Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of April 27th
When Things Fall Apart
What holds us together when things fall apart? This is a particularly important question to consider because of the speed and complexity of change in today’s world. So, what holds us together when things crumble around us? Ethos, meaning, and purpose! Like the underground root system of a tree, ethos, meaning, and purpose provide the perennial wellspring of vitality, resilience, and shared intentionality allowing the above-ground trunk to flourish, even during times of strong headwinds and draught. Change is always impacting us, threatening our resolve and imparting a centripetal force that, if not countered by a unifying ethos, will gradually rip organizations apart. History is strewn with the rubble of once great civilizations, companies, firms, and teams whose rise and fall played out in this way. With the erosion of ethos is lost the edifying root system once able to positively galvanized the group. Great leaders must always remember their role as cultivators and caretakers; pruning and watering the deep root systems of their organization’s ethos, which in turn allows for the blossoming of meaning and purpose.
The Heroic Lens
“I don’t think of leading as just leading; work as just work; travel as just travel; learning as just learning; failure as just failure; success as just success. It’s all living. Heroic leaders do not differentiate leading from living.”
– Paul Callan
Shooting For Something Higher Than Fun
Our modern world, if we let it, can be awfully superficial. This has nothing to do with the quality of modern people; the young generation has every bit of latent greatness in their DNA as any past generation. I think the problem is, well, life is just too easy for most people and technology provides instant knowledge without any demand for wisdom. We seem on a path of amusing ourselves to death. A steady diet of fun does little to call forth our better angels or provide the crucible needed to develop character, humility, and reverence for something greater than self. So, I think it high time we start shooting for something higher than just fun. Don’t get me wrong; I am a fan of fun. But I’d like to commit my life to deeper meaning, believing that fun is merely transitory, while deep satisfaction, dare I say bliss, comes only from fidelity to higher purpose and doing what life calls us to do. When our lives center on fun, we remain adolescent in character and mindset. When our lives focus on purpose and heroic ambition, we move into the realm of wisdom, maturity, a nobler moral code, and lives of significance.
Two Types of Character
I believe we’re capable of two types of character in life; Character of ascent or character of descent. Character of the ascent is the persona of the public square and ego; our accomplishments, successes, titles, degrees, bona fides. The ascent is generally the first phase of our life, when we see the career ladder before us and we willingly climb it. The character of the ascent places us, the climber, at the center of all stories and all dramas. This is the time of the I; “Ain’t I great?!” Some people reach this stage and remain, even into old age, and thus engage life solely from this ego mindset. Others realize the character of the ascent is limiting and not fully honorable, so they turn and head back down. Thus begins forming of the character of the descent. Descent is a time where humility, brought on by necessary defeats, slowly emerges. Our ego cracks, our successes seem less relevant, and we start to turn away from “I” and instead look to “other.” Great leaders, people of heroic character, followed the descent into the belly of the mythical whale and emerged from this crucible not just better people, but changed people. Such is the hero’s path.
Exemplars
To become great at great, including as a leader, one must have a deep inner yearning to gain self mastery. Therefore, I don’t believe one can think their way to excellence. No amount of academic study will transform one into a master. Example is the best and truest teacher. This is why I spend most of my time reflecting on exemplars of excellence like Gandhi, Lincoln, or MLK. When we contemplate the lives of truly great people from all epochs and cultures we discern a common path, a familiar pattern, among their journeys. Yes, they were unique people, and equally, they were all broken and deeply human at times, but what I find common in them all was a kind of conversion period, a turning around, in which they first confronted their inner self, and through this inner crucible, they transform themselves, from the inside–out, into models of virtue. Leadership, understood correctly, is a matter of the heart and soul. Hearts and souls are not taught in a classroom; they are cultivated and transformed in the cauldron of experience. We are wise to reflect on exemplars of excellence and see that, yes, we can build virtue within ourselves.
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