This morning I awoke with the word Grace on my lips literally and on my mind. My home is currently undergoing some minor renovations which creates quite a bit of disorganization. I have a family member who is moving out and getting her own apartment and a dog that still requires significant training and on the best of days is still a challenge. The only word that could give me any sense of relief was the word Grace.
Grace reminded me of a former CEO that I had a long term relationship with. Over the years he showed me what grace looked like. For example when he hired a new leader and district manager he showed grace in how he helped to grow and develop this district manager to be this company's current very successful president. Tangible actions that to me spoke of this CEO's grace was how he offered feedback to support his growth, stood beside him when he made mistakes, trusting him fully, showing in every way that he was confident and had faith that this individual would become the next leader of the organization. It is this trust and faith that allowed this district manager to rise up to be an outstanding president of a very profitable organization. In another situation, when this CEO was confronted with a long time valued senior employee's theft of merchandise from the company he with grace sat down with him to understand the reasons why he would do such a thing after a successful and long term career with the company. He was open to understanding even under such difficult circumstances. It was the grace of acknowledging this employee's humanity and the grace of understanding that we have the capacity of good and less than good actions. The situation was handled with dignity, respect and with grace as he thanked this individual for his years of service before he left the company.
3 ways to hold Grace as part of your leadership: 1. Identify what could be the potential and new possibilities or opportunities rising out of the situation at hand. 2. Challenge yourself to really consider perspectives different than your own and be willing to act on new information. 3. Connect to your calm higher self to find the grace inside of you.
3 morals of the story: 1. Greater understanding of others can be accomplished in the place of grace. 2. Context and a bigger picture perspective of the situation can help the expression of grace in your leadership. 3. Sometimes situations are totally out of your control and grace helps to heal yourself and others.