Stephen H Baum Leadership

It occurred to me that I have the privilege of a unique glimpse inside the mind and heart of my CEOs and that, with identities withheld along with anything confidential, these glimpses may be of value to aspiring future leaders and to those more established who seek self-improvement.

I have more than one CEO who is wrestling with turning down the very drive that makes them successful so as to protect their own well-being and capacity for work as well as to allow them to nurture family relationships before it is too late. If you wrestle with this, read on. And if you report to someone like this, be sure you approach them with “boss ready” input (see prior post) and realize you are providing input into such a mind.

One brilliant and caring CEO confided last week this glimpse inside the mind of the CEO:
“The way my mind works, there are thousands of thoughts coming up a minute. Like
a swarm.  Some are micro like the color of something I have seen and a question
about the color. Others may be bigger like an image of my daughter on her first
day of college and her mother’s expression at the moment our litle girl leaves
home. And a thought that a risk my people at work are afraid to take in this
economy is a big opportunity we need to seize. And an idea for our training
program. And a worry about the ability of one of our people to grow. And a sense
that many more of our customers are behaving scared than in 2008 when things
were worse. And many many more. All at once.

I have learned to spend a few minutes each day,  usually just after I am home,
to push such thoughts away, to parry them, swat them off like mosquitoes and
clear my mind. That is the only way I can dial down and be fully present with my
family or be focused and reflective about something important.

Many years ago I observed and learned from an expert in transcendental
meditation. It’s very powerful. And needed. I think what I do is a small step in
that vein.”

It is only one person’s revelation. I think this is worth sharing.

That’s just my view. What’s yours?

And if you are interested in learning more about TM, go to the URL below:

Transcendental Meditation

If you want to go deeper and explore more tailored approaches (for memory, for focus and concentration), go to this URL:

IMMRAMA Institute (Focus 2 disk set)