The imperfect tree

There was once a sapling that grew in a field. It grew stronger and bigger each springtime and summer, and each autumn and winter it rested and prepared to grow again. After many years, one late summer's day the sapling looked at itself and realised it had become a tree - it had reached maturity. Although it had many years of growth ahead, it was no longer a sapling, no longer a youngster. With this maturity for the first time the tree looked at itself. It looked at its leaves, its branches, its trunk and its bark. At first it gazed in amazement at all it was. 'How bright and fresh my leaves look' it said to itself, 'how strong and sturdy my trunk is', it remarked, 'how wide my canopy is,' it said with a smile. But then the tree noticed something - 'goodness,' it said 'my bark is broken in that patch'. It stared at the imperfect bark which was torn and flaky. 'Oh dear,' it said 'there is a hole in that branch!' And indeed there was - a small round hole in one of the tree's sturdiest branches. 'Oh no,' it said in horror 'look at that branch there!' The tree had noticed a branch which was all twisted and bent out of shape. Instead of reaching upwards to the sky it bent low and almost touched the ground. As the tree stared at these imperfections great tears fell from its eyes 'my bark is too rough, I have a hole in my one of my best branches and I have an eyesore of a branch. I am all ruined!'

The tree, in despair at itself, invited the wind to come and blow strongly. 'Blow me away,' it said, 'blow me down'. But the wind would not. The wind was wise and saw the tree's anguish. Instead of blowing the tree down she sang a soft song and called out to some of the tree's unseen friends. 'Come,' she whispered, 'come, come, come'.

The first to arrived was a black beetle called Boris. Boris crawled laboriously up to the tree's sad eyes, unfolded his wing case, and dried the great tears with its tissue-soft wings. 'Thank you,' said Boris. 'Your bark has sheltered me and my family for many years. You have protected us from frost and birds. That is why your bark is rough - we have made our home beneath it.' Boris scurried quickly down under the bark as the next friend arrived.

A Blue-tit called Beatrice brought fresh mint leaves in her beak as she landed lightly on the tree's trunk. She freshened his tear-stained eyes with the leaves and then said 'thank you! You have provided me and my lover with a safe place to rear many broods of chicks. The hole in your sturdiest branch is the cosiest and safest nesting place in all the world!'

'There is one more,' the wind whispered to the tree. Presently a young boy no more than 8 years old ran up to the tree from across the field. He clambered onto the low knarled branch and the wind swung him gently forward and back. He smiled and laughed out loud. He shrieked with excitement as the wind blew stronger and the leaves rustled around him. The tree smiled down at the boy and bounced his branch a little to add to the fun.

The tree realised that what he had thought were failings, were blessing to his friends - Boris the beetle, Beatrice the Blue-tit and the little boy. The wind whispered 'yes - your bark is rough, yes - there is a hole in your sturdiest branch, and yes - one of your branches is low and twisted. Would you be any other way?' The tree shook his head and his canopy swayed - 'no - I am perfectly imperfect!'

Happy 2013 xxx

Are you a good gardener?

On Friday I went to an event at London Business School where the very engaging Henry Stewart spoke about the company he founded, Happy Computers. Henry's philosophy is that the main focus of management and leadership is to make staff happy - as simple as that! I first came across Henry Stewart in the The Spirited Business by Georgeanne Lamont which is a really thought-provoking and interesting book which I fully recommend to you, but this was the first time I'd heard him speak.

As I have reflected on this I have come to realise that personal happiness goes hand in hand with doing amazing work. If people have gifts, talents, abilities and attributes then their natural state - and the one that gives them the greatest sense of wellbeing - is to be using and giving these. It is when we cannot use them, or use them to their fullest, that we become unhappy.

So, surely leadership is about creating the right environment to enable people to use, express and give what is already inside of them. I recently gave a presentation about leadership where I planted a sunflower seed. A sunflower seed doesn't need to be told how to become a sunflower. It doesn't need training to develop from a tiny unpromising-looking small hard thing into a beautiful, astonishingly large, bright yellow flower. It has all that potential and ability to realise this, inside of itself. What it does need though is the right environment. It needs somewhere to put roots down - a healthy culture that will give it stability and sustenance as it grows. It needs nutrients and water to feed it and enable it to grow. It needs the light and warmth of the sun. In a similar way, we need a place to put roots down - a sense of belonging and the support of colleagues is very important to many of us. We need food and water - guidance, direction, the passion of others, their skills, challenges, new ideas and new approaches (to name but a few). And we need warmth and light - encouragement, care, support through the tough times, praise, appreciation, love - expressed in many, many different ways.

