How You Have Inescapable Impact
No one can live as an individual.
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;” John Donne
Impact:
If you could live an individual life, your life would be completely meaningless. But – for better or worse – your actions impact others, even if you wish they didn’t.
In the moment:
No one lives simply in the moment. The past is ever present.
There’s no reason to start fresh, if NOW is all there is.
Connection:
Like it or not, you are connected to your past and embedded with the people around you. The saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” is horse shit.
Living as an individual – exclusively in the moment – would be a disaster, if it was possible.
The law of consequence:
The law of consequence gives meaning to your decisions and actions. Apart from consequence, everything you do is meaningless.
You might hide in your office, but trying to avoid decisions impacts others. Even when you try to do nothing, lack of action has impact.
Leaders know:
#1. They matter – even if they might prefer to matter less.
Immature leaders live with disregard for their impact. They can’t or won’t connect the dots. They reject responsibility.
#2. The action of one impacts the work of many.
Individuality provides the illusion that you aren’t responsible for the impact of your wake. But every moving boat disturbs the water.
If you aspire to lead, think about impact in broad terms.
- How are you making things better for others?
- How are thoughtless actions making work more difficult for others?
- Who is sweeping up your mess?
Meaningful impact begins with connection – connection to:
- Yourself
- The past.
- Others.
- The present.
- The imagined future.
What does it mean for leaders to embrace the inescapable power of their impact on others?
Leaders should know and understand that they are being watched; that they set the example; that they are the faces of their organizations. How people feel about an organization (as employees, stakeholders, others) may reflect their feelings about the organization.
Thanks Daryl. Sometimes we get so busy watching others that we forget that others are watching us.
and even if you don’t think you are a leader, younger people in your industry are always watching to see how you got to where you are. If you have kids you are certainly being watched. Oh Dan used the S word…
Thanks Walt. Dang,,,the kids are watching too… 🙂 …. Maybe I should have used the Poo word. Cheers
lol
“Oh Dan used the S word…”
LOL Walt.
This is a powerful conversation as it implies (I would say demands) that there is a difference between thinking and living as if everything is relative and thiniking and living as if things are absolute. It life is relative then of course what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But as you say that is Poo…
AS leaders we need to guide very carefully.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Thanks Gary. I hadn’t thought about absolutes while writing this. Mostly, I thought about the wonderful and terrifying responsibility of managing our wake. Thanks for bringing your insights.
Impact is as inescapable as the moment, the ever present now; in each moment it’s choice … flight, freeze, or fight.
Most of us (most of the Time) flee the past and fight for the future, while positioning ourselves in the moment for the best advantage.
The more connected – the more aware (say “woke”?) – we are in the moment of ALL impacts at once (to our Self, Others – as individuals- and Us – as a whole, the better suited we are to make positively impactful choices (work to win/win/win scenarios).
Spot on, Dan. Thx.
The bigger the boat (the bigger the I, the Other, Us),
the bigger the wake (impact),
the slower to turn (change),
the slower to speed up and/or stop (hold the moment).
Thanks Rurbane. Your responses to past, present, and future are interesting. I’m mulling over the idea of running from the past. Generally, I like to think of the past as a platform. But running from the past might take the form of burying our head in the sand and trying ignore it. Generally that’s not very useful.
But, I wonder if running from the past might sometimes serve a useful purpose. It might help us fight for the future.
Just some random thoughts.
The young dwell to the future and want to improve on the past – usually by ignoring it or denying it. That makes it useful to imagining a better future.
Experience tends to reverse that trend, out of concern for inadvertently repeating bad patterns.
Awareness of both helps, so long as neither gets radically progressive or conservative.
Ursula Le Guin said it very well” …as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do…”
Thanks Mitch. That state, I think, would be an amazing place to be.
It is easy for leaders to bury their heads in the dollars than in those who are making the dollars
Nicely said, Gerry. Thank you
“Individualism” has gradually become more equated with selfishness and lack of regard for society. Let’s not forget Hoover’s “rugged individualism” – freedom of initiative, freedom in enterprise, and volunteerism.
Two things from this post grabbed me:
1. “Immature leaders…reject responsibility.” In working with new police sergeants and lieutenants, I always try to impress upon them the authority-responsibility connection; the fact that exercising one’s leadership authority is always accompanied by responsibility/accountability for the results of those actions, be they satisfactory or unsatisfactory. It is easy for a line officer to desire promotion to the supervisory ranks with more status and better pay, but it takes a thoughtful person to fully anticipate and embrace that step as a move to the exponentially greater responsibility and accountability that comes with their new status and authority.
2. “…the illusion that you aren’t responsible for the impact of your wake.” This concept seems not to be at all intuitive to many newer, inexperienced leaders (dare I say, “these days”?) as younger people who have been infected with the superficial pop culture philosophy of “YOLO” -You Only Live Once- run head-on into realities of “actions vs. consequences.”
Thanks, as always!
Whether we like it or not, doing “nothing” is in fact, doing “something.”
Good insights. Too bad more of our political leaders don’t reflect these themes.