LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: THE VALUE OF REMAINING PLAYFUL
take your inner child for a walk
After 20 years of coaching CEOs from corporations large and small and in several countries, I believe a differentiating factor in the long term success of busy executives is their ability to stay in touch with the five year old that resides in every adult body. Responsibilities often burry our inner child under layers of “shoulds”—healthy adults resent being “should on” at work or at home. Childplay accommodates learning and emotional wellness. Once upon another time, a dog named Kaylah set my inner child free—by reintroducing me to the value of playfulness.
Kayla to the rescue
I went for a walk in the rain one night. That doesn’t sound like a significant event but it was. I had just completed a writing project—E mailing the manuscript 20 minutes before a non negotiable deadline.
During the project’s home stretch, Kayla started nosing into my business—this golden retriever had a habit of slipping her snout under my forearm when she wanted attention. With a deadline fast approaching, this intrusion was particularly annoying because it jammed my keyboard. Without edit, her snout induced addition to the last page of my book would have read, “‘#nl;ku‘xxzzzy225″ Translated from retriever language that meant, “my bladder is about to explode, I need a walk—right now!”
I ignored Kayla until my project was complete, turned off the computer, then headed down the stairs. A furry blur bolted past me, doing a five point skid on the hardwood floor before crashing into the door (point five was an unladylike bum drag). It was so obvious that she really had to go that my conscience panged.
It was raining, so I reluctantly extracted an umbrella from my golf bag—assuming that it would cover both of us. Wrong! Kaylah broke heel as soon as she hit the fresh air and headed for the long grass. Hoping to keep our lawn free of those unsightly yellow bulls-eyes that differentiates the owners of female K9s, I had trained her against squatting on short grass.
After her business was complete, she started playfully crashing through low hanging vegetation like a mad-dog. She also had a ball mucking about in puddles that had formed on the road. Kaylah was oblivious to the rain, sniffing anything that moved plus disgusting stuff that hadn’t moved in a long time.
I remained huddled under a portable tent emblazoned with a Coors logo. Age had conditioned me to believe that I’d melt if I got wet. I don’t know what triggered my reaction that night, but I suddenly felt incredibly free and vibrant. I discarded the umbrella and ran face up into the falling rain. I enjoyed being peppered by thousands of tiny slaps. Eventually, adult awareness reclaimed its hold on me. I stopped, smiled and said, “thanks Lord, I needed that!”.
I was wringing wet, but the air was full of fresh smells and sounds that I’d long forgotten. To Kayla’s delight, we even splashed around together in the largest puddle I could find. To my adult self it made no sense, but to my inner child it was good fun.
Once home I mused, “how could I have forgotten the sight, sound, feel, and smell of a warm summer rain? How many other opportunities to experience intimacy and passion, is my work ethic shutting down? I don’t know about cats but when it starts raining dogs, I’m going to join in the fun.
Post sponsored by thw workshop: How to Survive and Prosper in the Shift Age