Hello

This is normally a very busy time for many people (as the season of goodwill transcends, via the slippery slope of the stress of Christmas shopping, normally non-communicative relatives being packed together like sardines in a tin, and the NASA astronaut testing 10g strain on the festive purse strings, into the season of ill-will) so I will keep this post relatively short.

As the year draws to a close, I draw your attention to a certain Mr W. Shakespeare, who wrote:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

A truly remarkable and insightful piece of writing.
These seven stages begin of course with birth, and end with a person’s demise. The question I have for you, as a leader and influencer of others is, where are you on that ‘continuum’?

Presumably you are not at the stage of demise, as you appear to be reading this. That is of course unless you have succeeded, albeit a few decades early, to have uploaded your disembodied consciousness to the internet. (However, just in case you have, please stop reading now, because unfortunately due to the insidious march of the ‘Internet of things’ you are more than likely to be a toaster. In which case no one really wants to be led by you. Although judging by the apparent decline in the admission criteria for being a viable leader, in thirty years time you may well be eligible to be a candidate for the presidency of quite a large population on the planet. Worryingly there’s actually more and more choice available to be able to fill in the ‘blank’ as to which population that comment may be referring to).

Are you the infant? Totally reliant on others, and entirely unable to make any coherent decisions?
Or are you the schoolchild? Needy, throwing your toys out of the bedroom when something goes wrong?
Perhaps you are the lover. In love with self, and short term gain?
Maybe you are the warrior, but have you learned that not everyone and everything needs to be a battle?
It could be that you are wiser, interested in justice. However, have you lost some of that fire?
Or perhaps you have lost all of your vigour, save for that of hanging on to power and prestige, when in actual fact, you should be focusing the last vestige of that vigour towards mentoring your successor.

None of us like to think that we can be needy, or temperamental or that we might sometimes hold on to a position for longer than we should. And yet, if we are very honest with ourselves, most of us can probably think of a time when we have done things like that, or something like that.
However, awareness and honesty are key. We will never be perfect, but we can strive towards it. The recent advanced Braver Leadership workshop was I believe, quite enlightening to all of us who attended. I think that one of the things that we realised on that workshop was that for any of us to be as good as we can be, the journey begins with honesty and awareness.

I think that we can take elements of Shakespeare’s seven stages and consider them in a positive way, because as we encounter new situations, we may find ourselves moving from one stage to the other, but we can use our awareness and honesty to our benefit.

When we are faced with a new situation we may well need help, but instead of being childish about it, we may well allow ourselves to be more childlike, to wonder, to ask, and to ask for help.

We can all become emotionally fraught, but recognising the triggers and stepping away from situations (and the about to be thrown toys) can help us maintain an equilibrium.

We should find love and passion, but is that not best placed in a leader towards helping others?

We sometimes do need to challenge and be bold and robust, but we must temper that not with more temper, but with an application of wisdom and a sense of justice.

When we know that it is time for us to move on and do other things, we have to do so gracefully but also to ensure that the right people have been coached and mentored, to continue the good work. The succession should have a plan.

And when all is said and done, we should be able to look back and think not as much about our wondrous magnificence, but more about who we helped. And in that way, when we reach the great internet of things in the sky, we can be the best toaster in town, able to respond to someone’s request for toast with the reply that it will be done exactly ‘as you like it’.

That last sentence with its convoluted attempt to wring some humour out of the seventh stage will read particularly strangely unless you know a little tiny bit about Shakespeare.

I hope that you have an enjoyable festive holiday, and a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Seasons greetings
Mike

P.S.
A link to the December 2016 podcast can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-786911924/braver-leadership-podcast-4
And a new short little video about one component of leadership can be found here: