Business Soul Food Episode 29
Recently, I lead a leadership group through an important meeting. They needed to discuss their leadership team and how they would redistribute responsibilities. The leader of the organisation has cancer and is undergoing treatment which is leaving him drained and unable to function at him full capacity.
Everyone was keen to step in and help, to take the load off him, so he could concentrate on getting well. But they were all concerned about how to really approach it without upsetting him and they wanted him to be able to feel that he was still needed and had a purpose.
It can be a challenge for a group to really stop and listen. It is almost automatic that we want to chime in and add our 2 cents worth along the way. However, this was his time to be listened to and there was to be no butting in. As I asked him some questions to lead him through expressing his challenges, his joys and what he wants to see evolve, we were all able to sense how important this was to him. We weren’t just listening from our point of view, but we understood and felt where he was coming from.
New thoughts and images emerged as we sat in silence to reflect in what he shared. Each person was able to reflect back to him something of what they heard and saw as he spoke. When everyone was sure we had a good picture of what was important for him at this time and he felt that everyone had heard him and understood. We were able to move forward.
It was clear how important it was for his own spiritual journey to maintain a role where he was able to share with people, to offer them the support he always has, while they in turn, offered back to him. He is an important influence, not just of the team, but the whole organisation.
New solutions emerged.
It now became a simple to find a new way to operate and to divide up tasks that will free him from this burden. It all happened smoothly and in a way that everyone was able to participate in and without overloading anyone else.
To allow this sort of result in any situation takes a willingness to listen at a deep level. We can easily get caught up in just listening as we habitual do. Jump right in there. “This is my view, so that is the way it is.” We could have gone into debating the situation. But, it takes to really let go of all of our own ideas and perceptions and start to hear, understand and feel where the other person is coming from. From this place it opens up our heart to them. As we allow this to go even deeper, our mind is opened up to new ideas, new possibilities that can make real changes. Here, together, we start to see what is possible. We are connecting with the emerging future.
Simply listening is not enough. To grow a group, organisation or business, it takes purposeful listening, to go deeper and allow what wants to be born to come forth. When we do this, there is opportunity for people to work together at new levels that encourage and support teamwork, solve problems in way never thought of before, increase productivity and to reach the highest future possibilities.
Are you ready to dive in deeper, solve challenges in new ways, be inspired to innovate from the emerging future. If so, get in touch with me now and let’s open the up together to where the future wants to take you, your group, organisation or business.