It Wasn’t All a Loss
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

Last week I wrote about what went wrong in the first quarter of 2022. Today I want to share with you what went well. I had several wonderful experiences with family and friends. I learned that skiing with my grandkids might be more fun than skiing with my kids. I had a long weekend away with my bride of 40 years, and I enjoyed rebuilding a home with my sons. You might ask why I started with my personal life. That’s a simple answer: If we don’t plan that part of our lives, it will get pushed to the side as we work to accomplish and achieve things in the other areas of our lives. Below are a few things that I learned along my path of growth and development.

Growth begins when we accept our own lack of ability or weakness. You know how much I preach about growth and development. This statement really hit me because it reveals what is necessary for us to grow. It also tells us why we might not be growing or feel a need to grow.

When a leader leaves a meeting, their team shouldn’t think the leader is the smartest person; they should feel they got smarter for being with the leader. In her book Multipliers, Liz Wiseman talks about great leaders being debate makers and waiting to share their thoughts until everyone in the group has had an opportunity to share. This statement feels like it also belongs in Liz’s book. The leader leads the team on a path of discovery that leaves them much smarter than when they arrived for the meeting. What a profound gift a leader can give their team.

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken. This twist on the Beatitudes just made me laugh. And then I realized the deep truth in it. In a world that can be such a whirlwind of uncertainty, we all need to be able to bend when the wind is blowing the hardest. This resilience will help us weather the storm.

If you would like to hear more about these learnings and a few more from my first quarter reflections, please join Marisa Norcross and me for episode 253 of The Next Page Podcast.

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