Dreams as good stewardship

In my previous blog I touched upon good stewardship and what this means for us as guests on our planet. That we have the duty to leave our world in a better way compared to when we found it at birth. Today, I would like to deep dive into the pursuit of your dreams as an actual application of good stewardship. And bring this broad concept close to you so you can apply it in your own life.

We all have dreams. Ever since our childhood we have been dreaming to be a firefighter, a veterinarian, a doctor or maybe the president of a country. For me, it was all about being a race track driver. It was not until recently that I realized I could make more of that childhood dream. My life has always been about cars in some way. Being a private chauffeur for CEO’s during my Master studies; graduating at Toyota; and starting my first job at Volkswagen. But it never really touched the actual childhood dream. And that just did not feel satisfying to me. Why? Because these activities were not at the core of the dream I have. And this uncovers an important aspect of a dream: it is what makes us reach an ultimate state of happiness. In essence: we feel as a child once again. Want to know a secret? I feel like a child when I am at a racetrack and I see and hear the race cars and their engines and other mechanics doing their thing to propel these monsters forward. And it feels great!

So why are dreams part of being a good steward? How can dreams help make our world a better place? Because a dream comes from the best intentions that you have. A dream as such makes you a better version of yourself. By being a better version of yourself you are able to be a good steward in life. The pursuit of your dream gives you energy and this translates into other parts of your life. The pursuit of dreams is about identifying the dreams you have and next realize them or get as close as possible to realize them. Let me get one thing very clear: a dream does not need to be world changing per se. It does not have to be on a Mandela or Ghandi scale. Dreams can perfectly be whatever you desire it to be. Whether it is raising your kids in the best way possible so they have a good life. Or landscaping your garden into the way you have always imagined it to be. These are all valid dreams. In addition, a dream has all your values that you live by incorporated in it. A dream cannot have values that you do not agree with or live by simply because it would not be one of your dreams in that case. Would you pursue something that you do not feel comfortable with because it interferes with your values? Exactly! You would not. Looking at your dream in reverse: analyzing your dream allows you to identify what is important to you. What you value in life.

I encourage you to pursue that dream you had as a child. I am pretty sure the first thing that will pop up are barriers: how on earth can I still become a firefighter at age 41? I do not have the background to heal a human or an animal. But let us take a look beyond these barriers. Let us look at what you are capable of. Let us say that one of your dreams is to fly like a bird. Alright, this might sound a bit out there. But, if you think of the options you have to get close to this, you will realize that such a dream is not that far away. You could for example enter a flight course and learn how to fly a plane. Or what about paragliding or skydiving? The options are plentiful if you just keep an open mind and think in possibilities. And at the same time this dream gives you a clear indication of an important value: the act of freedom…

Follow your dream! You are worth it to enjoy the happiness that it unlocks.

We are all guests…

Yesterday someone very close to me said something that is so true for all of us. She said that she realizes that we are all a guest on our planet. And that nothing is a given. Speaking of a real human leader! In my opinion the human leader is aware of this notion of life. We are guests indeed. We might feel as if we have rights just because we are alive. But is this really true? I believe that being alive does not mean that we have the right to fight for land; or to extract resources from our dear planet just to satisfy our needs; or to litter our waste just because we believe we can. Being on our planet brings only one right with it: treat our planet and each other in a compassionate way. And since we only have a limited time to fulfill this right, we better get right to it!

I would like to link this insight of being a guest to what servant leadership calls stewardship. The definition of stewardship is that we as humans leave our planet in a better way compared to when we found it at birth. A human leader makes it her life mission to accomplish this. And you do not need to be Gandhi, Oprah or Mandela to achieve just this. Being a steward to the world resides in the small things. Let us say for example that you have a difficult relationship with one of your parents. Being a good steward in this example could mean that you try to do everything necessary to repair this relationship with the end result of you being able to talk to this parent. Or do things with this parent. Or learn to understand the perspective of this parent. And what about explaining your perspective to your parent so he or she understands you? You might wonder how you could be a good steward. It all begins with asking yourself the question: what do I want to  improve in the world? Next: what do I need to do to accomplish this? Third, to speak with Nike’s slogan: just do it!

The person I cited at the beginning of this blog reminded me of a state of mind that is very important and truly adds to stewardship: being happy! I do not mean that you should be happy all the time. Life does not always allow us to be happy. But strive to be a good steward with happy intentions. Good intentions. Do things to improve the world with good intentions. This also means that you give from the heart and do not expect anything back in return. Good things will come to you when you give from the heart. This way you really make people around you feel valued, happy, appreciated and respected. Being human is about being there for each other no questions asked. Especially to the ones close to you. No matter what. Isn’t that worth living for?

