Sunday, October 18, 2009

Time to hit the bottle again.

Nail polish that is. Red to be exact. Not just any red. We're talking number 40, Sally Hanson ADVANCED HARD as NAILS (with nylon and retinol). So long french manicure. Shameless red, here I come.

So why the shift in attitude? Recently I have been agaw with the world around me. I find myself shocked, disappointed, paranoid, dismayed, and at times, ticked off. Why so emotional you ask? Good question. I don't know. Call it a weakness in the o-zone. Usually I have a thicker skin. Usually, I can shake it off, as long as I am religious with exercise and diet. But of late, I have been couch surfing, due to a nasty flu that took me down for a couple weeks. I had no choice but to sit and watch the world happening in front of me. The news was dismal. The weather was dismal. What can I say. Call me a Debbie Downer, but the world tends not to look rosy when one is steeped in Vick's, NyQuil, Tylenol, and where the Kleenex box is my most cherished accessory. Even my comfy blue sweats that are 4 sizes too large and are highly functional as pants and slippers hit the hamper. Alas, I am on the recovery side, and it's time to regroup.

I have had time to think and to read. I picked up the book - "FIERCE LEADERSHIP" by Susan Scott, which is subtitled, "A BOLD ALTERNATIVE TO THE WORST "BEST" PRACTICES OF BUSINESS TODAY." Yes, that's right. The letters are screaming off the page. She means business. The reason I like the book is she finds herself asking all the questions that I wonder about and talk about too. The question is this: Why is that no matter what we - the well intended do - we can't seem to resolve what ever it is that we are attempting to solve. World peace. Economic global destruction. Hunger. Cancer. Bad skin. Crime. You name it. We have many things to "solve" but we can't seem to get anywhere. She says that "best practice" is too blame, and that companies are spending millions of dollars on consultants and their ideas.

There are too many problems and that is the issue, no matter what the environment. But that's ok. It's important to know where and who the sharks are in the water. Understanding the threats that one is facing is the first step to making a decison to act.

So, we got that figured out. We can list our threats adnausium. Years ago we called it a SWOT. Today, we call it Risk Management and we can make it as complex as possible by adding subjective rating systems and multiplication factors that are designed to help leaders make decisions about what is most important. We are hooked on numbers. Rating systems can't be wrong, right? Wrong. Rating systems are all subjecive. Rating something is about a person's perspective. It is purely emotional and subjective. So here I am agreeing with Susan again. The risk management best practioneers tell us to rate things. If the person in charge doesn't know where to start, then . . . well, finish the sentence.

Let's face it. We know what to do. But we have paralyzed ourselves into believing we only have one chance, and we have to be right all the time. Clearly that is not the case. World wars have been raging on for hundreds of years despite best efforts.

We are mired in perfectionism. We think we have to be right, right now. But the truth is, no matter what the problem or threat, it will not be solved in a day. It takes days. Years. Centuries. Lifetimes.

Just start. Do something. Do not complain about it. Whine about it. Be a victim. Do not try to be a hero.

I know the tone of this is emotional, but this is not an emotional plea. This is a plea not to be emotional. To be intelligent. Active. Purpose. and Full of Integrity.

So we need courage. The courage to stop complaining, pointing fingers and waiting for someone else to solve these problems and just get busy doing something.

Hence the color red. Because the bull needs beckoning. It's time to get going.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very well written,Lynn.Most of us feel defeated by this society.Corruption everywhere,Government being the biggest offender.What our forefathers built is being destroyed and they lived in adverse conditions and worked like slaves.This is an immoral,commercialized,ME
society and there is no hope.Spirituality is lost.