There may be moments when discouragement and fear and anxiety and doubt take over. That, indeed, is part of being a human in western culture in the 21st century.

And it is good — necessary I think — to have support. Someone whose voice helps calm you and get you back on track once again.

But it is better — ultimately — that the voice that calms you is your own.

Mastery of self means controlling the only thing in your power to control: your thoughts and emotions and approach to the world.

So think like a master. Think like the leader or entrepreneur or CEO you dream of being. Think vision and purpose and mission and how to make it all happen.

What happens is that the conversations you have with others change tenor and purpose. Instead of “help me” it feels more like “my thoughts are going this direction . . . here’s my plan.” Instead of helplessness there is more energy and confidence and direction in your words and thoughts and interactions.

People tend to want to partner with you when they hear this in your voice and words and collaborations and affiliations form and suddenly the support you need is different and far more heartening. And useful.

It’s not easy to make that shift from “help me” to “here’s my plan.” It’s not a switch you flip and everything is lighter and easier. You probably won’t get there by reading memes or saying nice things about yourself in front of a mirror. It’s a process and it takes patience along with an effort of will and a deep sense of resilience.

This is why people invest in coaching. Coaching is a $22 billion industry for a reason. Professional coaching works.

Coaching is not a comforting pat on the shoulder accompanied by platitudes like “there, there, it’ll be OK.” A great coach may offer affirmations judiciously, but that’s not the point of coaching. Coaching moves you from one circumstance to a better circumstance with intention and planning. Movement and improvement. That’s the point.

Coaching can help you move from “help me” to “here’s my plan.” Professional coaching can help you become master of your circumstances. Professional coaching introduces sublime and powerful accountability into your words and thoughts and actions and interactions.

That’s worth gold. The good news is you don’t need gold to get great professional coaching. Dollar for dollar it is a great investment in yourself.

My coaching specialty is late-career transformation because I know that territory well, having walked it myself, sometimes painfully and sometimes joyfully. I invested in a professional coach and still do.

But my clients come from all ages and all backgrounds because making this shift in mindset is eminently a human condition shared by everyone. The desire to master your circumstances is a profound part of your being.

If you are ready to do the work necessary to change your circumstances for the better you can email me at hello@truevocations or just go ahead and schedule a free introductory conversation on my website at True Vocations.

We’ll dive right into the coaching process and figure out where you are, where you want to be, and explore how you might get on that path. This is all about possibility and planning.

We’ll figure out if True Vocations is a good fit for your circumstances and vision. No obligation. If, at the end of this session you opt not to immediately sign-up as a client, that’s all good. No email follow-ups, reminders, or enticements to come back.

Remember to think like a master. Think like the leader or entrepreneur or CEO you dream of being. Think vision and purpose and mission and how to make it all happen.

Find me on LinkedIn

The Compelling, Irresistible Need to Learn

In recent weeks I have become (once again) very interested in exploring the notion and possibilities of “life” described in terms of energy, complexity, physics and sustainability. I remember reading many years ago The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. It presented for me a compelling and alternative view to biology and life science than I had previously been exposed to in my formal schooling. I followed The Tao of Physics by reading A Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, and The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture. These books remain some of the most influential books for me to this day.

Along with Capra I recall reading much about Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine, who focused on dissipative structures, complexity and chaos theory, exploring the ties that bind physics and biology together.

I recall meeting Lynn Margulis and Dorian Sagan sometime around 1997 or so while a graduate student at Oregon State University. She and Dorian (actually her son by Carl Sagan) had just published What is Life? I still have that coffee-table sized book around somewhere. As a person, I recall that she exerted a tremendous force of will, a determination and intensity that impressed me. I found What is Life? to be thought provoking but I always felt less than satisfied, as if it were incomplete. It certainly raised more questions for me than it answered, and so it had great value to me.

Today I am reading Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species by Margulis and Sagan. Margulis, as some may remember, crafted today’s endosymbiotic theory, for which she was initially abused but ultimately acclaimed. Before her untimely death in 2011 she championed the “serial endosymbiotic theory” as a primary driver in the evolution of genomes.

I am also currently reading The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll, a captivating read on physics, energy, entropy and the origins of life. As I read it, I sense many connections between Carroll’s narrative and my prior learning and knowledge. Not just reinforcing — challenging and forcing to the surface more questions … always more questions.

On my daily commute to and from Portland I am listening to the audiobook version of a book written by Nick Lane entitled: The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life. I find myself rewinding constantly to make sure I heard and integrate the entire narrative. It is that good. Compelling.

