“I’m a Fighter Pilot”
In the recent movie, “Top Gun: Maverick”, the main character we all know as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, seems to be having an identity crisis as he faces an international incident. He is trying to find his path, searching how to best apply himself to the situation at hand.
As he speaks with his lifelong friend and previous arch nemesis, “Iceman”, Maverick exclaims, “I’m a fighter pilot. It’s not what I am, it’s who I am.”
It’s meant to be a dramatic moment, reflecting the inner struggle of Maverick on his path to clarity, purpose, and heroic action. To be honest, it kind of made me laugh as it can come off a bit cliche. But I also liked that line because I think it hits on something very true for most of us that don’t fly fighter jets at Mach 5 on a regular basis.
These two elements are two sides of the same identity coin.
What are you?
Who are you?
What you are is most often related to your context in community. What you do in the context of society such as a profession. This represents an exterior layer of identity. What others see and actions or behaviors tied to a role.
Who you are is personal and points to who you are as an individual person. This is the interior layer of identity. What we see or know of ourselves on the inside. It’s your sense and knowledge of self.
It’s easy to conflate the two or interchange them but it is more helpful to understand that they are two distinct things that are hyper-connected.
The intersection and integration of these two elements is foundational for having an anchor point in our personal and professional lives that provides us with our location telling us where we are. Together they also provide a compass that guides us in a direction we may need to move in, where we need to go.
Our clarity on these two things will sometimes be focused times and blurry at others, as we navigate and adjust to circumstance, experiences, growth, and change. Don’t let that throw you. Life is most often not as certain as a paint by numbers art project but a never-ending series of course corrections and adjustments. Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell found his way, so can you.
Check It!
Our lives move fast, and they are highly mobile, transitory, and complex. We live in a multi-directional and multi-platform world. It can be overwhelming. To help us manage it all we often use checklists for all things work and life such as shopping, weekend activities, work projects, hobbies, events, and commitments to friends and families. The “list” of lists goes on and on.
Why are checklists our go-to tool? They help us clear away noise, cognitive fatigue, and keep us focused on the important things. It keeps us functional so we checklist it. We checklist it ALL! It provides the control we need.
Checklists provide a skeletal structure to hang all the moving parts of our lives on. It tells us where the pieces belong and where we can find them. Checklists orient us like a map. In a world of project plans, “10 Step to Greatness”, and an abundance of linear factory thinking they bring order to the chaos.
There are also things checklists do not offer us. Checklists do not provide the essence of our experiences. Checklists might help us organize an event, clarify communication, or arrange all the moving parts of something we are building. But they do not help us enjoy a sunset on the beach or the scents and flavors of our favorite foods. These experiences pulse with energy and meaning because of the beauty of the spaces we visit, the connections we build with others, and the experiences shared together.
So, the takeaway is this. Leave some room to live part of life “off-checklist”. The unplanned, the creative, the impractical and non-linear. Go for a walk without a plan, agenda, or destination. Leave your phone at home (gasp!). Pick your head up and look around as you walk. Learn the art of noticing what is around you. It might turn out to be an experience you can’t put on a checklist and that just might make it the best thing ever. Here is to your improved and well-maintained mental health!
Misfit
Are you a misfit?
Maybe you don’t fit the status quo?
Are you sometimes “non-compliant” compared to those around you?
Do you see truth outside the system?
When you bear witness to truth outside the system, do you face resistance or get thrown out?
Have you experienced a system having an autoimmune response to your voicing an alternate truth?
You likely have something to say.
It my be unknown if any others need to hear it.
It is probably unclear if it has value to others.
Yet, your bones vibrate as if voice is required.
You don’t struggle with the choice to speak it… anymore.
You search to the find the fewest words.
You find truth can speak volumes
in service of healing and advocacy.
Yes, you are a misfit.
Celebrate!
