What Has Become More Clear To You Since We Last Met?

I have read that Ralph Waldo Emerson would greet friends whom he had not seen for a period of time with this question,  “What has become more clear to you since we last met?”

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since my last post.  During this past year, I completed another class towards my MBA concentrating in Leadership.  I was blessed with another grandchild, this makes fifteen!  Also this past year, I lost my mother.  This is a sad event and a milestone each and every one of us has or will experience at some point in our life.  I’m sure I will find this to be a very significant milestone for me.

Let’s get back to a lighter note, let’s get back to the Emerson’s question.

How would you answer this question if an old friend asked you?  First thing going through my mind is context, what was the usual topic of discussion with this friend?

Why do you think Emerson would even poise the question?  From what I have read, Emerson was a philosopher, a lecturer, a poet, a thinker.  Did he just want to know what his friends had been thinking about?  Or did he want to know what may have changed causing them to think differently about something?

Change … perhaps the recent changes I’ve experienced has caused me to think even further into the significance of change within the realm of leadership.

A leader’s style entails his values, ethics, codes, morals, standards.  However, the world is ever-changing, people are ever-changing, corporations are ever-changing or rather need to be ever-changing.  And as the world changes, as society changes, as values change, styles and methods of leadership will change as well.

A leader himself must be ever-changing, ever developing further.  I watched The Kings Speech the other night.  I won’t be a spoiler and reveal too much about the movie but it is an excellent example of topic at hand.

Envisioning change, anticipating change, embracing change, leading change, even creating change, these are skills of an effective leader, that is what is clearer to me …

What is clearer to you since we last met?