Own Your Step - Family Business Leadership Development and Culture Advisory
Own Your Step - Family Business Leadership Development and Culture Advisory
Many of us straddle two paths: the path to heart, or spirituality, and the path to make a living, or as my parents asserted, “Using your head for something other than dreaming.” For many years, I held these two paths separate hoping at some point I could bring them together. Can we bring head and heart together at work? Like railroad ties, the head and heart paths don’t intersect, but you need both rails to be in good working condition in order for the train to move.
When we maintain both rails, we have movement. If the rails are neglected and don’t support motion, we can truss up the engine all we like but nothing will happen. The whole system deteriorates.
In the workplace, we’re focused on solving the wrong issues. We think if we create bigger and better engines by developing our talents or skills, we will reach the destination. But to reach the destination, our two rails of head and heart, respectively, have to be in good operating order. Whether we agree or not, whether we even like it or not, there is one whole person who shows up in the workplace despite these two separate rails. Head and heart are inseparable.
Despite our grand efforts to compartmentalize our individual experience, invariably we come to a stop. By ignoring the wisdom both paths provide, we limit the beauty and expression of our vast human potential.
How do I know this? I was an organizational effectiveness consultant and executive coach in both private and public sectors for 20 years in Washington D.C. I helped leaders and teams align their efforts behind a shared vision of what was worth accomplishing.
Even when employees agreed they had already outlined an organizational vision, few could recite the vision or remember its content. At the annual management retreat, participants would re-write the corporate vision as if they were trying to find a way to support its fulfillment. In most instances, this was not the case.
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