At a Glance:

• How leaders “wear their wounds”

• Why it’s important to love our wounds

• The One Muppet that Matters  

Wearing our Wounds

At any point in time, many leaders fall into three ‘states,’ personified below by Muppets, the best form of shorthand personality-typing:

Stressed: Beaker. When the pressure takes over and chaos ensues.

Depressed: Uncle Deadly (lesser-known Muppet who was sad and obsessed with being forgotten or unwanted). When we don’t have a project…or one that’s working.

Trying to Impress: Miss Piggy. When we seek validation through our company.

I personified those extremes. And at some point, I questioned why.

Then I went full Sherlock on figuring out how joy AND performance could coexist. I sought another Muppet.

Why it Matters

In working with hundreds of stuck companies, I typically see a leader’s core wound as a form of “if the company fails, I’m a failure.” That’s quite a burden to put on the company, never mind oneself. Like playing an NBA game in a snowsuit.

Strategies, decisions, relationships, organizational structures, and even marketing are laden with validation needs. Sometimes, the company may appear successful on the outside but is decaying from within.

Building a company that matters now, amidst dwindling moats, means confronting those experiences that made you feel rejected, abandoned, shameful, doubtful, or dissociated.

Making peace with the wound becomes a superpower. Those experiences that shaped you become the gift you give back. It’s your unique seasoning. It serves you, your organization, and the world.

This leads to organizations that people would do anything to work for and customers can’t live without.

The Muppet to Channel?

Rowlf

This guy is a Zen-like image of going with the flow. He creates beauty on his piano and is unfazed by the chaos around him. He shows up.

He loves the art and beauty of his life, not the validation or outcomes.

He’s creating a stream of output from a river of joy.

Getting to Rowlfian Flow isn’t easy. But damn, is it good when you’re there.

Love,

Dave

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