Things that make you tick!

That is what values are all about. In the previous blog we deep dived into knowing yourself and ended with the statement that values are important to determine who you really are. But what is a value? According to the Oxford dictionary a value is a person’s judgment of what is important in life. So we all better make sure that we know what our personal values are. And make our values explicit and alive in words and actions. Doing so allows you to set direction in your life. It helps you to take the right decision in those difficult moments where your values are at stake and challenged. But how on earth do you find your values? We all know the ones that companies use: respect, integrity, innovative, etc. But do you have an idea of what they mean? I for one do not. Let us explore one way to identify the values you seek for.

What helped me a great deal is to reflect on situations where you did not feel comfortable. Where it was clear that something was causing discomfort in your system. Let us take a situation in which you look at the television and you feel actual heartache and discomfort when seeing children in Third World countries that struggle to survive… You could feel a rage within you, because you think: “How is it possible that us humans on this planet are unable to provide for all the people on it?!”. Or you could feel a deep sadness, because you see this one child that looks unhealthy. This is one of the moments that show what you find important in life, what you value, in the best way possible. Clearly, this shows that one of your most important values is justice. Lesson to be learned here is that the opposite of your value, in this case injustice, is a trigger to discover your actual value. So pay attention to those and reverse them to pinpoint your value!

Now, with this insight everyone is able to identify those values. So, is that it? Not really. Values are just at the top of a three tier approach to be the best human leader you can be. Values require to set a norm to which you measure each and every situation you encounter. These norms drill down into the third layer: behavior. The act in real life that reflect our values. Setting that norm for your value is an interesting endeavour. Let us look at the value of love. Love is different for each and everyone of us. For one person it might be everything related to family. For others it extends beyond family and is also related to being nice to people you run into in daily life. And yet for someone else it could very well be that showing love is about flying to Africa and help out local people to build homes. And remember: all these norms are valid! It is just what you are aiming for.

So we set the norm. Time to show values and norms in actual behavior! In other words: put your money where your mouth is. Is your norm regarding the value of love that you say a nice thing to someone you know at least two times a day? Then you should also make that a reality. Is it about helping African locals to build homes once every two years? Let’s get to it and hop on that plane! Or is it about hugging your loved one every time you see her? Do not run away from it and give her the best you got. She deserves it and so do you.

Start that adventure to discover your values, norms and behavior. And have fun!

Know Thyself!

The coolest thing in life is to really get to know yourself! Challenging, you say? Yes, a struggle at its worst times, but so worth it. Let me explain why self-knowledge is essential to leadership. The human leader knows herself. Has a clear image of what she is here to do on earth. What her mission is. This clear sense of the mission is what the human leader uses as a compass to guide herself in the world. The leader trusts this compass which means that the leader is capable to be in touch with feelings and hence with herself. After all, feelings are a primary indicator of whether we do the right things in the right way. Plus it is a measuring stick to which the leader can measure decisions to be taken. Sounds vague? Let me share my mission: I am here to make our world more loveable and sustainable! When I first realized this, my first thought was: isn’t this a mission that Mandela or Gandhi would have? Maybe yes. But who is to say that I am not capable of making our world a better place? I accomplish this in a variety of things. Ranging from being there for friends but also by being passionate about the sustainable projects I do for my employer. And even saying hello to the cashier at the grocery store is in its simple way an act of showing love and compassion. Yes, it is as simple as that!

You might wonder: why should I know what I am here for? Because it feels liberating to know why you are on our planet. It sets direction. Gives a person focus. And by using one’s personal values it makes life much more fun, because you know what makes you tick. And creates the conditions to do the things that make you successful in your mission. And that is what human leadership is all about. Values can be a vague concept and we all know that companies have either the most vague or the most generic values of them all. And then we still do not know what that value actually means. I have identified five important values for myself: love, connection, growth, freedom and integrity. In that order. It helps to rank your values, because in challenging times you can walk down the list to see what value or values are at stake in that situation. And you can decide whether you feel comfortable in accepting the breach of one of your values in that moment. Or that you say NO! that is unacceptable to me.

But how do you actually get to figure out what it is you are here for? And how on earth do I determine my most important values in life? And once I know that, do I accept all levels of behavior within my values? Or do I need to think of norms that set the standard to which I live? Let us be clear on all these questions: YES! In capitals, because if you really want to make that difference you have to have the best image of yourself. Who you are, what you stand for, what you accept and most importantly: what do I not accept?

