Chapter 6
“I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
—Dalai Lama XIV
E is energy, the spirit that catalyzes us.
Get up and go—that’s energy. It is the vitality that animates our purpose translating what we want to do into what we actually do. Energy is a kind of caffeine that revs our internal motor so that we can stay the course when times are tough as well as enjoy the course when things are going well. Energy is the spunk of life. And it is swell.
Energy to serve
Few people—with perhaps the exceptions of George Washington upon the nation’s founding and Abraham Lincoln upon the nation’s possible dissolution—have tackled the office of the Presidency in such a crisis as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And he did so with boundless enthusiasm and energy.
Roosevelt’s mantra during his momentous first one hundred days was this statement: “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.” And with good reason, the nation Roosevelt was elected to lead was nearly prostrate. One-fifth of the workforce was unemployed, banks were nearly insolvent, businesses were collapsing. Historian Jon Meacham in The Soul of America cites that dark forces were brewing abroad that advocated state control, either communist or fascist. Democracy was cracking, and people were afraid.
And so, when FDR made his inaugural address on March 4, 1933, he said the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” There, in one short statement, the president laid bare the boogeyman at the door. Quiet, nameless, but so terrible in scope! Fear. Roosevelt with his customary upbeat style and strong voice laid bare that fear and set the nation on a course toward recovery.
As historian and journalist Jonathan Alter writes in The Defining Moment, “That March of 1933, the new president did not have to mobilize aging members of the American Legion under martial law. Franklin Roosevelt mobilized himself and his talent for leadership. He found his voice, and his voice defined America.” During those Hundred Days, he employed his executive authority to put the banks on holiday (not closing, mind you, but a holiday), set up an “alphabet soup” of agencies, and set about finding ways to put people back to work. For once the people had hope and they found it in the papers but mostly at their radios where Roosevelt would serenade them with his plans—labeled fireside chats—that talked about what his plans for the future were.
It was his voice—arched and patrician befitting his social class and Groton-Harvard pedigree—that provided comfort. He was also out and about visiting people where they lived and worked. No one seemed to mind that the man in whom they had placed their hopes for the future was himself a man who depended upon the aide of others for his daily routine. Stricken with polio at age 39, he wore heavy leg braces to stand and required the aid of others to walk.
But it was in his paralysis that historians, particularly James Tobin, whose book The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency, argue that his illness was what gave him his common touch. Although he was to the manor born, as a man recovering from polio he worked hard to recover and spent as much time as possible in Warm Springs, Georgia in its mineral baths. He eventually bought the place and turned it into a sanitarium for fellow polio victims.
What animated Roosevelt throughout his presidency was restoring America to its principles in ways that enable the able-bodied to work and the less fortunate to find relief. Called a traitor to his class, he reveled in upsetting the order of the day in his quest to do it all. As FDR once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Never did that voice resonate more clearly than on the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation. Rather than give a report on the invasion, Roosevelt invoked his adaptation of a prayer taken from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, a favorite of his.
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
Roosevelt mentions the word “grace” once in the address and it is in passing but his remarks focus on the spirit of what the word implies.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
Even with grace comes suffering and sacrifice.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
Roosevelt emphasizes the nature of those who fight and honor their cause.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Roosevelt contrasts the righteous cause of the Allies with the evil forces of the Nazis.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men.
For Roosevelt a better tomorrow was always the intention.
And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
While acknowledging the power of the Almighty, Roosevelt, ever cognizant that he was the president and not a pastor, was careful to focus his words on the purpose of the cause —uprooting a tyrannical power. For Roosevelt the cause was sacred, but it would not be waged with words. It was fought with the blood and treasure of the nation and its Allies. Peace could only be possible through the hard effort of sacrifice touched with the power of grace. In the Christian tradition, grace is not earned; it is given. As such men and women must use it not for personal enrichment but for the good of all.
The many years in office—coupled with chronic heart disease—took their toll on Roosevelt. In the last year of his life, some noted he looked more ghost-like than human and that is where his energy morphed into sheer determination. He wanted to have a hand in shaping the post-War world and he pushed hard for the establishment of a United Nations. In February of 1945 just two months before his death, he travelled 14,000 miles round-trip to meet with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in Yalta on the Black Sea, an arduous trip in an era before jet travel.
