Leaders and Influencers: Are You Willing to Go to the Root?

By Susan S Freeman

Early April brings springtime and the season when new life emerges around us. Is it also unfolding within us? Are we seeing "below the dirt?" "Are we getting to the root?"

I read a book last weekend that changed the way I was looking at a problem. The more I reflected about the book's offering to me, the more I appreciated the mindset shift I experienced. My approach to a long-standing issue had changed radically in a few hours.

The familiar quote "Can't see the forest for the trees" comes to mind.

It is used when someone is too involved in the details of a problem to look at a situation as a whole. I'll take it one step farther.

It's not just about being too involved in the details of a problem; it's about being too involved in our own mindsets to see that they are mindsets.

Mindsets can be changed.

Why are so many people engaged in systems that aren't effective and often are harmful? Why is it that so often we get buried in the details (the trees) and can't see that the solution to our problem may require our pulling back to see the entire forest?

We have to get out of the trees and above the forest before we can go to the source; the root.

I see struggles we all have in getting to the root of a problem. As a coach, I am trained to dig deeply, through powerful questions, to explore what is below the surface. What I often discover for myself and for clients, is that the problems we all have are rarely taken to their root level. People get "stuck" and repeat patterns that are harmful to them because they don't go to the root. Even for people who are trained to do it for others, it can be impossible to do for oneself.

Failure to go to the root of a problem challenges many levels of our society. The prevailing mindset is "I am too busy to stop and think about how I might get to the root, so I will just keep doing what I have always done."

Getting to the root doesn't necessarily take longer. It requires the ability to slow down and stop engaging in the habits that keep us safe, yet stuck.

Here are some tools for leaders and influencers to use to get to the root:

1) Stop periodically and quiet your mind

2) Breathe deeply from your belly with your eyes closed

3) In this state connect to your care and ask what matters most

4) What question needs an answer?

5) Pay attention to any signs, words, or ideas that come to you

6) Have a "root" explorer in your world; someone who asks the tough and challenging questions

My wish is for you to see the trees and the forest, while remembering that it all begins at the root. Look "below" the symptom. Get curious. Keep probing.

To your "up-rooting!"


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Does Your Leadership Battery Need a Re-Charge?

Does Your Leadership Battery Need a Re-Charge?

By Susan S Freeman

Last week I was coaching a new client who was facing a personal leadership challenge. Promoted from a technical to management role, he was becoming increasingly frustrated. Not having yet learned the skills to make this easier, he found himself becoming more short-tempered. Not surprisingly, this took a physical toll as his blood pressure spiked.

Does this sound familiar? If so, you may need a re-charge to your leadership battery.

Isn't it strange that we have entire set-ups to re-charge our technological devices nightly, at home and on the move. We face battery drains at our own peril; out of reach, out of touch, unable to complete tasks and communicate in real-time.

Apply the metaphor to your leadership battery. Are you learning the competencies to keep it from getting drained? Are you re-charging it daily?

Many of us were fortunate to have gotten a bit of a summer break, whether it was near or far. We believe that vacations are the re-charge for our batteries. While they are often effective at doing that, we simply cannot afford to wait that long.

Why is taking a vacation not enough?

The human body was designed to be at "homeostasis." We have the ability regulate our physical, emotional and mental processes if we learn and practice.

When we are in our conscious, waking state, we activate the sympathetic nervous system. This helps us get things done. The problem comes when this is our ONLY state of being. We require the balancing of the parasympathetic nervous system; the part where we access our deeply relaxed state of brainwaves; alpha or perhaps even delta or theta. Access to this deeply relaxed brain-wave state allows us to experience creativity, synthetic thinking, intuition, visualizations, etc.

Activating the parasympathetic nervous system can be done daily through a breath practice. Learning (and practicing) allows your mental, physical and emotional states to "re-charge."

1. Make a commitment (preferably to someone who will hold you accountable)

2. Set aside time in your calendar to create a routine. Intend to turn this into a habit

3. Practice belly breathing, just a few minutes at first, gradually working up to longer periods.

4. Notice what you observe in your body, state of mind, emotions

5. Write it down in a journal or notebook; remark on patterns and what changes for you.

Remember to give as much care to re-charging yourself daily as you do to your electronic devices.

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