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One of the core things we believe at Courageous Leadership is that the best things are done in life with others. It’s in the quality and the consistency of coming together that we are able to actualize ourselves and optimize our impact on those around us. More importantly we can participate in things that are truly worth investing in - things that we can call good.

Let’s look at a model that is helpful for us in our thinking. There are many examples of how groups come together and how they prove to be either unproductive in their play together or highly productive. Look at sports teams with all the right talent, but there is something in how they share the ball, how they move, how they cooperate with each other, how they make sacrifices for one another that changes when somebody comes in with a different ideology or play. Because of their confidence in that model, ideology, or play they go from being a highly talented and fairly good team to being champions.

In the corporate context it may not be an issue so much with talent, however, I would emphasize the importance of having the right people. How does this group of highly talented and competent individuals engage with one another that produce a greater value for the organization?

It’s iterative, its robust innovation and it produces competitive advantage for both their organization and for the people that they are trying to have impact or serve. Corporate, from my perspective and experience, does not understand this very issue of coming together. They want it, but the definitions out there as to what is a good team scratch at the surface versus getting to the real core.

Going Deeper
I think there are deeper issues that need to be teed up in a dialogue with your group. It translates not into intellectual gymnastics, but into practices and performance that are sustainable.

Corporate is having a difficult time coming together with the magnitude and the volume of rifts, lay-offs, downsizing, rightsizing, or whatever word you want to call it. The morale and satisfaction is having a huge effect on people’s willingness to come together, trust each other, and begin to engage collaboratively. Few have confidence that something better can occur in this environment but it’s necessary as you think about getting on top of the competitive wave as it relates to global competition and participate in the creative class.

If you look at just the individual as you think about what creates a life that is worth living, very much the things that should be in front and center on that radar screen should be how we come together with our families, core relationships, spouses, and other deep relationships in our life. It is not just association, it is not just safety and security needs being satisfied, but it is beyond even belonging and moving towards actualization.

These are critical things. I have been a part of so many different experiences where people have good intentions and they go flat. I always feel a loss when I observe this. We have great hopes and ambitions for the success of a marriage, an institution, even a sports team, and it does not gel. What we are talking about is not easy but it is good, it is right. It does bring a high level of value to our lives and those around us. My encouragement to you today is stay in the fire, and there is never a time that you should not be in the fire. Stay in that fire where it is maybe difficult, it may be very hard, but it is still the right thing to do and it is the best thing to do, for you both personally and professionally.

When we are defining best practices for our clients, there are two foundational principals we need to attend to. How do we see and know what is true and important to act on, and then, how do we join and be a part of a good, that is greater than ourselves and has greater return on investment than what we alone could ever catalyze? Then how does that counsel us and govern us in our practice with the social networks that we belong to? The fancy terms of the historic philosophers would be matters of epistemology, which is how do we know and recognize truth, and then ethics, which is speaking of how do we know what is good and then what is appropriate as it relates to the horizontal relationships that we have in our lives.

At Courageous Leadership we have done a lot of thinking about the core territories that we have to attend to in the making of ourselves and the catalyzing of good. We have identified foundational factors that have to exist for that to be successful.

• What is the intelligence factor or quotient that is at play when dealing with ideas and the rational thought and processes therein?
• What is the emotional intelligence wrestling with the intrapersonal territories of our lives? How do we self-soothe, how do we regulate in volatile or dull situations to promote good outcomes and the level of courage that is at play in our lives?
• Another would be the spiritual or the values territory which is speaking of what is it that sets our direction, what is the North Star for our lives? What is the outcome or the final goal that we are trying to achieve and then how does that govern our lives?
• The fourth would be looking at the Jungian concept of shadow that says there are things about us that are true that for whatever reason, we do not recognize hopes, aspirations, orientations, thought processes that maybe have not worked historically in the light of day and we pushed down into the basement and forget about them, but they are still alive, they still surface.

As we try to be successful in using our intellect, our emotions, our values, and managing the shadow territory of our lives, there is a whole array of things that needs to happen to make sure that it comes together with intelligence. The application needs to be directed and targeted to things that really matter in our lives. That is where we believe the fifth factor of our life, the community quotient, is needed to achieve our personal goals. In an organization you need great talent and you need them to be emotionally healthy. You can identify solid values, manage your shadow, but to pull all those things together in life, you need to have others that can think with you - not for you. They collaborate with you around ideas, opportunities, and challenges to enable you to produce very robust outcomes.

The intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual, the shadow, all being affected and governed by the play of a select group of people strategically selected because of their advocacy for your best interest, their subject matter expertise and talent, that there is a conversation and dialogue in our lives that takes place for us to manage those factors to produce the greatest outcomes. That from our experience, study, and conviction are critical core things that take you from having the intent to do good, to being able to produce the good that you say matters to you.

Takeaway
Our encouragement right now is for you to think about what could be significantly affected if there was a better play with the group that you are working with, whether professional or personal. As you think about the opportunity, we want you to actually feel the burn of that intellectual dissonance that becomes dissatisfied with your status quo and the norm of what you are currently practicing and let that fester a bit. It will create an opening of where you will be more pliable and open to transformation.

The shield of Authenticity, Execution, Greater Good, Integrity, and Sustainability. 

You might be thinking that with the topic of today’s coaching notes, AEGIS, that there will be references to shields that have some ‘bounce’.  That might not have been a bad idea back when these shields were made and used.  I kinda like the idea of having the ability to repel those things that are harmful; it would also make for a good laugh just to see it in action.