Such determination was a hallmark of Roosevelt’s courage. Jon Meacham notes that Churchill, his ally in arms during World War II, praised Roosevelt to Parliament after FDR’s death in April 1945:
“President Roosevelt’s physical affliction lay heavily upon him. It was a marvel that he bore up against it through all the many years of tumult and storm. Not one man in ten millions, stricken and crippled as he was, would have attempted to plunge into a life of physical and mental exertion and of hard, ceaseless political controversy. Not one in ten millions would have tried, not one in a generation would have succeeded, not only in entering this sphere, not only in acting vehemently in it, but in becoming indisputable master of the scene.”
Roosevelt was no saint. He strayed in his marriage. He also sought to pack the Supreme Court with political stalwarts and perhaps worst of all, he signed an executive order than interned over 100,000 Japanese Americans at the start of World War II. Yet his better self-prevailed in what he accomplished by shepherding the nation through a catastrophic depression and a global war that saw some 12 million Americans in military service. Satisfaction for Roosevelt can be summed up in this quote of his: “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” Confident, energetic, and focused on doing something positive, in 1932 he was labeled the Happy Warrior, a label he wore as proudly as his smile.67
Renewable Energy
Christine Porath, a professor at Georgetown who studies workplace civility, told me that unlike time, energy is a renewable resource, “fuel for high-performance.” The challenge is to find ways to renew it. For Roosevelt energy came from addressing challenges of the day; the bigger the problem, the greater his ability to rally himself to fight the good fight.
The idea of renewability has roots in an article that psychologist, Jim Loehr, and author, Tony Schwartz, wrote about in “The Corporate Athlete” for Harvard Business Review in 2001. Executives need to learn how to develop and renew their sources of energy that come in three types: physical, emotional, and spiritual. When these aspects are in balance, individuals can perform better than they can when one or more of these aspects are depleted.
Tony Schwartz, now CEO and President of The Energy Project, which helps individuals and teams use their energies wisely and constructively, notes in a subsequent post for Harvard Business Review that many senior executives feel they don’t have the energy to do their jobs effectively. Schwartz, co-author of The Power of Full Engagement and The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, and his team have developed The Energy Audit, a self-assessment that can help individuals assess their energy levels. By identifying where they are lacking, they can focus on how to improve.
Their research showed that a majority of executives had “trouble focusing on one thing at a time,” did not have enough “time to think strategically and creatively,” and also found
themselves becoming “impatient, frustrated or irritable at work.” Reasons for this dissatisfaction as Schwartz’s research reveals, come from lack of sleep, lack of exercise, eating lunch at their desks and not spending time with family or having “too little time for the activities they most deeply enjoy.”
Obvious areas of improvement come from three sources: eating properly, sleeping sufficiently, exercising for fitness, and making time for family and self. These activities help individuals feel better about themselves and improve their overall levels of energy.68
Christine Porath approaches energy from the perspective of the mind. Meditating can improve mental acuity as well as energy. Using techniques of breath control, those who meditate can find ways to link their thought processes to their daily activities. Yoga, too, can facilitate meditation because it combines breathing with physical movement. Meditation complements mindfulness, which is the ability to be present in the moment. It requires discipline to be mindful and that’s where meditation helps. Mindfulness improves a sense of awareness both of self and the situation. As such, mindfulness can help us pay attention to what’s important and disregard what is extraneous. Easy to say, but difficult to practice!
Passion Fuels Energy
Once Willie Nelson was so ill that when he got on stage he could not sing. Disgusted, he threw his hat into the audience and left the stage. He had a bad case of the flu, but he was determined to persevere, although he simply could not. His wife said she was worried. And why wouldn’t she? After all Willie Nelson, the legend himself was 85 years old. Most men his age do not travel the country playing on stage. Fortunately, Willie had his family with him.
“We went to Maui,” Willie’s wife, Annie D’Angelo, told David Greene on NPR’s Fresh Air, “He got some fresh air, but it took a good month,” she says. “Then, he was a little nervous about it, but I heard him singing so I knew he was fine. He would sneak off in the music room and sing and pick.” When he recovered—as his song says—he went “back on the road again.” The question of energy naturally arises, and while his body might have faltered—temporarily—his spirit did not.
