[Alicia Davis] So Stacie, calm presence. We want to talk about that today, because it’s so important, I think, for leaders right now, to be able to hold their center, because there is so much going on around them all the time, isn’t there?
[Stacie Watson] It’s true. You know, a lot of times when we talk about culture, we use the metaphor of kind of being a fish in water, and culture is the water that we’re swimming in. And we talk about how it can be sort of more cloudy or clearer, or it can be the temperature of the water can go up, or it can be cooler, and it feels like we’re all swimming in really hot waters right now, whether you think about it, sort of natural, nationally, culturally. You know, some of us, within our families and certainly within organizations, the temperature is hot. And I think if there’s ever been a time for us as leaders to recognize the importance of finding a way to turn that temperature down a little bit, it’s probably right now. And I think most leaders, you know, I think if we were to talk to leaders in our community, most of them would say, “You’re absolutely right, Alicia, we should do that,” but it’s easier said than done, right? Yeah, we’re in it, in the fray every day.
[Alicia Davis] It is, I mean, and it’s, it is, I like to consider, like, what’s a small way to do it first, and then perhaps we grow into a little bit longer. And I like to really offer that we can take purposeful pauses. And a purposeful pause is really like it can be in the heat of the moment. You know, something’s just happened. A crisis is happening. People are upset about something. It’s literally just slowing the process down a little bit… slowing our own reactivity down, just for a moment, and just saying, taking a breath, kind of stepping back and seeing if there’s a way that we can even a little bit, like 1% look at something a little bit more objectively. Or kind of feel down into our center, our core, of you know what feels right to me and to us in this moment. And so, of course, the more that we can do that, you know, if we can do that for one minute, two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, the longer we can do that, the better, and yet a purposeful pause. Sometimes that’s all it takes to have a little bit of a reset.
[Stacie Watson] Well, and I think that the purposeful pause can become a little bit of a habit, right? Like all of a sudden we begin to notice when our temperature is rising, and it’s a reminder to take that pause, to, you know, step out of the room, to say, I need a moment. Whatever it is, even to your point in a meeting, just take a few deep breaths at your seat. I think, you know, as we do it, we do it, right? It’s just becomes part of how we respond in those challenging moments.
[Alicia Davis] That’s right, that’s right, and it’s a felt sense. And so we have a, we have a session coming up in our Learning Academy on Developing Calm Presence Through Mindfulness, and it’s coming up on November 11th. So if it’s, you know, if it’s something that you think would be helpful for you, or perhaps somebody on your team, we’d love to have you check it out. So you can email us info@TLStransforms.com or go to our website, TLStransforms.com, and click on the Academy. Thanks so much.
Stacie Watson
Thank you.
