Word count this issue: 552

Estimated reading time:  3.30 minutes

Good morning, I trust this edition of Leadership Notes finds you well and that Spring is beginning to make itself evident in your part of the world.

I’ve been re-reading Presence, the 2004 book by Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer Joseph Jaworkski and Betty Sue Flowers http://www.randomhouse.com/book/163980/presence-by-peter-m-senge-c-otto-scharmer-joseph-jaworski-and-betty-sue-flowers and thoroughly enjoying it, again. I wonder frankly if it might have been 10 years too soon? That may be my own limitations, that 10 years ago, I was not as ready to read it? 

It has struck a deep and resonant chord with me. The basic premise is that leadership is about Presence. Not presence, that is simply showing up, but Presence, “a deep listening, of being open beyond one’s preconceptions and historical ways of making sense.... a sense of ‘letting come’, of consciously participating in a larger field for change.” (p. 10) In a spiritual sense, it is ‘opening your heart’. or in a coaching sense, ‘getting out of your own way’. It is an ancient wisdom. And it is central to our ability to thrive in the next 10 years.

Consider the words from last week’s Economist about the future; “by 2020, ...80% of adults will own a smartphone.... Like the book, the clock and the internal combustion engine before it, the smartphone  is changing the way people relate to each other and the world around them. Beyond convenience ... a computer that is always with you removes many previous constraints on what can be done when and where, and undermines old certainties about what was what and who was who.... the differences between a product and a service, between a car owner and a taxi driver, between city square and a political movement blur into each other. The world is becoming more fluid.” (The Economist, Feb 28 - March 6, 2015 p 19-20)

Frankly believing that you alone have any semblance of control in your life is a fools errand. The job you have today could well be done better by an algorithm tomorrow. Or even if your particular talents are still in demand and cannot yet be done by an algorithm (I see for example the Rolling Stones have announced a 14 city North American tour), your job will likely morph into an entrepreneurial one regardless of how you feel. Blue collar, white collar and pink collar, your job will change, somehow. Guaranteed. 

So how does Presence help? As I see it, first if gives me a stance, a viewpoint that is open to possibility. It challenges that part of me that is hanging on to the past, hoping that all this will blow over. A Presence viewpoint gives me perspective that there are always other possibilities for me. They may not be possibilities my fearful ego relishes, but they may well be brilliant, powerful and nurturing possibilities nonetheless. Secondly, Presence is all about relationships. And, “...the bottom line is relationships are more fundamental than things” (p. 199) The work of the future will be based on our relationships with each other. If we are all self-employed entrepreneurs we will do business with those we can trust, those with whom we have relationships. 

May this week be one of building new relationships, or repairing old ones.