[Stacie Watson] Hey, Alicia –

[Alicia Davis] Hey Stacie.

[Stacie Watson] Well, here we are in the summertime and I love the summer. And I have to tell you, I am finding myself feeling like I’m juggling even more priorities than usual, feeling somewhat distracted, and it’s really affecting, at least, at times, how productive I feel…

[Alicia Davis] You know, I totally, totally understand that Stacie. And, you know, I think our leaders that, you know, we work with all day, every day are feeling a lot of the same things. And especially, it just gets exaggerated in the summer, right? And, you know, as, as an owner, of a company and a CEO of an organization, like there’s always the 100,000 demands of your time. You’re there and everywhere, constantly changing, and you want to be present. And yet, it’s really hard to do that. And this theme seems to keep coming up, so we wanted to talk about it today. And, you know, this is something that we really love talking about, and supporting leaders in experiencing. And that’s what is leadership presence. And so, today, we’re starting a four-part series on what does it really mean as a leader, to be present. And so today, we’re gonna define what that means.

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, you know, it’s interesting as you do, as you mentioned, the different programs and sessions with leaders, this topic is one that I think really resonates because I think many of us recognize that it’s really difficult to be present. And there are lots of good reasons for it. And yet, when we’re not present, by definition, we’re not as effective, we’re not as productive. And so the first step in being present is just recognizing what it is to be present. Right? So how do I know when I’m present? What does being present even mean? And a lot of it has to do with being able to just bring your attention to the moment you’re in, is that right?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right. That’s absolutely right. And I think that you know, you just had a conversation the other day with a leader who wanted to connect more with their staff. Right? And so sometimes we think, oh, we have to do a whole bunch of things, right, we have to set up meetings, or we have to, you know, bring the team together in some way, or we have to go out and do something, and really, connecting with others can be bringing your full attention to the conversation. And you know, the interaction. And one of the things – I love this author, Janice Marturano, and she wrote a fabulous book called Finding the Space to Lead. And what I love about this, quote, “leading with excellence, being fully present for what we do, and connecting with others, that these are innate abilities that we all possess.” So there’s hope, Stacie, that even though right now we might feel like we are distracted, you’re there and everywhere and not as effective. We can do it. And this is it’s really, this is an integral part of what we do it TLS is, how do we notice in all of the doing, how are we being? Right? And breathing is literally just one of the things that we like to talk about is how do we focus our attention? And how do we pause for a moment? Right? And how do I develop that as a leader?

[Stacie Watson] Yes, absolutely. And you know, this is where mindfulness comes on. And I know for some people, that word might mean lots of different things. And in this instance, and for this purpose, it really has to do with just really paying attention in a particular way in the present moment. In other words, I am being intentional with my attention, so that I can really focus where I want to focus as opposed to sort of being at the mercy of wherever my attention gets pulled. And that’s kind of the purposefulness of it all. And sometimes when we’re able to just take a moment to really think about “where do I want to place my attention right now?” “What most needs my attention?” And we’ve been in the sessions with leaders having conversations about this topic, and we’ve gotten some great suggestions of ways that leaders already are trying to do this or putting this into practice. And we’ve got some examples here on the page.

[Alicia Davis] Well, and that’s really important, right? We want to encourage you to do this in a way that works for you. And moments matter, right? Like I like to think about this as, “How can we pause?” “How can we shift?” “And how can we just re-check in with ourselves or with others?” So for example, you know, I am guilty of this like I get online and I started looking at all my emails, right? Emails are everybody else’s priority, not your priority. Is there a way that you can check your emails at certain times of the day versus all day? That’s one way of bringing attention or when you’re talking to someone, turn your computer off, or at least turn away from it so that you’re not you’re distracted by messages coming in, or things that are coming up on the screen. And, you know, getting out and moving, walking, being outside, you know, you’re interacting with people while you’re also getting in a little bit of movement. And, you know, there are no other distractions because you’re out of the office. So really practical ways that you can take these purposeful pauses and maintain a little bit more of a calm presence. And what we’re going to talk about in our video next week is more about the how…

[Stacie Watson] Right, how can we actually do it?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right.

[Stacie Watson] Excellent.

[Alicia Davis] So thank you for listening and feel free to reach out to us. I’m Alicia Davis.

[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson.

[Alicia Davis] And we are the co-owners of Transformative Leadership Strategies and we love supporting leaders and being while they are doing. Take good care.

[Stacie Watson] Thank you.