I suppose my reinvestment of interest in these related topics came about when I unexpectedly had to teach an introductory undergraduate course in Astronomy at the college where I work. Being more of a geologist and microbiologist than astronomer, the effective topic of the course quickly became “Astrobiology” or the search of extraterrestrial life.

If you want to know about a topic, whether it be in science or history, politics or psychology … no matter what the domain of knowledge you are at the moment interested in, you must read voraciously all that you can. You cannot learn the real essence of the topic by reading a single book, or article, or blog post, or social media meme. You must consume as much on the topic as you can, experience different perspectives from various time periods, see the topic through a diversity of data and interpretations. You must approach your topic from unexpected directions, reading associated narratives on different, but somehow linked, topics. All knowledge ultimately is a narrative. To make the narrative you carry forward robust, make it your own.

Sometimes the inspiration to revisit past studies, to open new doors to expanded investigation, and to once again feel that compelling, irresistible need to learn not just new stuff, but to push and shove the structural framework of one’s own built-up knowledge base around a bit just to be sure the cobwebs don’t take over, comes unpredictably from unlikely and unsought and mostly serendipitous situations. To these situations I say welcome, and thank you.

Keep it coming.

FYI:

The Tao of Physics | Fritjof Capra | Shambhala; 5th edition (September 15, 2010) | 978–1590308356

A Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision | Fritjof Capra | Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (June 9, 2014) | 978–1107011366

The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems | Fritjof Capra | Anchor; 8/16/97 edition (September 15, 1997)

The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture | Fritjof Capra |Bantam; Reissue edition (August 1, 1984) | 978–0553345728

What is Life? | Lynn Margulis & Dorian Sagan | University of California Press; New Ed edition (August 31, 2000) | 978–0520220218

Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species | Lynn Margulis & Dorian Sagan | Basic Books 2002 | 0465043925

The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself | Sean Carroll | Dutton (May 10, 2016) | 978–0525954828

The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life | Nick Lane | W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (June 21, 2016) | 978–0393352979

William (Bill) Siebold | education | science | humanities | design

Cultivating creative lives of great intent for more than a decade

“As a lifelong learner and leader my purpose is to help others realize a creative life and to be a catalyst for success of those around me by example, through equitable interactions and with meaningful relationships.”

Find me on LinkedIn

Featured image by: Lee Miller

Unsplash License: All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Unsplash.

My observation is that real leadership is found in very common, unassuming people doing their best to operate with honesty and transparency somewhere toward the middle or bottom of the hierarchical pyramid, buffeted by aromatic warm winds emanating from above, embracing the fears and concerns of those surrounding them who are most vulnerable. The real leader buffers the sea of passion and talent closest to the true organizational mission from the duplicity and incompetence from above. Not an easy job. Not much glory to be found there.

But mostly, I think real leaders simply move to get things done. In this sense, leadership is independent of role or position in the hierarchy. I regularly witness individuals who stand forward, assume the tasks and accept the responsibilities needed to make positive things happen. They take ownership. The quality of their work makes the work of others more tenable. They have the back of their colleagues, and even that of their supervisors. They are real leaders.

I think that many top executives are very lucky for at least two reasons. First, in the absence of any real leadership qualities of their own, they benefit from a host of deeply committed individuals who regularly show outstanding leadership skills, usually in the process of mopping up the collective damage done by those very same top executives. Second, those in the organization who show real leadership and keep the mission alive through their competence, commitment and character are, fortunately for the top executive, not in the position of evaluating or terminating those top executives. Those are two reasons some top executives I know of should consider themselves very, very lucky.

What I am getting from the various “leadership” articles and books out there is that, however defined, there is little real leadership going on in the ranks of top executives. Quite the opposite, it seems. They appear to talk a good game. But get ’em on the court and they really stink it up.

Needless to say, I am a fan of the unruly mob occupying usually the bottom third or so of the organizational pyramid. Over forty some years working in different industries and locations, I am in general struck by their passion, commitment and character. I don’t know what has happened to American corporate management, if anything has happened at all. I do suspect that many of the best and brightest commanding the highest compensations and in greatest demand are, in reality, not really all that bright. I’m not convinced they are the best. Perhaps it has always been this way. Perhaps it is this way everywhere. In any case, it is hard to spot much intelligence in those ethereal heights of corporate enterprise.

If I had to define leadership, I would rely on the oft-used, probably over-used phrase: “leadership as service.” If you aren’t providing the resources, guidelines, information, organization setting or environment of achievement necessary to fulfill the organizational mission to a reasonable degree, you probably aren’t much of a leader. If you always blame everyone and everything else, but cannot hold yourself accountable, you are a fool. If it’s always someone else’s problem, you definitely aren’t a leader. If you think that workers closest to the mission are, in general, expendable, you are a liability.

