The way I see it, colour represents energy, resourcefulness and health. It represents a life well lived, rather than a life lived according to habit, expectation, fear or complacency. My hope for us all, in our personal and organisational lives, is that we thrive in a world of colour: a Neon world.
But that is not always possible. Sometimes we fade to grey. The clarity of our sense of purpose and direction blurs. Our energy drops and the lights dim. That is part of being human. We are not machines. There are cycles to our energy levels, as there are cycles and seasons to the planet. This happens in any one sphere of our life, and can impact all others, inter-connected as we are, however separate we would like to believe our personal and professional worlds to be. And when the grey permeates the whole, we and those around us, can flounder. For ourselves, our families, our teams, organisations and communities, the impact can be significant.
In an organisational setting the annual cost of work related stress in the UK has been estimated as £6.5 bn. At the most senior levels, cases of CEOs such as BMW’s Harald Krueger last year, and Lloyds’ Antonio Horta Osorio in 2011, have highlighted the unsustainable pressure to which we subject ourselves, or, if you prefer, to which we are subjected in the organisational paradigm generally considered “normal” or “successful”.
I have seen so many examples this year alone in my own work: capable bankers reduced to a child-like, inarticulate state and accompanying sense of failure, when faced with a senior boss with an autocratic, bullying style: executive teams so busy with the ‘to do’ list, that they have lost sight of the lack of relationship within their own team and the impact this is having: the tears of adult executives who are so bruised by the environments in which they operate and whose resourcefulness is spent.
And so our ability to stay vigilant to what we need to stay resourceful is so very important, both for ourselves and for those we serve. Organisations do have a part to play and much of my purpose is to help create a different way of being in business that is integrated into more human corporate cultures. It is also the responsibility of the individual to recognise the triggers, acknowledge with compassion when it is happening and to build and apply our own toolkit of resourcefulness.
I know this myself. I recognise the signs. For a variety of reasons, I have felt out of balance as this new year has started and the feeling has increased rather than subsided. While my default position is to push on through, to keep busy and distracted, I know from experience that the opposite is what is really needed. Facing into that place of vulnerability is uncomfortable, all the more so if, like me, your professional and personal identity is shaped by a fundamental sense of competence, strength and resilience. But it is so important in building the awareness and resourcefulness needed to bring yourself back to the world in better shape. Asking for help, staying with the discomfort and trusting that this is a temporary state, are all things I now try to practise at these times. And being honest about it. Even leaders are human, after all.