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Failure to recognize imagination is why family-owned businesses are unable to manage professionals and how professionally-run companies end up creating ineffective mechanistic talent management systems.
Training, learning and development, are not just about skills and knowledge and competencies, they are about appreciating the human-animal, recognizing that neither we nor those around us are programmable machines that we can plug and play.
Knowledge is fluid; springing from imagination, constantly shape shifting, with the potential to expand towards infinity.
We constantly seek an endorsement of our identity. We adore those who see us as we imagine ourselves.
A culture’s endorsement of our identity is thus occasional, conditional and temporary. This fills us with the fear of invalidation, a uniquely human fear, the greatest of fears that makes every human being feel dreadful, miserable and invisible.
More importantly, she enables us to look into the hearts and minds of people around us so that we can appreciate ourselves better.
He knows that business is neither a burden to bear nor a battle to win, but a chance to outgrow fear by helping others outgrow theirs.
We want to be seen by others, but more often than not are unable to see others ourselves. We focus on making ourselves attractive. Focused on self-preservation, self-propagation and self-actualization, everyone gets isolated and wonder why they feel so lonely.
Our desire to achieve does not happen in isolation. We seek an audience. When the audience refuses to cheer for us, we work hard until they admire us. We validate ourselves, like Satyavati, through the Other. The Other is the parent whose attention we crave.
While the official purpose of work is to satisfy customers, employers, employees, shareholders and family, the unofficial purpose of work is to satisfy ourselves, feel noticed and alive.
Often leaders are so consumed by their personal values and agendas that they expect their followers to be as excited about what matters to them. They get angry with followers who resist or refuse to keep pace. Those who align with their goals are celebrated. The rest are condemned as selfish.
Growth happens when we make the journey from being dependent to being dependable. This happens when we focus on who we are rather than what we have: how much we can accommodate the Other, even if the Other does not accommodate us.
