10 - Building and maintaining better leadership relationships through mindfulness

Summary

Introduction

As his wife drove up to the train station, Dimitrios picked up his attaché and opened the car door. They were chatting about something seemingly unimportant as the 7:10 train arrived into the station. They kissed good bye and yet he sat there, with the car door open but not moving. The train blew its whistle and his wife said, “You's going to miss the train.” His shoulders slumped, he still sat there. The train began to leave the station and she said, “What's wrong?” “There is another train at 7:20,” he explained. Then added, “I just don's want to go to work.” She asked, “Why?” He then said an odd thing, “I don's like it there.” While this exchange could have happened in hundreds, if not thousands of homes that day about people not wanting to go to work for a wide variety of reasons, Dimitrios' wife's response clarified that most of the reasons others might have had were not his: “But you's the boss. You are the CEO. If you don's like what it's like in the company, change it!” So he smiled and said, “Yeah, sure.” And then kissed her again and begrudgingly walked through the station to the train platform.

It did not make sense to him. The company was doing well. It had grown under his leadership from about sixteen people to over one hundred. It was a well-respected consulting company sought after by many organizations around the world. Dimitrios was not aware that the changes had happened inside him, not the company. The “thing” he did not like was how he was feeling, but he did not know why and had misdiagnosed it.

This happens to almost everyone at some point in their life. For some, it happens like a bad habit which you cannot shake. You change slowly and do not notice until the signs are too obvious to ignore.