My grandmother, herself, an accomplished pianist, used to say that great musicians live long because their music keeps them going. She was referring to musicians such as conductor, Arturo Toscanini; cellist, Pablo Casals; pianists, Vladimir Horowitz, and Arthur Rubinstein. But she might have been speaking about Willie as well as his sister, Bobbie, who is two years older and plays piano in his band.
Like most musicians and entertainers, the energy comes from performing, “Just the last two shows have just blown my mind,” said son Lukas. “We’re playing really good music and Dad is singing his ass off.” To which Willie added, “There’s nothing that makes a parent happier than having your kids up there doing things with you, especially if they’re good.” Energy is renewable when you do what you love doing.69
What keeps musicians going is a passion for what they do. Alaina Love, an author and business leader, believes energy revolves around passion. According to Alaina’s years of research on purpose, passion, and fulfillment, the passions exhibited by a person are the outward expression of the deeper purpose that drives them. These passions can be categorized into 10 specific “archetypes” or styles, that each carry an energy signature which others can perceive. Some folks, with a Builder archetype, for example, “exhibit a ‘get it done, accomplishment-focused, I’m-in-charge” energy. Others, such as “Healers, Altruists, Teachers, and Connectors” manifest a type of energy that “invites others in because individuals with these archetypes are empathic, socially conscious, avid learners, and open to sharing, respectively.” Individuals with these archetypes thrive by being in a relationship with others.
Since Alaina’s research also indicates that we each have three main archetypes as dominant within our personality, the challenge is for us to understand the energy of each of those passions and how they may be influencing the way in which we are perceived by others. Armed with that understanding, we’re in a better position to align our intent in our interactions with others to the impact that we most desire to achieve from those interactions.70
De-Energizing Behavior
Part of seeking to nurture energy is to stay positive. There is a sign on a door of the office of Pope Francis with the headline that says, “No Whining.” The sign was a gift from Dr. Salvo Noe, a psychologist and motivational speaker. On his website Dr. Noe posted a picture of himself giving the sign to the Pope who laughed when he read it. The sign, written by Dr. Noe in Italian, reads:
Violators are subject to a syndrome of always feeling like a victim and the consequent reduction of your sense of humor and capacity to solve problems . . . Stop complaining and take steps to improve your life.
The Pope is addressing a situation that bugs many executives—underlings who do little but complain. Good bosses don’t stand for naysayers. Here’s some advice for the next time you bring a problem to your boss. Don’t! Here is what you can do instead:
Identify the problem. Inform your boss about the situation and tell him or her why it is a problem. Don’t make yourself the object of the story. Talk about why the issue or problem is hurting the team.
Offer a solution. Suggest what you can do to remedy the situation. Be specific and prescriptive.
Gain agreement as to what to do next. Get permission to implement your idea, or have the boss make the decision about what to do next.
Following these steps may not bring immediate relief but it will demonstrate to your boss that you are not a whiner. You are a problem solver. Organizations need people who are willing to think for themselves. At the same time, before you act you need to get permission. Otherwise, you will create bigger problems. Complaining is inherent in the human condition—especially in times of doubt or fear. At a general audience, Pope Francis once said, God “is a father and this is a form of prayer. Complain to the Lord, this is good.” Complain to your boss, no!71
Collaboration as Learning
Complaining to colleagues drains energy, and energy is essential to successful teamwork. The holy grail of teamwork is collaboration. When two or more people can put their ideas together to create something better than themselves, wonderful things happen, be it a new business, a better process, or even a work of art. Essential to teaming is a sublimation of ego. You put yours aside so that you can listen to someone else’s ideas. Your ego never goes away, nor should it, but you tone it down to be open to something else: learning.
And so, it was with that thought in mind that I discovered “10 Rules for Students and Teachers.” Sister Corita Kent, an influential artist and educator, was the original author of “The 10 Rules.” Composer John Cage popularized them and had them posted for students at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Merce, a renowned choreographer, was Cage’s collaborator and romantic partner.
