Leading from the Middle

Free at last.
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) the great essayist, retired at age 50 after working some 143,208 hours as an accounting clerk. On his retirement, he had this to say:
“I came home FOREVER on Tuesday in last week (emphasis added). The incomprehensibleness of my condition overwhelmed me; it was like passing from life into eternity.” Etc.
Later he would write:
“Had I a little son, I would christen him NOTHING-TO-DO; he should do nothing. Man, I verily believe, is out of his element as long as he is operative. I am altogether for the life contemplative.”
He lived, most happily, 9 years past his retirement.
Letting go.
Little did I know that one of my management tenets has its own country western song!
When you learn to let go
♪ What a feelin' it is ♪
♪ When you learn to let go ♪
♪ You look down At your feet ♪
♪ And find you're, Standin' alone ♪
♪ You've held back The tears ♪
♪ Now you're holdin’ Your own ♪
♪ Oh, what a feelin' ♪
♪ When you learn To let go ♪
♪ Oh, what a feelin' ♪
♪ When you learn to let ♪
♪ Go ♪
It is sung in a bitter-sweet episode of Chuck Norris’s series “WALKER, TEXAS RANGER”, Right Man, Wrong Time.
If I ever do another workshop for Managers and Leaders on “Letting Go” I’ll play this song and have everyone sing along.
Speaking of Texas reminds me of one of my last times there speeding through the oil patch in a van full of campers.
The driver/guide termed the Midland-Odessa region as the “armpit of America.” You know, oil and gas, sulfurated air, are bad, bad, bad.
The joke is that we were hurtling down the highway at 80 mph.
If you don’t get the irony, drive on, drive on.
Appreciating the Worker.
“For his appreciation of my work. I really feel very grateful to him, as well as to you, Sibyl, dear.
You see, he not only liked the things, but he thought of the worker who made them.” (emphasis added)
This line, from the 1922 mystery, “Helen Vardon's Confession” by R. Austin Freeman struck me as poignantly applicable to every well-meaning worker who does a conscientious job. Often, it seems, we forget the human(s) behind the product or service.
Obfuscation?
The latest news from Latvia features a dairy crisis. The crisis is genuine for the many farmers on the economic brink.
Mr. Šmits, the government’s Minister for Agriculture, presented his ideas on coping with the crisis to his political partners.
After the meeting, he was heard to remark:
“I did not see any negative reactions. I couldn't say I saw a lot of positives at once, but neutrally positive, let's say so."
I have always wanted to know how to read my poker-faced workshop participants.
I think Mr. Šmits has found a way.

My very neutrally positive book, Fables for Leaders, is available. Click on the image and order up!

And, don’t forget Lubans' book on democratic workplaces,
Buy here.


© Copyright text by John Lubans, 2023