It takes a village to raise a child (ancient African proverb).
Such a small sentence, but one that harbors a great narrative. Almost everyone can immediately relate to it. It evokes a sense of deep compassion, the feeling of “let’s do this together!” It’s a taste of loyalty, courage, and trust in the journey of being a parent. Deep down you know: “You are not alone.”
Business Badasses
Recently, I had the privilege to give a masterclass to a cohort of 15 financially very successful founders in the USA. They are part of the Lions Pride network, and surround themselves with, as they like to say, ‘Business Badasses’. One third of the group are veterans – for sure they have mastered the drill of unrelenting perseverance, knowing they always stick together.
Bill Watkins, the leader of the pack and a successful and modest visionary, invited me to get into the heads of this high-achiever Bravo group. He told me they wanted to be more emotionally aware – to have a better connection between their mind, body, and soul as men and as leaders. “This group is special”, he said. “Some have been through a lot. Naturally they share a deep bond.”
Inner battles
Although many of these leaders have come a long way, some are still fighting on a daily basis, only this time they’re fighting their inner battles.
A lot of successful leaders appear to be strong, dedicated, and balanced businessmen. Meanwhile, inside, a completely different story is taking place. They might be triggered by unresolved anger, frustration, fear, or sadness causing all kinds of deeper feelings they haven’t fully mastered.
The gap
In the silent moments they worry, they lay awake. They experience a gap between how they manifest on the outside and how they feel on the inside. The gap might trigger anxious, restless, insecure, or emotional thoughts and feelings. In turn this activates certain behavior. They sometimes find it hard to come home not as the dad, partner, or friend they really want to be. They miss the feeling of being untroubled.
Unfortunately they hardly ever talk about this gap, often because of a mixture of pride and fear. So most of the time they deal with this on their own, and naturally they feel alone.
Get into their head
To start the inside journey I sent the Lions Pride a short clip from the movie ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’ (by Robert Redford) called ‘The Field’. I asked them to whom they felt strongly related; is it the innocent but wise child, the patient helper, the ignorant player, or the conscious winner?
Then I gave them 2 statements
- Am I valuable?
- Am I successful?
I asked them to instinctively pick the statement that affected them the most.
“You are already in my head,” one of the members responded, and off we went.
In this masterclass we unraveled the relation between their core theme (Am I valuable – Am I successful) and daily triggers. These triggers have an immediate impact on thoughts, deep emotions, and actual behavior.
Once triggered, the relation between thoughts, emotions, and behavior will unfold mostly on a subconscious level.
We worked through all the above ‘pillars’ and in the end the details revealed the bigger picture. Not just of the individuals but also of the shared purpose of the group.
The Field
What touched me the most was the general deep longing to dial into that field where you have full awareness and clarity of the bigger picture (where all is fully aligned), and yet you are still able to focus on the ball… at any given moment, like a top athlete.
They were tired of constantly being distracted by the noise and distraction of daily business, constantly repeating stories, and building off instead of refining. Sometimes they found themselves building walls, feeling alone.
They realized that although it looked easy to just snap into this special zone of the conscious winner in the clip (Bobby Jones), it takes years of practice to get there. “Only the ones who are really well prepared can improvise” (I. Bergman).
Sense of real value
What affected me the most though was one member telling me he was afraid of losing the feeling of being really valuable, like he felt in the military.
I see this a lot in my practice: how adding value and leaving a legacy act as almost unmatchable ‘engines’ for visionaries. It is not the product or service they provide, it is the company itself that is their ultimate creation.
And once they realize that the source of their pain comes from the same source as their unique power (from the movie ‘Wild’ – based on the poem ‘Power’ by Adrienne Rich), they feel ignited again and start running their business driven by their deep values. It’s a point of no return.
The place where Vision is born
One member reminded the rest of the group about knowing the two most important days of their lives;
- Being born
- Knowing why!
This is exactly where the vision is born! It aligns the inner and outer world. It closes the gap!
If you want to be in ‘The Field’ you need to know your vision. Otherwise it will remain a visionless mission and you will always keep working hard, only to repeat the same story over and over.
So no vision. No alignment. No field.
Many entrepreneurs have a vision, the problem is it’s inside their head!
It is often neither integrated in the whole nor supported by a framework, so people can actually get excited about it. How can it trigger a sense of deep commitment and the feeling of “let’s do this together” if there is no clear destination, and no route to get there?
The leader feels alone because he is.
It takes a Framework to make it happen
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to execute a vision. They can’t do that without a framework that integrates the vision into the whole.
Most businesses have a 65% information-loss in lower management and operational levels, at least!
This framework ensures ignition, inspiration, clarity, energy, and accountability from everyone involved. This is how it protects the business from waste.
The best part: you can tap into it at any given moment.
This is for entrepreneurs who are ready to play a whole different game. Are you one of them?