Themes in the “10 Rules” revolve around trust as well as the push to get everything you can out of an experience. Self-discipline is important as the need to follow a leader when necessary. At the same time, it is necessary to break the rules so that you can seek what Sister Corita calls “X qualities.” Sister Corita advises students “not to try and create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.” That very wise thought gets to the heart of brainstorming. You generate but do not critique. Go for the flow. This certainly helps when initiating a project. There will be plenty of time for criticism. Go for the creative and see where it takes you.
As an addendum to the “10 Rules,” Sister Corita added Helpful Hints. While each could be its own rule, my feeling is that Sister Corita intended them as pieces of advice. For example, she advises students to absorb all the experiences around them, including going to movies as well as to class. The first Helpful Hint is most relevant for anyone seeking to collaborate. “Always Be Around.” The best teammates practice that mantra. They don’t clock in mentally because their clock is always ticking. They are ready and available. They alternate between being creative and constructive, challenging, and supportive. Most important their authority comes from their presence. The best teammates are invested in the project, so people respect their contribution.
Sister Corita’s final note, written all in caps, is SAVE EVERYTHING. As Sister Corita advises, “Something may come in handy later.” So true! A rejected idea for one project may metamorphose into a great idea for another project. Or more often, the idea may combine with a colleague or two’s ideas, which can lead to something even better. Collaboration is both art and practice. It is creative in that it is generative. It is practice because, as Sister Corita advises, you need discipline. And there is something else that comes from strong collaboration. Joy. “Be happy when you can manage it.” As Sister Corita says, “Enjoy yourself. It is lighter than you think.”72
Joy, Joy, Joy
Sister Corita understood that working with others—collaborating with them for improvement—is joyful. Joy is an element of grace. Putting grace to good use for others does engender feelings of joy; you feel good about doing something positive. There is satisfaction in working for the greater good for an individual or a community. While much of this book is focused on what grace does for others, it also enriches the individual who gives. Giving brings joy to oneself. And when you feel joy, you feel good about the world, happy even. Real happiness comes from feeling a kind of oneness with the world and those in it. It does not come from things. While buying something special—a house, a car, a new gadget—produces delight, but such delight is fleeting. Real happiness comes from giving to another.
Peggy Noonan, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, unearthed a television interview that famed CBS correspondent Mike Wallace did with Oscar Hammerstein, the award-winning lyricist and librettist of many Broadway hits, including Oklahoma, South Pacific and The King and I. When Wallace asked Hammerstein about his work being overly “sentimental,” Hammerstein replied with a wry soliloquy about sophistication. “The sophisticate is a man who thinks he can swim better than he can and sometimes drowns himself. He thinks he can drive better than he really can and sometimes causes great smash-ups.” Hammerstein then summed up his feelings. “So, in my book there’s nothing wrong with sentiment because the things we’re sentimental about are the fundamental things in life, the birth of a child, the death of a child, or of anybody, falling in love. I couldn’t be anything but sentimental about these basic things.”
Hammerstein demurred when asked about sentimentality. “When a writer writes anything about anything at all, he gives himself away.” For example, South Pacific deals with the love affair between an American sailor and a Polynesian woman. In Hammerstein’s view, “all this prejudice that we have is something that fades away in the face of something that’s really important.” (Which Noonan labels as “love.”) Furthermore, in The King and I—featuring a Welsh schoolteacher in the Kingdom of Siam— “all race and color had faded in their getting to know and love each other.” Viewed through the lens of the 21st century, Hammerstein’s ideas may seem anachronistic. For the mid-20th century, they were groundbreaking.
Hammerstein told a story about a cop in New York who stopped him for jaywalking. Expecting to get a ticket, the cop instead complimented the lyricist on his work. He also asked him if he were religious. Hammerstein answered, “Well, I don’t belong to any church.” Referring to the cop he said, “and then he patted me on the back, and he said, ‘Ah, you’re religious all right.’” Hammerstein realized that he was religious after all. The cop “had discovered from the words of my songs that he had faith—faith in mankind, faith that there was something more powerful than mankind behind it all, and faith that in the long run good triumphs over evil. “If that’s religion, I’m religious, and it is my definition of religion,” Hammerstein said.
Hammerstein practiced his good behavior. He was a mentor to Stephen Sondheim, a friend of Hammerstein’s son, James. When he was in high school, Sondheim showed Hammerstein a musical entitled By George, which he had written for their school play, expecting to receive a heap of praise. Hammerstein did one better; he gave him constructive criticism. “But if you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you,” said Hammerstein. Sondheim later said, “In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime.”
