I sometimes find myself referring to the story of the ‘Boiled Frog’ when reflecting on how easy it is for us to adapt to worsening circumstances. It’s a pretty grim allegory in reality and yet the evidence of its meaning is ever present in our world. On the one hand, it’s great that we are able to adapt and flex to the outer circumstances. In the case of the frog, it is able to adjust its body temperature to withstand the rising temperature of the water…to a point of course, but when it realises it needs to jump out it is no longer resourced to do so.
We too are adaptable and flexible to varying degrees and in our present world circumstances we are being called upon even more to perfect this quality. We absorb more pressure in the workplace, we adapt to increasing numbers of priorities, we seek to develop our leadership skills to be better at supporting and guiding our teams through troubled waters.
On a global level, we see/read the news and the havoc that we, humanity have created and continue to create across the world. Hopefully, we look into our hearts, we ask ourselves what (more) we can do and we seek to survive…maybe even thrive – to live another day and hope it can and will be better. That we can and will be able to make it better.
And here is where the other hand comes in. The huge danger that as things worsen, locally in our daily lives as leaders, in our teams, as people, as humans and globally for the collective humanity and planet, and as we seek to adapt and flex, we stop noticing just how bad things are and our collective life force, focused on survival, is no longer sufficient to really change what needs changing.
Before we become too despondent, there are options and solutions. As leaders we always have options and solutions if we remain connected to our heart and our willpower. We can start by looking with new eyes and see things as they really are.
We can step into compassion and love and reflect on what is needed to help change an unjust or toxic situation. We can use our experience, our wisdom (a gift of the heart and the mind) and our courage (another heart gift) to activate change. Yes, we might feel helpless in the face of the scale of the issues, but as leaders we know how to marshal support and to engage our inner activist.
Whether we like the situation or not and whether we feel we created it directly or not, the current local and world chaos is happening live on our watch and it’s our leadership responsibility to step forward and create change for the better. Let’s get the water temperature changed by stepping up into our individual accountability and working as a collective leadership force for good.