Secret Mental Health Spot
I was in a conversation with a coach recently and I was briefly describing my favorite spot to grab a healthy salad. It turns out that, if I time it right, in the early afternoon most weekdays, things really slow down.
This allows me to hang out for a couple hours to work on my side projects, draft out some ideas I’ve been thinking through or just catch up on some reading and connect to the local community.
It’s a fantastic restorative space with a great atmosphere. Something about the space fosters the relaxation of life demands and tension. It’s my version of an afternoon at a spa but without the cucumber juice in my eyes.
It occurred to me that it’s become my own secret mental health spot and we all need one. Yes, you too!
Find a place to be still, shed the noise of the previous few days and let what matters most rise to the top.
A good mental health spot will lighten your load, help with clarity, and help you feel human in good ways. We all need a secret mental health spot to help us get there and maintain ourselves today so we can keep going and growing tomorrow.
“Oh behave!”
The bottom line: Leadership begins with your behavior.
A leader who who tells you the right thing to do is not exercising the same strength of the leader who who shows others how to live and work by example. The leader who shows instead of tells are is exponentially more powerful and impactful.
It turns out that people gravitate toward the standard a leader sets, not the standard a leader requests.
If your organization, leaders, managers, teams, and individuals are not effecting the change, growth, or forward movement you hope for, there is bad news and good news.
The bad news is that you likely play a significant factor in that unwanted equation.
The good news is that changing the directional current of your organizations effectiveness starts with your own behaviors. You do have choice and influence so show the away!
Space Architecture
Physical space has impact. This is a core tenant of traditional architecture. Research indicates that the spaces we occupy account for 30% of our overall human experience regardless of the type of space, such as an office, home, or commercial space.
How a space is specifically shaped, organized, or utilized, will communicate a set of values.
A given space can generate an opportunity or it can fail to create one.
An intentionally defined space becomes a container, holding and delivering an intended experience and function.
Spaces are capable of resonating with people in both positive and negative ways.
A space can engender comfort, order, clarity, and simplicity but it is also capable of hosting a chaotic experience of eclectic complexity like Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, whatever the architect of the space is looking to create.
Intention and care should be applied to space and the structures you put into it as they determines flow, interactions, and experiences, both internal and external to that space.
Keep in mind that space is more than the sole dimension of the physical world. Space impacts all five senses and those senses are primary influencers shaping the social, emotional, and psychological experience.
Architecting spaces where there is human interaction and experience involves a recognition that it’s an entire ecosystem that needs to be designed with these things in mind.
Points Theatre
Employees in many organizations experience organizational systems that are fundamentally designed to “get more points” for creating what you could call “productivity artifacts”.
We are all familiar with them. Artifacts such as emails, meeting with their agendas and action items, and PowerPoint slides typically full of way too many words and overstuffed data charts instead of effective visuals.
There can be an institutional addiction to collecting the most “points” for starting initiatives but not really ever finishing them.
To be fair, this is how we often incentivize our people, painting a certain picture of what achievement should look like. A key challenge comes in the way this fosters a form of productivity theatre. It may hold some value but is often not the greater, as in better, value.
Designing, creating and curating healthy performant environments need to turn this points game towards thinking deeply, questioning the status quo (not status quo building) and adaptive behaviors needed for creating change.
Moving payload, A.K.A. the work, is most often a productivity and efficiency game of volume. More is better. Bigger is better. You know the mantras.
I’d suggest that designing the system around people, mission, and organizational purpose is another issue, entirely. It requires an alternative people architecture that, among many things, will increase the clarity about what an organization is trying actually accomplish and how to do it with increased speed, quality, and value.
Leading Success
Success as a leader is not…
A thing you do
Something you find
An outcome from an equation or recipe
Success is the space where you arrive in concert with others.
Success is an orchestration.
Don’t mistake being “first chair” with being the entire orchestra.
Being first chair is simply holding the flag for others to follow, learn, grow and become greater.
In this way, leading is the act of facilitating community.