While coaching a co-chairman for a professional services firm’s practice who needed to find his leadership presence, he said, “I am at my absolute best when I am with my clients and together we are solving their issues.” It’s where he knew he shined. Internally with the politics and the pressures, he felt lost.
When he spoke of his clients he was powerful. When he spoke of his role as a leader, he shrunk – as if a hollowed shell. It was remarkable – the difference.
When I began to speak with him about what the essence of Presence is, he shouted out, “That’s it! I want my field presence back!”
He described what it was like for him in high school and college. He was an all around athlete. He played football, basketball and baseball. And when he was on the field or court, it was a mystical experience – it is field presence. “I always had that sense of knowing what was going on all around me 360 degrees at all times.” That’s Presence – those moments of all cylinders on go – the Now!, the focus, the immediate, the energy.
We worked so that he could return to that state anytime he wanted by using physical, somatic approaches including breath and focus. Once he found the way to get back in touch with the wonderful sense of his field presence, he could consistently get there in those “moments of truth” in his daily business. Now that’s a win!
Lebron James, Finals’ post game interview, 6/19/16, when asked what he found to come back after a 3-1 deficit:
“I just locked in. I had to change my approach a little bit to how I approached my game. I wasn’t too good in the first two games. I watched a lot of film. I changed my blueprint. I was able to put together some spectacular games after being down from 3-1. This is history. The first team ever to come back from a 3-1 deficit. This is special.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a65zEFRQAuo
“I changed my blueprint.”
It is with our desire to excel that we look deep down inside ourselves to “change our blueprint.”