I am left with a great sense of value and compassion, of pleasure and respect, for those good souls who bring great passion, commitment and character to their workplace. I have some who work for me, who report directly to me. In so many ways I have learned from them the true meaning of leadership.

Note: this article is a slightly edited re-submission of an article I wrote many months ago, entitled “Finding Leadership.” Since that writing, I have found little to shift my perspective on this subject. There is no doubt that the demands and pressures on top executives can be extraordinary. But, as in all other aspects of life, our real character is revealed as we address and adapt to those demands and to the sometimes unpredictably shifting environments we operate within. All too often I observe an “us versus them” relationship between executives and workforce is the result. Consequently, communication suffers, critical resources are spent ensuring that the unfortunate fiction of opposition within the organization becomes real, and perhaps most importantly the trust and credibility of executives by the workforce is fractured, likely a permanent and self-reinforcing feedback loop. I believe that many inadvisable executive practices are fear-based, where courage is actually the disposition of success. Each individual must reach deep within themselves to find the courage to lead. In the end, the leadership of success is found, by consensus, within a powerful community of mission-centric individuals, a cultural phenomenon that only the most insightful leaders acknowledge and ultimately achieve.

http://williamsiebold.com/where-leadership-truly-resides/

The article (you can find it here) is a well-written commentary on the TED philosophy of “designing for loss of control.” In it, he offers a quote from an unidentified TED director. In that quote was this phrase: “allowing for chaos to exist at the edges of the system.”

Imagine the courage the founders and organizers of TED and TEDx must have to allow for chaos at the edge of their system. To let go to the extent that others, people that they largely do not know, are allowed to play with their dream. To have faith that others will be, by and large, worthy stewards. That is something to wonder at.

Now, to be sure, TED does not work without rules. In fact, there are well-articulated guidelines and requirements. I think that it is the very specification of those rules that enables productive chaos at the edges of the system.

We are talking about culture here: philosophy, attitudes and behavioral norms. TED is not a collection of talks; it is a culture of discussion.

My role as developer of design professionals, cultivating dispositions of success and achievement, is to create favorable environments of incubation and to stimulate innovation that enables the realization and significantly, the evolution, of powerful works. As a teacher, learner and leader, my focus remains insistently on designing processes based on human interactions, intuition and inspiration. Design evolution, the practice of being always attentive to the discovery of new ideas, recasting them in terms of one or more questions, experimenting in real time, monitoring and learning over multiple iterations and always, always adapting lies at the core of great work.

Imagine chaos at the edges of the system, churning out an intense collage of ideas in a cauldron bubbling with the puzzlement of extraordinary questions. Well, that really catches my attention. The creation of desirable opportunities and the realization of effective solutions are the crucial considerations here. TED calls this process “designing for loss of control,” which is an agreeable description of an enlightened process, I think.

Portincaso also comments: “By tapping into the power of the periphery — employees, suppliers, customers, partners, and other communities — companies can encourage bottom-up innovation, as TED has with TEDx.” True enough. But I take notice of the notion of employees as the “periphery” of the organizational mission.

Given a well-written mission statement willingly supported by a passionate consensus of mission-central individuals, we need to consider employees, suppliers and customers to be the beating heart of the organization, not at the periphery at all, and certainly not appendages to be manipulated through application of a disconnected and centralized bureaucracy. They are the beating heart of achievement.

The entire complexion of doing business changes when we design for loss of control. The interactions become richer, the outcomes more powerful. The community becomes closer and more engaged. Management and leadership evolve to become based on nurturing human creativity. Professional and personal interactions that are deeply rewarding lead to real fulfillment as leaders begin to realize their own potential as humans. Everything becomes a bit edgier, more risky. More exciting.

Sadly, the profound weakness of the “command and control” school of management ideology manifests itself as a lost faith in the human resource to be an agent of success. In its stead reliance on spreadsheets, technology and moribund bureaucracy supplant the power of human interactions. It is the black hole of leadership. Managing for marginality, it leads only to a brief stay in mediocrity, ending in failure.

To be fearless and have faith in the people around you! Not such a leap of faith, I think. If we bring the best of what makes us human to the table we can, and do, experience better outcomes. We learn about ourselves as individuals. We position ourselves to be part of the success of others. We create powerful work.

It is, I believe, my purpose as a lifelong learner and leader to help others realize a creative life. I love the chaos at the edges of the system. I provoke it, listen to it and learn from it. At times I guide, other times I let it play, always respectful of this creative and chaotic process of problem-solving.

Originally published at williamsiebold.com.