A conversation with my son recently led me to a question that has stayed with me ever since.
As he was considering university options and thinking about future career choices, we found ourselves discussing one of life’s most important decisions: what kind of work we want to do and how we know whether we’re choosing the right path.
Some books are not merely read; they touch us.
Some sentences do not land in the mind, but somewhere deeper within.
And sometimes, knowing that other people are touched by the very same thing at the very same moment feels profoundly comforting.
This time, our conversation followed not the traces of a book, but the traces of being human.
A book first published in 1983, now in its 31st edition, with not a single word changed: Being Human.
Rather than losing relevance over the years, its insights seem to have gained even greater meaning with time.
No, we are not a family.
This is a workplace, and we work together to earn a living.
No, management didn’t want it that way.
You wanted it that way.
No, events don’t increase motivation.
In recent years, the concept of “being present” has become increasingly common. Perhaps because it is used so frequently, it may have lost some of its impact. Yet when it comes to leadership, this concept has a much deeper and more critical counterpart: presence.
I think it was sometime around 2012.
It all began with a photograph I saw in a magazine.
The image showed someone sitting at the edge of a dramatic rock formation jutting out over a vast drop. From that remarkable vantage point, the person seemed to be taking in the sea, the sky, and an utterly breathtaking landscape.