Recognizing the seriousness of his protégé, Hammerstein challenged Sondheim to write four different musicals, each one based on different sources—a play, a novel and something original. Two were eventually produced, All the Glitters and Climb High. Over the years Sondheim emerged with his own unmistakable voice. Sondheim wrote lyrics for West Side Story before writing the score and lyrics for a number of ground-breaking Broadway shows including Follies, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd. On his last visit with Hammerstein before his death in 1960, Sondheim asked him to sign a portrait the older man had given him. The inscription read, “For Stevie, My Friend and Teacher.” High praise from a mentor to a protégé, and emblematic of the generous spirit Hammerstein possessed.73
Joy as a Source of Energy
Joy is generative. It is something that feeds upon itself. We can smile at the simple pleasures of life—a baby gurgling, a toddler taking a first step, a school kid proudly showing off something she made at school. We laugh with colleagues in a funny situation at work or something silly that occurred on your way to work. There is joy in our laughter.
I often tell people I meet for the first time that I take my work seriously but not myself. The work that I do gives me pleasure. There is joy for me in writing, teaching, and coaching, as well as playing golf and practicing piano. And in my work, I find humor in everyday things. Jokes such as these can lighten up any situation:
Joy makes us feel good to be alive, if only for a moment. It also renews our sense of humanity. Yes, life can be difficult but with luck, there is still room for laughter. That is one reason oppressed people find humor. For millennia Jews were marginalized from Western society. As a result, the Jewish tradition is replete with situational humor that spits in the face of the oppressor. A similar kind of humor developed in the USSR with many jokes about the unfairness of the communist system. Soldiers in wartime also tell jokes. In those situations, it’s an affirmation of self in a terrible predicament. A joke says yes, I am alive. “Pain plus time equals humor” is a “formula” that the late Garry Marshall, creator and producer of memorable sitcoms like Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy, said he learned from observing comedian, Lenny Bruce.74
Humor emerging from pain is humankind’s way of coping with hurt. Some people would turn that pain into rage; others turn it into a catalyst for self-improvement. Comedians turn that pain into gold. Humor is generative, and Humor is one way to deal with the challenges facing you. Find ways you can laugh at the world around you. And in the process feel better about what you do and with whom you work.
Laughter as Energy
One man who found hope and solace in humor was Abraham Lincoln. As successful as he became, his life was marked with tragedy including the death of his mother and the loss of his son, Todd. His wife Julia also suffered from bouts of depression, something that afflicted him too. As President, Lincoln presided over the bloodiest war in American history.
Humor was his safety valve. He liked nothing more than to entertain guests with stories about or from his days as a circuit-riding lawyer in Illinois. He loved to spin the yarns as well as hear new stories. Sometimes those around him would grow weary of his stories, to wit Lincoln once quipped, “Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.” Part of the “medicine” Lincoln dispensed were stories told about himself and many at his own expense.
“I was once accosted,” said Lincoln, “by a stranger, who said, ‘Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession which rightfully belongs to you.’ ‘How is that?’ I asked, considerably astonished. The stranger took a jackknife from his pocket.
‘This knife,’ said he, ‘was placed in my hands some years ago with the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. I have carried it from that time to this. Allow me now to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the property.’” 75
Humor, as Lincoln used it, helped him navigate dark days. It can also lighten the mood. Norm Eisen, who served as ambassador to the Czech Republic in the mid-2000s, tells the story about one of his predecessors, Shirley Temple Black. Yes, that Shirley Temple—the 1930s child star. Ms. Black was serving in Prague when the communist dictatorship fell and so she gathered her team around her in a staff meeting. Then, as Eisen tells it, “She stood up, and said, ‘I’m only going to do this once” and then broke into a rendition of the song, “The Good Ship Lollipop” as she danced around the table. Eisen says her staff—all of them “hardened cold warriors”— “broke into applause at the end because her fundamental optimism had proven correct.”76
Novelist Charlotte Wood gave a speech on the power of laughter. In her speech, portions of which were reprinted in The Guardian, Wood describes laughter for an author as “a sense of lightness, of joy, the sense of possibility that comes when laughter enters a work of literature, whether it’s manifest on the page itself or merely as part of the writer’s process. For laughter is a sharp instrument, as it turns out, capable of performing many crucial, and I think profound, functions.” Wood writes that “laughter is a very powerful tool of connection. It allows us to see that we are all human; we are all children; we all fail. There’s a sense of shared relief immediately attended, I think, by a shared forgiveness.”