As leaders we can be good gardeners! We can nurture and protect seedlings and young plants and enable them to flourish. But we can also inadvertently harm tender plants. Henry spoke about a concept at Happy Computers called 'Pre-approval'. What this means is that a manager approves the solution before a team or individual has thought of it! The paramenters (such as budget) are defined in advance and then a person or group is asked to implement a solution or improvement without telling their manager what it is. Why? Because Henry realised that it was when ideas came across his desk that they were blocked. He unintentionally became a barrier. By removing himself from the decision-making he has enabled people to more fully express their gifts, and to be happier. 

As leaders we need to know when to be attentive gardeners, and when to step back and watch beautiful flowers bloom all by themselves.

A New Season

Here in the UK spring has arrived. The sun has a gentle warmth to it, the evenings are lighter, and spring flowers have dared peek above the soil and unfurl their petals. It's a beautiful thing.

It has got me thinking about the seasons and about the seasons of our lives. Few of us fear the change of the seasons from winter to spring, or summer to autumn, just as few of us fear other cycles of nature - for example, as we move from daytime to evening, or as the tides turn. We acknowledge that these changes are 'natural' and that all is well although dramatic change is taking place around us.

I wonder why then we fear the changing seasons of our lives. If the God that holds the world in his hands is also the God who watches over me, what do I have to be afraid of? If this God, who created day and night, also created me and is familiar with every change I will encounter, can't I rest in his love?

I love that the changing seasons of our lives are acknowledged right in the heart of the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What this says to me is that we will have change in our lives, we will be required to do different things, in different ways, in different places. More than this - the changing seasons of our lives are essential, and our loving God will use them - to show us new things, to show us more of him, to heal us, to give us space to serve - in which ever way we are called to.

Someone said to me recently, 'God has gone ahead of you today', and of course he had. He has lovingly prepared the way we should go and reached his hand out, taking ours, to gently guide us along that path, each and every day.

Can any of our 'big' changes be bigger than the changing of winter to spring? If God can manage this change pretty successfully, year in and year out, don't you think he can also take you and I through the major events of our lives - however turbulent?

I wonder if today we can take a new look at the changing seasons of our lives. Today, I'm not rowing out onto a stormy sea with waves crashing around me and no sense of what direction I should go in. Rather, what I am asked to do today is enter the warm, loving embrace of the one who knows this new season inside out - to give him my fears and to trust that he is holding me. Today he holds you close, just as he does me.

Why write a blog?

I've considered writing a blog before, but thought it to be a bit arrogant! Why would anyone want to read my thoughts? Isn't it a bit self-centred and conceited to assume that anyone else would be interested?

Lately though, I've felt I've had more and more to say. Not because I'm an expert or I know it all, but the very opposite - because I've realised I've lots to learn and lots of things are opening up to me. Then I came across the idea of an abundance mentality in Stephen Covey's excellent book - 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. The abundance mentality says that there is plenty for everyone - if someone shines, in my workplace, my social circle, my family, it takes absolutely nothing away from me. And if I shine, it does not make any person around me less.We can all shine - there is plenty to go around and more besides.

In contrast, the scarcity mentality says there is not enough for us all. It says that if I am more, someone else has to be less - we are competing with one another.

It has struck me how we can have a scarcity mentality without being conscious of it. In fact aren't we brought up in a school system with an underlying assumption of scarcity? Someone has to be at the top of the class and someone has to be at the bottom, we can't all be at the top!

So, how do we shine? By letting out what is inside of us perhaps, our gifts. These might be our abilities and skills, they might be the things we can do with our brain or hands, they might be generous, kind or loving aspects of our personality, they might be a giving heart or a warm personality. If our gifts have been given to us, surely they haven't been given to us so that we can hide them away. Aren't we called to use them?

I read the following quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us… Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you… And as we let our own light shine , we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson - 'A Return to Love')

So if shining is the natural and right use of the gifts we have been given, if when we shine it takes absolutely nothing away from anyone else, and in fact gives them permission to shine also, why shouldn't we shine?

Shining for me does not mean 'look at me - I've got this sorted!', it simply means 'I've received something that is good - I want to share it with you'.

I hope you, anyone who reads this blog, enjoys it and recognises that they too have permission to shine!