I was humbled, honoured and then had this overwhelming feeling come over me that for this organization and its global impact I have to be a steward not only for the people I’m working with on the Board, who I highly respect and mean the world to me, and the organization as a whole, but for all those impacted by our work. It’s extremely humbling and something I take very seriously.

Observing the two campaigns going on in the US and Canada I wonder if the concept of stewardship enters the minds of those who are running for office? I wonder if that ever enters the picture in a campaign where campaign managers tell them where to go, what to say and where to say it to give them the best chance of being elected. But what if they spoke to the people from a perspective of Stewardship?

Just wondering out loud like I often do. I invite you to wonder with me…

Christina Baldwin said “To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.”

What will you be for?

Best..
Donna Karlin

Campaign Time!

It's campaign time. There's no doubt about that. TV ads are flying fast and furious. I'm looking forward to seeing the polls and how some of these ads are affecting the ratings. One of the candidates is telling the public about the improvements that have been made and asking for continued support and the other is ad bashing. It's fascinating to watch!

Looking back at well known and famous politicians, which speeches do you remember...the bashing negative "let's go after the other guy and verbally beat him to a pulp" or the "let's work together to build something special?" I'd love to hear your opinions about that.

However this blog isn't about that as much as watching how some of the party members are communicating with their communities. This afternoon I received the 10th or so automated telephone call from my provincial representative. There used to be a real person at the other end of the phone asking for your support but now, it's automated so if you don't support them you can't very well say so. You're supposed to sit there like a good person and just be talked to, not with.

What it does is intrude on the privacy of our homes and leave too many messages we don't want in the first place. What does that tell me about this representative?

As I don't know her personally, many questions come to mind. Does she not know how to engage in a conversation? Perhaps she needs someone to write a script for her to read so she's not knocked off balance by an actual question. What in the world could be the advantage of calling constituents via automated telephone call (which is in truth telephone Spam) and not have any personal connection whatsoever?

Would you want to elect someone who doesn't bother to get to know you or what your thoughts are for your area, city, province or country?

I wouldn't. Why in the world would I elect someone or one they were endorsing because of a recording? Would any of you?

Think long and hard about who you'd want in government representing your interests.

As a political leadership coach I am appalled by this. It's communication at its worst. This is not leadership; this is hiding behind a machine. I'm all for automating everything that's automatable but personal dialogue and connection is not automatable.

Has this ever happened to you in your neck of the woods and if so, did you end up voting for that person? I understand some people vote for the party no matter what, but there are some deciding factors such as a politician being able to communicate or how articulate that person might be when bombarded with questions by opponents. I'd love your opinions on this.

Best..
Donna Karlin