TGIF….?

Friday is here and with it the end of another working week. Goodness knows how many millions of people employed by organisations up and down the country and around the world, are breathing a sigh of relief that their working week is over.

The Boomtown Rats made it to the top of the charts singing about this sad phenomenon in 1979 with “I don’t like Mondays”, and Dolly Parton a year later, with (one of my personal favourites) “9 to 5”, proclaiming with her usual conviction that this is “..no way to make a living”. Perhaps even more depressingly, John Mackey in his book “Conscious Capitalism” references Studs Terkel writing in 1997 about American workers seeking “a sort of life rather than a Monday to Friday sort of dying”.

Personally, I shudder at the idea of so many people simply surviving their weeks, in order to live for a couple of days at the weekend (or just recover), only to start the weekly grind again on Monday morning. What kind of energy does that create in individuals, in the families to which they return at night and in the organisational and societal systems in which we live and work? And does it really have to be that way?

No doubt the reasons for it are numerous and complex. That said, I believe there are two big areas where the likes of you and I can look to bring about change.

The first sits with the individual, requiring of him or her to do the personal work needed to inch towards a clearer sense of purpose that goes beyond the basics, and reaches towards something that is bigger than self. At Neon we believe that leadership (of self and of others) begins with Clarity of Purpose. From my own experience, I can vouch for just how hard it is (unless you are one of those lucky folk who was born with a sense of vocation). I also know that it is about the most freeing and fulfilling personal work that you can do.

The second sits with everyone at all levels of hierarchy within those organisations which drain rather than lift energy. It is for all of them to ask themselves the questions: — “What impact is the organisational climate and culture having on me and those around me? How am I contributing to it? and what can I do differently to make it more like the kind of place in which I would enjoy spending my working hours?”

At Neon we believe that another core component of effective leadership is Consciousness — the ability to choose and create the impact you want, individually and collectively, such that you and your organisation are a force for good in the world.

So as you break for the weekend, I ask you to ponder on the one or two things that you could do to make a difference.

And of course I hope that when Monday comes, you will greet it with a smile. Or at least with an appropriate soundtrack!