Unsung Heroes!

I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, but this week is Community Health Center Week. This week is designated as an opportunity to learn and be grateful for the incredible work community health centers do in our neighborhoods each and every day, often without a lot of fanfare or gratitude!

That has reminded me that our lives are often filled with people I would call Unsung Heroes. People who just go about doing good in their part of the world, often without a need for thanks or recognition, and often without actually receiving much appreciation or recognition for what they do.

Several years ago, my spouse had the opportunity to meet one of her favorite authors, who also happens to be one of her "distant heroes" (you know, those people that have made an impact on your life from a distance, and they don't even know who you are). She was able to chat with this personal hero and thank her for who she is. She said something like, "I'm sure people tell you this all the time, but thanks so much for doing your work for yourself, because it helped me continue to do my own work too." Her hero then replied (with tears in her eyes), "Actually, no one has ever thanked me for that before!"

That incident made us realize that often we assume people hear words of gratitude and thanks for the work they do and the people they are in the world, but the reality is, those messages often go unsaid! In other words, there are a lot of Unsung Heroes around us!

Since that encounter, we've tried to make a commitment to actually telling people how we feel about them and what we appreciate about who they are in the world. And it's been really interesting the number of times we've heard, "Actually no one has ever told me that before!"

So, as you look around your life this week, who is someone you think might be an Unsung Hero? Rather than assume they know how you feel, what if you took the time to actually tell them? If saying it out loud feels like a challenge, could you send them a note or an email? What might happen if all of us who are reading this message committed to telling one Unsung Hero how we feel about them this week? And who is it that is already on your mind and heart? Go ahead. Tell them.

Here's to speaking life and light into an Unsung Hero this week!

Be Well,

Stephen

Center was created to support individuals and teams so they can live from their Purposeful Center. We specialize in executive coaching and leadership development and we’d love to support you! Click on our Services page to book a free consultation.

Response-Able!

I was listening to a podcast over the weekend that talked about what it means to be Responsible.

Normally I think about being responsible as being accountable or answerable for something. In fact, that's how it gets defined by Dictionary.com:

adjective

1. answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management (often followed by to or for):He is responsible to the president for his decisions.

2. involving accountability or responsibility, as in having the power to control or manage:promoted to a responsible position in the firm.

However, as I listened to the podcast, the person talked about it as being Response-Able. In other words, able to respond to whatever is in front of them.

They went on to say that when they are doing what they need to do to take care of themselves and function from a place of centeredness and calm, then they feel ready and able to respond to whatever may be coming at them. However, if they aren't paying attention to their inner space and working on taking care of themselves, then when life brings the unexpected (which we know it does), they don't really feel Resonse-Able!

What an interesting way to think about being Response-Able! It changes my perspective from feeling like I have to have everything figured out before I face the circumstances life is bringing to me, and I just need to focus on my inner space and making sure I am functioning from that place of inner calm and centeredness. Then, no matter what comes, I am able to respond in a way that is balanced and ready!

If you were going to live this week from a place of being Response-Able, what practices would you need to engage in to help take care of your inner space? What choices can you make to prioritize strengthening your internal calm and centeredness?

Here's to being Response-Able this week!

Be Well,

Stephen

Center was created to support individuals and teams so they can live from their Purposeful Center. We specialize in executive coaching and leadership development and we’d love to support you! Click on our Services page to book a free consultation.

Leadership is Serving!

One of my favorite authors on leadership, Simon Sinek, recently posted this on his LinkedIn account.

This is a powerful reinforcement of one of the central ideas I believe about leadership, that at its core, leadership is service. When we figure out how to serve those who are around us, we are better leaders. When we focus primarily on ourselves and what we are getting, or how well people are following us, our leadership is weakened.

So, what does it look like to serve others as a leader?

I'm so glad you asked!

In order to serve others, we have to come to a clear understanding of who are "the others." First, it's easy to think about serving those who are above us in the org-chart. After all, if we do a good job for them, we will eventually be rewarded. But when we serve those above us with that mindset, we are still serving ourselves! Instead, we need to learn to simply serve them, helping them succeed for their own good!

It also seems easy to think about serving those who are around us in the organization - our peers. But we need to be careful that we don't fall into a quid pro quo mentality here - I'll do this for you, expecting that you will return the favor sometime. If I'm only ever helping you, expecting that you will one day help me, that won't ever feel like my help is genuine and it won't be long before it may be refused! Instead, we need to learn to simply serve them, helping them succeed for their own good!

Another group that is more challenging to think about in this way is the people we are actually leading. Our tendency here is to think that these individuals ought to be serving us! After all, when we give them tasks to complete, isn't that what they are supposed to be doing, getting that done and bringing it to us?! While that is technically true, I believe great leaders look for ways to encourage, support, and help those they are leading. It's embracing an attitude that says, "I care about you, not just the work you can/should produce for me!" We need to learn to simply serve them, helping them succeed for their own good!

The final group we can serve are the people who are our customers or clients. Now this might seem like a no-brainer, because we even build this into the language we use. "We are providing them a service." However, I have seen a lot of organizations be so focused on the "service/product," they forget it is for a person! The truth is, this customer/client has a name and a story, and one of the greatest acts of leadership service we can provide for them is to actually see them, not just give them our "service." We need to learn to simply serve them, helping them succeed for their own good!

Got the pattern yet?! Authentic and genuine service in leadership is about looking for ways to "work with each other, for each other," helping others succeed for their own good, and it makes our culture stronger. Thanks for the reminder, @simonsinek !

Here's to looking around this week and seeing how we might lead by serving!

Be Well, Stephen Center was created to support individuals and teams so they can live from their Purposeful Center. We specialize in executive coaching and leadership development and we’d love to support you! Click on our Services page to book a free consultation.