Magnificence
February 2010
Remembering What Matters
Volume 6, Issue 2
Magnificence
There was a construction project manager who hated his job. He was full of rage over the industry practice of lying and cheating that he had to defend his clients from on a daily basis.
A VP from a global business wasn't sure he was smart enough to be on his company's leadership team. And he needed to forgive himself for mistakes other people had made with his huge client.
An acupuncturist was resentful that her patients didn't do their homework and often couldn't pay for her services. She was not in touch with her professional self worth.
A quality manager had been speaking to deaf ears on his management team for several years. He was afraid to rock the boat that wasn't really going anywhere.
An executive director from a non-profit spoke so fast you couldn't quite grasp just how intelligent and articulate she was. She anxiously thought she had to solve every problem by herself - now.
Another executive director described herself as a people pleaser who couldn't stomach the dynamics with her board when she felt unfairly criticized. She had over-corrected her style from prior feedback that she had been too aggressive.
There was also an environmental professional who wanted the authority to make decisions and manage a budget based on her high performance track record. Her boss was unwilling to share power with her.
What do all of these people have in common? They all had a dormant quality that needed to be reawakened - magnificence.
A year ago they all walked into their first day of leadership training, looked around the room, and said to themselves, "What am I doing here with these people?" They had nothing in common - at first glance anyway.
But as the second day unfolded they started to see one another with new eyes. The VP had the same issues as the acupuncturist. The executive directors both had problems speaking up to their board of directors. The common element in all of them was their unresolved human emotions - fear, anger, sadness.
And what became even more apparent during that second day, and over the next several months, was that underneath all of their internalized, self-defeating mind trash, they were all pretty amazing people. It was phenomenal how much they had in common, but more importantly, how much they had to learn from one another. Once the professional masks were set aside and authenticity became the norm, they were able to see and feel one another's hearts. That's where magnificence lives and it can only be expressed when people learn to bring the best out of themselves and others.
Does this sound corny? We agree, it is a little corny. But it's the truth. People are magnificent and they are forgetful of that truth. Once these magnificent people rediscovered this truth, they emerged from their masks to become confident leaders who accomplished meaningful results and felt great about themselves. They laughed with one another about the things that had been so deeply troublesome. In fact they laughed about our corny approach when one of them told us he was angry about our program after four months. "What's bothering you about this program?" we asked. He looked around the room for a minute to create a dramatic moment and said, "I'm mad that your principles work so damn well - and that I haven't known about them for the last 30 years."
And at the end of the year, we all laughed some more, when we told them our program didn't work. And after our own dramatic pause, we continued with, "But working the program is transformational - just look around the room at the magnificence you are surrounded with!"