And I can tell you that this week as I cut my finger and had to have stitches at the Holland Emergency room that I would have wished that the knife would have ‘bounced’ off my finger!!@!!  But, I guess I was getting a bit ‘cocky’ about not ever having stitches from an accident.  Hopefully, it will be my last time as I am not so tough when dealing with my own injury!  Anyway…back to Aegis…

      

When the fiends have come there is nowhere to hide

      

I must swing my axe, my brothers at my side

      

Feeding on our own fear, passions running high

      

Fleeing not a choice, better to fight and die

 

      

In the shield-wall we stand to defend our land

      

Holding till the end

 

      

Brace the storm and keep the shining blades at bay

      

Fight to let our kingdom live another day

      

Heed the old one’s cries, we mustn’t let them down

      

We will slaughter them to keep them from the crown

 

      

In the shield-wall we stand to defend our land

      Holding till the end 

                  

–Battle hymn or paen–

 

Ahh…I love the historical movies that depict battle; the struggle, the sacrifice, and the heroism.  So when I watched the movie “300” I was locked-in to the characters and the sacrifices that were made during that final battle. Yet, what caught my passion were the concepts of the shield-wall and the formation of the phalanx.  My thoughts immediately started to blend this concept with the concept of leadership; the faithful leadership that puts others first.  This phalanx wasn’t designed to cover your own person, but to protect the person on your left.  You are only as strong as the person on your right…they are protecting you as you are using your own strength and skill to protect another.  Novel idea, huh?  You don’t find too much of that kind of leadership, especially in corporate business…unless maybe your reality is a battlefield.  (Maybe a battlefield is an accurate depiction of corporate?)

 

Men wear their helmets and their breastplates for their own needs, but they carry shields for the men of the entire line.

—Plutarch, Moralia

Now, if you watched the movie, those guys were built…I mean “well-muscled”…all over!   Yes, I couldn’t help but notice…I’m married but not blind! But in the days of the Greeks, most of these men were approx. 150 lbs…carrying approx. 70 lbs. in armor!  Incredible strength and skill was necessary; and another component…resolve, a ferocious resolve!  And because of the shield-wall…no man was greater than any other…it was the combined strength, skill, and resolve that would define the outcome of the battle; victory or defeat, life or death.

 

Signs of courageous leadership came as the rows upon rows of men were arranged typically about eight ranks deep, and stretching for about a quarter of a mile or more.  The commanding general –the strategos—took position in the front rank, at the extreme right – the most exposed position in the entire army.  Generals typically had short careers (take note)!  As lines neared, both sides would break into a run.  The challenge for the general was to maintain cohesion (and the shield-wall) while still gaining enough momentum for the crash.  It took all the ranks to push and hack and spear and shatter the army in front of them.  Although gruesome to watch sometimes in the movie, the battle was very decisive; short with low casualties in comparison to modern combat.  Battles were kept short –even a single battle – so that people could get back to their lives. 

 

Aegis, in Greek mythology, was the shield made by Zeus from the head of the snake-headed Medusa.  Aegis, now in modern English, is to mean a shield, protection, or sponsorship.  The concept of doing something “under someone’s aegis” means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source.  Bottom line…its protection given by your “community” needed against strong forces.

 

As you all know by now, I love to create acronyms that have meaning toward leadership principles.  This is what I came up for ‘aegis’:

 

      A  -  Authenticity – what’s real and true

      

E  - Execution  -  action with decisive results

      

G  -  Greater Good – faithful leadership impacting others; putting

         aside ego

      

I  -   Integrity -  commitment towards honesty, right choices, and

      

follow-thru

      

S  -  Sustainability  -  strength to stand and run into fears with the

      

          shield-wall of core convictions.

 

You know, we all might be in situations that could be better.  They’re not ideal; they rarely follow the story I told last week.  But we do have choices in what we are going to decide; how we are going to live and lead.  There is meaning in truth and honesty, meaning to building trust in our relationships along with motivation to not just do better but be better, and meaning to foster micro-community relationships and to have a resiliency to get through what life throws at us!  But just think about the power of a group of leaders that can come together, with all of their differences (strengths and weaknesses), despite the silos that they have used to define and protect their boundaries, and become that shield-wall when ‘battle’ is necessary.  Remember, it’s not an everyday occurrence, because work and life need to continue, yet it gives me goose bumps to think of leaders (you) that see the bigger picture…they see it in big screen size…they get ‘it’; true and faithful leadership.  

 

My challenge, and yours, is to put aside the self-destructive habits of denial, arrogance, complacency, defensiveness, entitlement, and poor execution and find ourselves picking up our shields, falling into rank, and covering not just our own self but the ‘other’ on our left.  Build the relationships and develop the communication skills that enact great leadership principles.  Your team, your micro-community, your family…they are the ranks in your personal phalanx.  Learn to carry the shield, strengthen your core convictions, and be the faithful leader that runs forward with tough resolve and resiliency.

 

As you and I all encounter and face the challenges to be more than an effective leader, especially in work environments, let me say how much confidence I have in your ability to lead from within…from the convictions that have been stamped and approved by experience, reflection, accountability, wisdom of age, and the daily choice we all have of ‘right action’.  Don’t just settle…don’t just exist…don’t “fold”…there are others that are depending on the protection of our shields.