I am currently reading "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader" by Marc Lesser for the second time.
When I left a close to 30 year career with many established comforts and security I experienced anxiety like I had never before. Many around questioned this move. They assumed I had it made. And, from the outside looking in it may have appeared so. However, I longed for another challenge and quite frankly I thought I was in an environment of complacency. So, off I went. Big challenge ahead. Starting my own business.
One of the first challenges was trying to deal with this anxiety I was feeling. It was very new to me. And in hindsight obviously brought on by all the newness and the unknowns that I would be facing. Questioning myself around almost every turn. As is often the case when I am dealing with a new challenge I started researching anxiety, especially and specifically in my set of circumstances. Why it is happening? What does it do to you? How can you go about improving the situation?
Well, here is where mindfulness comes in. Turns out that getting yourself into a place of calm and steady breathing is a powerful tool when combatting anxiety. Go figure. And yes, this may seem obvious but, like so many other things, there are ways to do this and then there are ways to do it well. With intention. Long story short, I have embraced a practice of mindfulness and meditation and am committed to trying to achieve mastery of the skill. Not with any pressure on myself just a challenge that I believe has enormous lifelong benefits as I improve.
My learnings have included many books. "Think Like a Monk" by Jay Shetty has literally changed my life. I highly recommend it, even if you are not aspiring to become a monk. This is his point. "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader" is very topical and potentially very powerful for any leader - and in our case any local government leader. Marc Lesser suggests there are 7 practices one can follow in an attempt to become proficient at using mindful practices for self improvement but also performance enhancements as a leader.
The Practices are as follows: Love the Work, Do the Work, Don't be an Expert, Connect Your Pain, Connect to the Pain of Others, Depend on Others and Keep Making it Simpler.
I will be posting a series of blogs. One for each Practice. Relevant in the context of our industry - local government (perhaps government in general).
Practice 1 - Love the Work
This Practice seems simple enough. Love the work of being in local government.
However, in the context of mindfulness and leadership, it becomes way more informative and instructive. I know of many people in local government who I truly believe love the work but their "reality" within the work has beaten them down and they feel unappreciated. I see if often and it is disheartening. We have to find a way to recapture that which inspires us to want to do great things and love doing them.
This is where mindfulness and meditation can be powerful allies. When we carve out time to approach our work with care, intention and purpose we can see challenges in front of us as part of a bigger picture and look at the best possible ways to overcome them. A local government leader needs to make space to always come back to what Joseph Campbell terms "the calling". Marc Lesser suggests
"The calling represents a profound shift of attention, a shift in one's way of being in the world; the calling asks us leave the ordinary and pursue the extraordinary."
This brings me back to my story at the beginning of this article. Until I realized that one of the biggest motivations for me, in leaving a place I had worked for close to 30 years, was to further what I felt was my calling, I would continue to feel anxiety. For me, I needed to find a place where I could create as much value to communities as I possibly could. At that time, it meant I needed to be vulnerable and challenge myself in a way I had not contemplated before.
Local government leaders that make intentional space to ponder their own calling will inevitably come back to this idea of service to others. Service to community. When leaders do this it opens up the opportunity to realize what is truly most important while at the same time what now, because of this intentionality, seems quite trivial. Local government leaders need to inspire those around them to achieve greatness. Mindfulness and meditation offer this space. In fact, the word inspire comes from the
Latin inspirare
which means
to breathe into.
Local government leaders must also have the courage to be vulnerable and share this idea of Love the Work with those around them. Yes, right now, in the face of people saying this is all fluff or this is not a good use of your time and the overall sentiment of instantaneous gratification, this Love of Work is even more critical. I cannot be convinced that the greatest value we can bring to our community is being able to respond to Facebook rants 24/7 or spend hours in a Council meeting going over a vitriolic letter to the editor. These are the very obstacles/challenges that we need to acknowledge exist but take time to see, bigger picture, how much they should influence the Work, if at all.
Mindfulness within a team of local government leaders allows for everyone to detach themselves from the emotions that are often at play at a moment in time. These emotions are usually not just from an external stakeholder but among ourselves. Taking a step back and looking at things through the lens of Love the Work leaders can mine for any logic or alignment to ultimate goals, free from bias and being open and curious.
Right now there is a lot of stress in our industry. It is impacting our Love of the Work we do. It is imperative that we take the time to remind ourselves of why we are public servants. We love to serve. We get to see impacts of our work every day in the communities around us. I wish for all of us to take the time to breathe. At home and at work. Love the Work we do and have that be a positive influence on our days. Local leaders that do so will have a team around them that is inspired to achieve the best they possibly can.