For Wood, an Australian, laughter can be relief from pain, resistance to things beyond our control and as a creative force that is generative. Laughter, too, can be an instrument of truth. Laughter has that ability to deflate over-inflated egos, and in the process, reveal the pomposity within in. Finally, according to Wood, laughter is a call to optimism. It is a belief in a better possibility. Wood quotes her friend writer and critic, Tegan Bennett Daylight, who advises her writing students to “cultivate a sense of humor as they write,” including themselves. Daylight says, “When we’re laughing at ourselves, we’re being honest about who we are—we’re telling the truth.”77
Closing thought
Grace, as we have discovered, is rooted in working for the “greater good.” It demands acting with respect and compassion. It requires energy that like grace itself is generative. It renews itself through practice as well as by taking in life, doing one’s best, enjoying the highlights, mourning the losses, and doing so in the full spirit of life. In forgiveness, mercy, joy, and humor. Grace is ultimately our gift to ourselves. Our challenge is to use it wisely and use it often.
Finding sources of energy from within ourselves is essential to making grace come alive in our lives and in the lives of others.
Energy: What the Leaders Say
Energy is the catalyst within us that engages our awareness and challenges us to do something.
***
“It’s our capacity to get stuff done,” says Christine Porath. “Our energy is the fuel of high performance. For people that achieve great results over a sustained period, they need to be enthusiastic about the effort they put into their work or any other effort. So, I think energy is really the fuel for that.”
For Mike McKinney, “energy is more of a commitment to stay the course, to do the hard thing over and over, regardless of the context . . . you’re reconnecting with your purpose. You’re reconnecting with your values. And you’re realigning those things with your behavior, with those values.” And as a result, you end up energizing yourself.
“We all face adversity from time to time and it can suck the life out of you,” says Mike McKinney. “I try to remember to do three things which are usually the first things to go when faced with a problem. First, get your sleep. We make bad decisions when we are tired. Second, keep your mind on the big picture. Whatever you are facing is part of your world, it’s not your world. And finally, stay connected. It’s easy to walk away. Stick around and be part of the solution.”
“Energy, for me, is two different things —physical and mental,” says Scott Moorehead. Physical energy requires appropriate care, feeding and exercise. “But I think the thing that tires out first in most people is mental energy. You can become mentally spent very quickly. There’s only a certain amount of energy before things start to deteriorate and functions start to stop.”
Scott has found ways to recharge by practicing meditation and mindfulness, but he does something else. When he is in need of a “re-charge,” he closes the door to his office and has a board meeting with himself as he jokes but what he does next gets to the heart of the matter. “I will ask myself a very thought-provoking question, such as ‘If our company could talk, what would it say right now?’” And then he thinks for a while and writes his thoughts into his journal.
Tim Sanders approaches energy in a similar fashion. That is, showing grace by slowing down, by breathing deeply and slowly. Doing so will enable you to be more in the moment and therefore enable yourself to act with a spirit of grace, that is, be cool, be calm, be rational and be present. “If you take the word slow, S-L-O-W, into your meeting you’ll walk out showing grace.” That’s been my number one nugget of advice. You’ll walk out showing grace.”
Skip Prichard received an early introduction into the concept of energy. He recalls visiting an elderly relative in a nursing home and seeing a very old man seemingly drained of all energy. Yet when he was put near a piano, “you would see a complete transformation as soon as his fingers touched the keys. Within a minute, you wouldn’t even recognize this man as the same person. Why is that? He tapped into his energy source deep within. And we all have this energy source inside us.” Skip adds, “when you see someone’s energy come, you sense a purity. And you sense something about them. And you want to know where it comes from, what they’re about, and what their talents are.”
