Emotion Chip

A lesson from the Star Trek Universe.

Data: “Captain, I believe I am feeling … anxiety.  It is an intriguing sensation.  A most distracting ….”

Picard: “Data, I’m sure it’s a fascinating experience, but perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now.”

emotional dataData: “Good idea, sir.  Done.”

Picard: “Data, there are times that I envy you.”

Yes, at times it would be easier to turn off our “emotion chip”.  Funny and sad that so many people try very hard, and get close, to doing just that each day. 

We are human and our emotion chips are hardwired into our being.   Our emotions carry our life’s story.  Emotions express our unique interpretation of the world around us. 

Indeed our emotions can stop us cold, unable to step forward.  Yet, our emotions can light the way forward. 

Anxiety, Apathy and Anger … emotions all, can be problematic.  As leaders, as people, we experience these and other negative emotions.  How we react and decide is the difference maker.

Yet, Courage, Confidence, and Curiosity are emotions too. 

No need to turn off your emotion chip.  At times you may even want to turn up the volume.

WeMoveTogether

Thursday Thought – The Leadership Prayer

Note: Each Thursday I will post a little something to inspire us to finish the week strong. These Thursday Thoughts will be a quote, piece of music, artwork, or inspirational video.  Congratulations, you made it over the hump and let’s finish the week together.

Make me strong in spirit, Courageous in action, Gentle of heart.  Let me act in wisdom, Conquer my fear and doubt, Discover my own hidden gifts. Meet others with compassion, Be a source of healing energies, And face each day with hope and joy.

Abby Willowroot

I found this quote some time ago and tucked it away.  It is a thoughtful daily prayer for everyone and for that purpose, it works well.  Read it again.  And one more time.  Think of your position leading others and working in a larger enterprise.  This is indeed a prayer, one for the leader entering his or her day.

Others look to you for wisdom.  Stand tall and believe in yourself.  Share what is unique to you … your gifts.  Always embrace compassion and serve to help, even heal those entrusted to your care.

Show your spirit.  Indeed face each day with hope and joy and others will follow.

wisdom_tree

Thursday Thought – Sunsets

Note: Each Thursday I will post a little something to inspire us to finish the week strong. These Thursday Thoughts will be a quote, piece of music, artwork, or inspirational video.  Congratulations, you made it over the hump and let’s finish the week together.

A critic once commented to Cézanne, “That doesn’t look anything like a sunset.” Pondering his painting, Cézanne responded, “Then you don’t see sunsets the way I do.”

Lauren Sunset

You stop and watch the sunset. So beautiful and clear.  The light changes colors and dances for you.  Brightness fading to darkness.

She stands next to you.  She experiences the light and dance of color.

It is the same for both of you.

Or is it?

You want to understand. “Tell me about your sunset.” A wise question indeed for you know her experience may be different.  She talks of different colors, different movement.  How it makes her feel. Her understanding is hers alone.   Yet you asked and listened.  You now share an understanding.

Same view, two interpretations.  In art as in life.

Let the sunset each day serve to remind you as a leader.  Each of us sees the light and dance different.  Seek to see through other’s eyes.  Then share the detail, the colors, of your vision.

Such a challenge, but as leaders we are artists as well as analysts.  Strive to paint that shared understanding.  Only then can WeMoveTogether

Note: Inspiration for this post from Reframing Organizations. See my resource list,

CezanneMtStVictoire1902-4Philadelphia2B web

Cézanne – Mts. Victoire 1902

Thursday Thought – Bad on the Outside, Good on the Inside

Note: Each Thursday I will post a little something to inspire us to finish the week strong. These Thursday Thoughts will be a quote, piece of music, artwork, or inspirational video.  Congratulations, you made it over the hump and let’s finish the week together.

It has been a tough week.  Oddly thanks to Justin Bieber we are reminded of the eternal Anne Frank and her wonderful image of what the world can be.

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.

 
Yet the world is full of people, the good and the bad.  Anne knew the answer …choose the good that is inside and hold onto it.  Do not let the outside world draw the bad into your heart.   
 
i_LOVE_BOSTON
 
 

A Thousand Fibers Connect Us

I am thinking a lot about connections these days.  How we establish meaningful connections with each other.  How we maintain these connections.  How fragile these connections can be in times of stress. 

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. - Herman Melville

As leaders we are responsible for our own connections and we set the groundwork for a healthy organizational ecology where healthy connections thrive.  This is how we grow and prosper. 

The best leaders can “see” the thousand fibers that connect us.  They act with purpose and understand every act, big or small, works to strengthen our bonds or weaken them. 

Act with purpose.  Recognize the fibers that connect us all.   

waterRipples

Thursday Thought – Laugh, Think and Cry

Note: Each Thursday I will post a little something to inspire us to finish the week strong. These Thursday Thoughts will be a quote, piece of music, artwork, or inspirational video.  Congratulations, you made it over the hump and let’s finish the week together.

The college basketball championship tournament is well under way here in the United States.  Today we are down to the so-called “Sweet 16″ ever closer to a champion, for both men and women in a couple of weeks.

jim-valvano-netSport fans are typically keen on history.  They remember the great moments for their favorite teams and great sport moments in general.  In 1983 North Carolina State won the College Championship for men’s basketball.  They upset several top teams to dramatically win the championship in last second style.

Their victory may be the biggest upset in college basketball history.

A team above all. A belief they can accomplish anything.  And a coach who inspired the absolute best from his players.

That coach, Jim Valvano, died of cancer 10 years later.   Just weeks before his death he gave a wonderful speech that celebrated life to its fullest.  As we sit here 30 years later from that improbable victory for Jim and his team, let’s remember Jim’s words.

Each day do the following: Laugh, Think, and Cry.  That is a full day, a heck of a day.

Jim is also famous for how he ended his speech with simple, powerful words:

Don’t give up.  Don’t ever give up.

I invite you to watch a few minutes in memory of this terrific coach and leader, Jim Valvano.

Never Enough Questions

Quote of the day…

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

-Voltaire

Indeed leaders have answers. Yet Leaders have more questions. Leaders ask the RIGHT questions.  Leaders expect their people to ask questions.  What questions are you asking today?

Questions

The Unknown Defines Our Existence

Quote of the Day…

“That may be the most important thing to understand about humans.

It is the unknown that defines our existence.  We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. 

We are explorers.  We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the Galaxy, trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge.

And that is why I am here.”

- Benjamin Sisko, Deep Space Nine – Emissary

One can do worse than to look to the Captains in the Star Trek Universe for leadership examples.  Have a good week and continue to explore. 

starGazing

Time To Walk …

dark_woods

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

- Henry David Thoreau

Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness

Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States.   A day to remind us that the journey, and at times struggle, continues.    Darkness is real.    It is up to us to allow tomorrow to be lighter than today.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

- Martin Luther King

Amen.