A message from Chris Swistro
Our human qualities make us who we are at work
and in life. As the business "season" ramps up, how
will be put our best qualities to work to rekindle
business success, and what can we learn from the
late Senator Ted Kennedy's example? With carefully
attention, we can martial our fear, engage our power,
and discern the way to re-invent solutions and build
relationships even with our fiercest competitors in a
way that will ensure our prosperity over the long run.
Stimulus efforts and "Cash for Clunkers" aside, it has
been a slow summer for business by all accounts. As
summer draws to a close, many companies and non-
profits think about "getting back to business." We're
returning from vacation to speculation that the
economy may be turning around. We hope that now is
the time that all the business development and
budget management strategies we've been
engineering all summer will come to fruition. We're
ready to grab the new opportunities that will arise, but
we're probably also harboring some fear. What if the
pipeline we've been stuffing doesn't generate the
opportunities we seek? What if the slowdown
continues? What can we do to "make something
happen," to change the game in our favor, to find a
way forward?
In The Book of Qualities, Ruth
Gendler helps us look at human qualities by
portraying them as characters and, in some cases,
juxtaposing those characters. One of the readings that
I return to from time to time is about Power (a
tailor
who makes "coats that you grow into" if you "find the
courage to approach him") and Fear (a
character with
a vivid imagination who encourages us to isolate
ourselves and who "has a large shadow, [though] he
himself is quite small"). It reminds me that there are
many ways to summon and apply our power - to
create opportunity, to re-think a well-accepted
business strategy, to influence an outcome we may
have walked away from in the past - if we are willing
to wear Power's coat until it fits us. That power can
also help us discern where Fear is tricking us -
second-guessing the quality of our product, assuming
a struggling partnership is lost, or failing to modify
ineffective strategy because we are uncomfortable
with the unknown.
Many tributes are being paid to
the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a man who - over a
46 year career in office - used his commitment to
public service, unfailing concern for others, and
unique
talent for relationship and consensus building to
improve the lives of millions of people - every senior
supported by Medicare, every factory worker protected
by OSHA standards, every young female athlete
provided an opportunity to compete in school athletics,
every laid off worker caught in the safety net of COBRA,
every soldier made safer in battle by uparmored
vehicles, and countless other beneficiaries of the laws
and
policies that Ted Kennedy fought, negotiated, cajoled,
serenaded, and compromised to create. Emotional
tributes from conservative senators John McCain and
Orrin Hatch are testimony to the peerless way that
Kennedy was able to stay in the game over the long
term, use his power and influence wisely, look fear
(the fear of failing, again, to reform health care, for
example) in the eye and not blink, and find a way
continuously to engage in the creative struggle
without
making enemies of his opponents.
We stand
on
the brink of autumn and new possibilities. As
business people and senior organizational leaders,
we may find inspiration and practical guidance in Ted
Kennedy's example - to gather our power and right-
size our fear in order to renew our vision, validate our
business strategy, and redouble our effort to regain
our financial footing and forge relationships we need
for success now and into the future.