Stephen M.R. Covey sees four kinds of energy—joy, passion, creative, and organizational. Each in its own way nurtures the sense of grace for giver and receiver. As Stephen says, “joy is the happiness and satisfaction. The fun. The energy is actual physical energy. It’s energizing to be trusted. There is also “emotional energy. That’s passion. That’s not the suffering passion but the excitement passion and such, to tap into someone’s greatest sense of meaning and purpose.” Thirdly there is creative energy that expresses itself as innovation, which is nurtured by a sense of trust. And finally, there is energy that comes from being around people, something Stephen calls “engagement, which commits people. We achieve greater commitment because of what that does to us.”
Finally, energy emerges from inspiration. “Energy is inspiration. It’s inspiring... That word, to inspire, energizes and means to breathe into. Energy comes from life and from breath. It’s energizing. To me, inspiration is a product of that energy. I make the point on trust that to be trusted is the most inspiring form of human motivation. It brings out the best in all of us . . . extending and giving and receiving grace is also inspiring to all. When there’s inspiration, there’s energy.”
Stephen goes on, “Giving of grace is also physically energizing,” says Stephen. “I think it energizes a person to receive grace. And I think it energizes a person to give grace. To give generosity. To give respect. To give abundance. To give trust.”
***
Think about these questions:
Graceful Leadership Steps
Energy—focusing your energy on making a positive difference
67 Jon Meacham The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (New York: Random House) 2018
Jonathan Alter The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope New York: (Simon & Schuster 2007) [Quote p. 8]
James Tobin The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency (New York: Simon & Schuster) 2014
“A ‘Mighty Endeavor’ D-Day” FDR Presidential Library and Museum https://fdrlibrary.org/d-day
68 Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz “The Corporate Athlete” Harvard Business Review January 2001
Tony Schwartz “Share this with Your CEO” HBR.org 6/18/2012
69 David Greene “After an Illness, Willie Nelson Is On the Road Again with His Family At His Side” Morning Edition NPR 7/24/2018
70 Based upon interview and email exchanges in July and August 2018
71 John Baldoni “Pope Francis: Leaders Don’t Put Up with Complaints” Forbes.com 7/15/2017
Website of Salve Noe http://www.noecom.it/corso-di-comunicazione-del-dott-noe-a-milano/
Philip Pullella “Pope tacks sign on his apartment door: ‘No Whining’” Reuters 7/14/2017
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-sign-idUSKBN19Z0XW
Junno Arocho Neuves 7/14/2017 -Catholic News Service “Pope Francis Puts a Sign on his Door: ‘No Whining’” America 7/14/2017
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/07/14/pope-francis-puts-sign-his-office-door-no-whining
72 John Baldoni “Sister Corita Kent—10 Rules for Collaboration” SmartBrief.com 10.19.2018 https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2018/10/sister-corita-kent-10-rules-collaboration
“10 Rules for Students and Teachers Popularized by John Cage” Openculture.com 4/16/2014
http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/10-rules-for-students-and-teachers-popularized-by-john-cage.html
73 Peggy Noonan “The Wisdom of Oscar Hammerstein” Wall Street Journal 3/29/2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wisdom-of-oscar-hammerstein-1522364613
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sondheim
Craig Zadan Sondheim & Co., (New York: Harper & Row, 1974 & 1986) p. 4 ISBN 0-06-015649-X [Mentor]
“Stephen Sondheim with Adam Guettel”. YouTube. 2010-12-07. Retrieved 2014-07-04. [Inscription]
74 “Fresh Air Remembers Garry Marshall Creator of Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley” NPR Fresh Air 7/20/2016
Note: The quote from Garry Marshall comes from an interview conducted by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air conducted in 1991 and replayed after Marshall’s death in July 2016.
John Baldoni “Management Lesson: Turn Pain into Humor” Forbes.com 8/24/2016
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2016/08/24/management-lesson-turning-pain-into-laughter/
75 Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and Humor
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/abraham-lincolns-stories-and-humor/
76 Scott Simon “Norman Eisen on Prague’s ‘Last Palace’” Weekend Edition Saturday NPR 9/01/2018 [The story is also contained in Normal Eisen The Last Palace New York: Penguin Random House 2018]
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/01/643922026/norman-eisen-on-pragues-last-palace
77 Charlotte Wood “In these dark times, embracing laughter is an ethical choice” The Guardian 8/19/2018 [Edited version of a speech given to the Bendigo Writers Festival.]