10 leadership coaching sessions back to back today here in Wyoming where health care leaders are indistinguishable in the complex and emerging issues they encounter compared to any other health care systems anywhere else in the country. It was a marathon reminding me of how great leadership comes down to two things: consciousness and conversations. Our impact is shaped by the quality and intersection of each. Any model more complicated misses the essence of leadership in its authenticity.

Otto Scharmer points out that the root of the word leadership is to die, to let go of the known, the old world, and to cross this threshold to allow that which wants to emerge in us. It is letting go of the voice of judgment, cynicism, and fear in order to let come that which flows from our source.

The NY Times reports this week that the Indianapolis FBI has targeted a Vegan Community Project in its anti-terrorism surveillance on targets they refer to as “disruptive organizations” and “networks, which have no declared leaders and are only loosely organized.”

It’s what I’ve been saying for a long time: these social networks of vegans are itchin’ to be watched.

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the wise say:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

Tao te Ching

The NY Times reports that the hottest executive title these days is chief. According to one of the experts quoted in the article, “It’s easier to give someone a fancier-sounding title than to give them a real bump in authority or pay.” It’s called title inflation and it’s intended to give people an edge on competitiveness. To say nothing about feeding enough egos to keep organizations dysfunctional.

When I was young, we used chief to refer to a usually male laborer in a service position whose short attention span we wanted to garner. You’d pull up and say things like: “Hey chief … how’s it going? We need 5 dollars of regular and could you check the oil?”

When I drove in Tokyo a couple of years ago they still have these guys - four to any car that would pull in. They’d run around cleaning windshields and headlights while gassing up. When you take off, they run after the car waving until you got to the street, hightailing it back to the next car waiting for service at the service station. If anybody deserved to be called chief, it was these guys.

So today the inflated title chief resurfaces. I can’t wait for the next corporate meeting where I can once again pronounce the salutation: “Hey chief, how’s it going?”

Back tonight from a road trip. I worked this week with people from a large independent bank in Michigan, helping them better engage each other’s strengths in projects. People love talking about their strengths and successes. They thrive on the confidence and esteem that emanates from these conversations. It’s palpable, seeing how people come alive talking about the best in themselves. After all what else matters.

My hope is that organizations get it - that people want to work from their passions and strengths. People want to be believed in and to act from a position of trust. People want to give their best and will if they feel their best is recognized, engaged, and appreciated. So in order to pull this off organizations need to stop acting like negative management has any value.

This isn’t difficult. Step 1 is getting it. Step 2 is making it happen.

One of the people in my workshop today with an esteemed Fortune 100 company responded to my introduction to appreciative organizations with the observation that this is something they never do - focus on their strengths and passions. He was both shocked and inspired by the idea that an organization should focus on the appreciative side of life.

What’s interesting is that for the hundreds of people I’ve exposed to the appreciative model, no one pushes back with resistance. We all seem to have this intrinsic appetite to focus on appreciative nature of things.

It is still radical, this bias for our strengths and passions that invites us to fearlessly let go of suffering in all its forms and all its causes. Embracing commitment to joy continues to be the most daring act of the heart.

I did a presentation on appreciative leadership this morning with a group of CEO’s (a dialogue actually) with Mustard Seed Market co-founder and friend, Phil Nabors. This is a very successful business with a very credible 500 year business plan and national groundbreaking best practices in the area of whole foods groceries, restaurants, and education programs.

Talking about how values drive growth, Phil explained how one of their core values in hiring is hiring happy people. With the realization that you can’t easily train happiness as you could cashiering, this practice is key to everything else that follows. This parallels something from Henry James: The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of mind of the producer.

I’m re-reading Peter Block’s The Answer To How Is Yes. Here’s a sample of some of the kinds of questions he raises about a community’s intention to articulate what matters most.

• What is more important: aim or speed?

• When is the question of “why” more important than the question of “how”?
• What’s more important: what matters or what works?
• What’s more important: relationship or power and efficiency?

“Choosing to act on ‘what matters’ is the choice to live a passionate existence, which is anything but controlled and predictable.”