Weather

A friend of mine was telling me the story of an organization that asked its leaders to help "Set the Weather" for their teams.  What they were trying to communicate was the fact that the leader needed to help their teams approach change and difficult news with a positive attitude.  What everyone in the trenches knew it meant was, "Here's some bad news, try and put a good spin on it for us!"

I recognize there are times when leaders have to deliver difficult news, or they are trying to lead change, and they want to do it in a way that takes some of the sting out of it. There's a place for that. But I think a more effective approach is to simply Name the Weather. We all know this is going to be hard, so it's better to just name it and acknowledge that it's going to be stormy for a while.  Being honest about what's happening is a better approach than trying to make the sun shine when we all know is going to be cloudy!

I have also found there is another way to Name the Weather that can be helpful in leadership. No one shows up with either a cloud over the head all the time (like Eeyore), or a super sunny disposition every day. As humans, we are all on that spectrum from day to day, week to week, or season to season depending on what may be happening in our lives.  One of the ways I have used this is to get a "Weather Report" from my team when we are starting a meeting or kicking off the day. I'll just ask everyone to give me a brief Weather report for how they are today. It's an invitation to be authentic with each other, but it also allows me to invite people to participate to the fullest capacity they have for their Weather.

For example, someone might say they are partly cloudy, another person may indicate they are all sunshine, and someone else may indicate they're in a hurricane.  With that knowledge, what I ask of them is to give me the full capacity for what their "Weather" will allow for the day. I try not to expect the person with the Hurricane to act as if everything is all sunshine, but to do their best in the midst of their storm.  There are times when I may notice some trends (the same person is always in a hurricane, which may require some other kind of intervention), but for the most part, it's a way of recognizing we are all human and we get to join with and support each other in that reality.

In what ways do you resonate with a willingness to Name the Weather? Would it help to pay attention to your own Weather Report and look for any trends or patterns? Is there a way you might use that idea with a team or in another setting to help acknowledge the level of humanness we all share?

Here's to Naming the Weather rather than Setting the Weather this week!

Be Well,

Stephen

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