Karen Wilhelm Buckley
Wisdom, mindful presence, clarity and skill for our world
Change starts with an ending. Change doesn’t start like we wish it would, neatly packaged, presented on a silver platter, with a card letting us know, “Here is your new beginning prepared just for you.”
Since we are not yet sure what all is ending, we are also not sure what it will cost us, making it hard to craft our way through the uncertainty, let alone find a clear, steady center so we can stand strong.
What if I told you that 64 percent of employees trust robots more than they do their managers? That half of employees have turned to a robot for advice rather than their manager.
Artificial intelligence is augmenting the workplace in many ways, but these findings indicate that managers have work to do in order to earn the trust of their people. Trust is a critical link to all good relationships, both professional and personal. Here are 7 good reasons to work on trust.
My friend Ramona has always been interested in protecting endangered species, so much so that she traveled to Tanzania to meet the elephants there. She was enthralled by these incredible beings. But her feelings changed when she learned that in Tanzania up to 100 elephants a day are massacred for their tusks that get turned into billiards balls, piano keys, and other items for human enjoyment. She transformed from elephant enthusiast to elephant protector as her lifelong interest shifted into a powerful personal commitment to defend the elephants with all her might.
Changing the design of your future starts with a commitment.
A flowering tree opens, expands and grows with simple encouragement – water, light, mulch. Keep it in the dark, or expect it to grow without attention and we get a weak spindly tree, bearing little fruit.
Like the tree, without mindful awareness, our wisdom languishes until it is nothing we can count on in tough times. What’s your on-ramp to cultivating wisdom?
For some reason, this particular day, this moment, this choice felt like a Turning Point—one of those forks in the road.
It’s hard to admit, but every now and then I slide into an outdated, yet familiar, groove of insufficiency: “Nothing is enough. I’m not enough.” I lose confidence, feel inept. It’s not much fun…but I don’t stay there long. Usually I slide back into a groove of confident enthusiasm and focused intention pretty quickly.
The days may be shorter and the nights longer, but from the chair where I sit in the early mornings to write and meditate, the sunrise fills my view. I pause and take in the regenerative vitality of the coast live oaks absorbing the rain outside my window.
Saturday, December 21st, is the Winter Solstice, a time to discover the gifts of a pause.
Prana. Qi. Élan vital. Throughout human history we have been on a quest to nourish the life force: the energy within that gives us vitality and strength and urges us to create, achieve, connect, and restore.
Life force is not just something to cultivate in the yoga studio or Chinese herbalist’s office, however. It underlies every good effort by conscious leaders.
While listening to colleagues at a recent business conference, I was actually holding a robust internal conversation of fault-finding and grumbling. I certainly wasn’t getting the results I wanted.
After this experience, I wanted to understand why complaining thoughts possess us, what they cost us, why they are useful and how to shift cycles of complaints into powerful and exciting commitments.
Is compassion a business success strategy? Last month I attended the LinkedIn Compassion in Leadership Summit in Silicon Valley, co-hosted with Wisdom 2.0. The conversations ranged from cultivating our personal practices to creating more compassion in companies, by changing metrics, questioning management practices, and instituting more compassionate systems.
Many years ago, I had the honor of helping a partnership through a tough time. Conversations were difficult, almost impossible.
They were ready to split and lose over a decade of hard work building a successful company. Why? They spent 99.99% of their time noticing when they and their partner were not wise, not OK, under par, inadequate. Language is powerful. Like these two partners, we can choose the conversation we are in to change our results.
This morning I saw an auspicious sign for the new year. As I write, I gaze out the window, engaged with the liveliness of my wild garden. Up the street, beyond the tall hedges, oaks, and cypress, a tall redwood towers.
Just after dawn, a large white bird flew through the tree tops to the grand redwood. My fingers left the keyboard as her claws gripped the tippy top and she opened her wings into the wind.
“If there is anything the world needs, it is wisdom. Without it, I exaggerate not at all in saying that very soon, there may be no world, or at least none with humans populating it.” Putting our focus, vital energy and resources behind what our wise internal voice says can change the course of our lives, with one wise step and then another. Listening to this voice, we can discover our true priorities.
Listen. Open space to hear. What matters the most to you?
If I asked, “How did you develop your wisdom,” I might get a blank stare. Most likely you didn’t enroll in Developing Wisdom 101 in high school or college. Few popular TV shows or movies demonstrate the path to a wise life. Or perhaps, you would nod sagely, considering yourself a serious student of wisdom, able to quote the great teachings and wise leaders through the ages.
Either way, studies show that most of us want to be wiser in our daily lives for increases in performance, creativity, and intelligence.
Tears filled my eyes as I listened again to the girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes speak to the UN. Her name is Severn Cullis-Suzuki, and her speech was given at a U.N. assembly in Brazil when she was twelve years old.
That was in 1992. Sadly, her words are as relevant today as they were then.
One of my dearest friends is very wise. She sees the potential in me when my vision is shadowy. She uses the power of her gentleness, the strength of her love, and the clarity of her insight so that every one around her flourishes. She’s an absolute joy, with a lovely ability to discern what really matters.
While many men consider themselves wise, many women question whether they have wisdom.