See you next time! When I will elaborate more on this important part of our lives!

The human leader!

A lot has been written on leadership. What is it? What is the correct type of leadership? What defines a great leader? Is there a leader in every one of us? I believe that everyone is a leader. And by realizing just that, we are capable of beautiful things. I would like to take you on a journey to explore this concept of everyone being a leader. And what it means to be a leader. It is all about recognition of people. Read along to learn about the essentials of the human leader.

The first characteristic I would like to touch upon is the quality of empathy. In my view essential for leaders. Empathy is the ability to share or recognize emotions experienced by another being or fictional being. A human leader is able to show empathy for others. This means that the leader is capable of identifying and recognizing the emotion. And share in that emotion. That sharing part is of significant importance. If you take the sharing part out of the equation of empathy this results in plain sympathy. Sympathy acts on another level. It is the recognition of an emotion and that is it. Sharing of emotions takes people to a completely new level. It really puts the person into the experience of emotions of the other person. And in a way is a true way of connecting of people. The human leader fully taps into her ability of showing empathy for others. She is in these situations completely in sync with the other person. By sharing these emotions, the human leader is able to recognize the other person. Recognition is what every human being is looking for in life. So why is it not that common for leaders in the business setting to actually show empathy? Is it that difficult? Is it a trait not every person develops that well in her lifetime?

Let us think back to our childhood or perhaps for better understanding the concept: think of a child you know in the toddler phase of his life. When observing the behavior of the child you will see that the child shows empathy for practically anything that surrounds him. I think this is the most striking when they are around animals. Animals always tend to approach children very easily just because children have this calm energy around them. A pure energy that I would label the ability of showing empathy. So if we all have this ability from birth, then why is it that it seems as if we lose the ability to show empathy over time? Perhaps we are taught to be less aware or ignore this ability. And I am sure that we as humans do not even do this on purpose. It is just the way our educational systems for example are operating. And the way (young) adults are learned to interact with each other is perhaps also based on the rational side of being human.

Which brings me to the statement of people that some of us humans are just incapable of showing empathy. I beg to differ. If we are all born with this quality, then we are all capable to keep in touch with this trait over time. When we lose contact with the ability, then we are definitely able to regain that connection.  And in a way make ourselves more whole again. Showing empathy is essential to leaders now and in the future because life is all about compassion. Compassion for others means that we treat each other in a humane way. That we have respect for each other. And that we show a level of understanding for others and their feelings and the situations they live in. This is not a choice… it is a necessity. In a world where research shows that being in a higher class reduces the level of showing empathy is a reality, we have a lot of ground to cover as humans…

I share, therefore I am an idealist!

The sharing economy, collaborative economy, P2P economy or whatever we call it is not as idealistic as we all think it is. The sharing economy was initially seen as an idealistic alternative to the real economy. Where people share the things they own. Mainly because the majority of the things we own are underutilized and it is a shame that we do not maximize the usage. Maximizing the utilization of things means that in the end, we need less of things; thinking further this would mean that we need to produce less resulting in less strain on our natural resources. Which, as we know, would benefit our world.

Reality paints a different picture. The uprising of moguls like Airbnb and Uber is an unanticipated event of recent years. Of course all of us saw the uniqueness of these companies and their disruptive business models. But who could expect that these companies would be valued higher than some of their “competitors” in the real economy? All of these initiatives claim to have an idealistic mind set or that their business model adds to a better and more sustainable world. But recently I started to doubt these claims. Do they really want to make our world a better place? Is it really about connecting people and make peoples lives better that way? I think it is worth to take a closer look to the definition of the verb “to share”. To share means that each and every participant gets the share he or she deserves. Or that a person gets a share of whatever is available to share. These definitions do not take idealism or sustainability into account in any way. So, looking at these definitions in relation to the existing profit making initiatives you could say that they are living up to the expectations of the definition. So why is it that the way these initiatives develop have a bad aftertaste? I think there are a number of reasons and I would like to explore these with you in future blogs.

I would like to close with explaining that I am a fan of the Airbnb’s and Uber’s of this world. I do see the added value in relationship to disrupting business models, value chains and existing mind sets. Some industries are in need of these developments and the battles that are a result of this. But I do believe that we have to be honest with each other and not only paint the picture of idealism and a more sustainable world. There is far more to it than just that!