Chapter 1
“Constant, Total Amazement”
I (Glenn) was working on my master of divinity degree and had just finished my midterm examinations, so my brain was a little fried. Needing to celebrate the completion of such an arduous task by absorbing a little brain candy, a friend and I decided to head to the movies at nearby Nicholasville, Kentucky .
Our most appealing choices were the new cinematic version of William Golding’s classic book The Lord of the Flies and some new Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie called Joe versus the Volcano . Given our states of mind, the latter option seemed the least taxing on the intellect and possibly the most entertaining.
(After all, we were not in the mood to watch Golding’s young savage boys chase each other around with murderous intent.)
And so, armed with popcorn, soda, and low expectations, I sank back in my seat as the film began. The plot concerns Tom Hanks’s Joe Banks, a hypochondriac in a dead-end job who learns that he is terminally ill. He accepts a rich man’s offer to briefl y “live like a king, die like a man,” with the requirement that he willingly jump into a live volcano on the island of Waponi Woo in order to appease the “volcano god.” (A bizarre premise, indeed.)
Despite my best intentions of leaving my cerebral functions far behind and simply enjoying a movie for the sake of a movie, about a quarter of the way into the film, I found myself completely engaged with Joe and his journey.
Joe complains in the movie about the things that suck the life out of him and keep him from grabbing hold of passions and opportunities that would truly make him content. Later on, he encounters the yacht captain, Patricia Graynamore, played by Meg Ryan. In one particular scene, the pair is on a boat sailing in the South Pacifi c, and Joe is awed by the enormity and preciousness of life as he looks up at the sky. He turns to Patricia and asks her, “Do you believe in God?”
She responds, “I believe in myself.” Patricia then elaborates, “I have confidence in myself.”
Joe responds, “When I think about myself, I get bored.”
As they continue their conversation, Joe begins to pour out his emerging worldview of things. At one point, Patricia remarks, “My father says almost the whole world’s asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says only a few people are awake. And they live in a state of constant, total amazement.”
Watching that movie and hearing those words slammed me into a moment of clarity and invigoration. I immediately knew that first, I wanted to be awake.
And second, I knew that I wanted to function in a way that caused other people to “wake up .”
An immediate and tangible aspect of this cinematic insight was the realization that my graduate theological education was not just about making good grades and finishing with my degree, but actually learning . One of the sad aspects of being asleep is the temptation to just go through the motions. For far too many, the incredible opportunity and investment in education is nothing more than a hoop. After my wake-up call, I had a new passion for learning how people function and what happens to them in the course of life and what is inherent about our lifestyles and worldviews that is intrinsically deenergizing.
It was about learning how to be awake and awakening others from the lumber of mediocrity , from the insomnia of just getting by but never feeling atisfied.
What Is Wide-Awake Leadership?
The thought of contributing to the field of leadership is a bit daunting. So much has been researched and even more has been written; what could we possibly add to the mix? I find comfort knowing that in Solomon’s wisdom he stated, “There is nothing new under heaven.” In wide-awake leadership , you will not find a breakthrough discovery. What you will find is the assembly of great thinking paired with a unique combination of training and experience.
The sum total will provide a “wake-up call,” and new worldview for taking your business, your team, and possibly your life to a whole new level.
For the purposes of this book, let us simply define leadership as essentially “the dynamic of a wide-awake person engaging others in such a way that they become awake.” This person can exercise such leadership in any arena common to our human experience: the family, the workplace, the community, the house of worship, in friendships, and with colleagues. Opportunities to lead in an awake manner are abounding each day for each one of us who is paying attention.
While in seminary and training to go into vocational church ministry, I had believed there was no better arena than the church for fulfilling this calling for wide-awake leadership , as I understood it. But as I graduated beyond the walls of the academy and became immersed in the leadership of the local congregation, I learned fairly early that most people didn’t want their pastor to function in a way that caused them to be challenged, confronted, scared, or stretched. And tragically, I learned there were some elements of the nature of ministry that literally sucked the life out of you. I understood where Joe Banks was coming from.
However, I eventually experienced a second wake-up call that made further sense of the insights I gleaned from that one night at the movies in Kentucky. This next epiphany involved reaching a point of being able to declare that it is not the responsibility of any person, business, group, or organization to help me remain engaged and awake. Although there may be particular forces that cause it to be difficult or against the stream to remain awake, it still is my responsibility.
This book is about becoming aware of that responsibility and learning how to unpack and apply it to your life, family, job, volunteer efforts, and any other significant endeavor or relationship that you tackle.
Often I am asked, “What do I enjoy most about leading Awake Consulting & Coaching ?” The answer comes quickly: I love the people I get to work with. In 1998, at a relatively young age (about thirty-two), I came to a defining moment in my life. In my personal and professional life, I would use my talents to grow leaders, and I would work with people I enjoyed.
Awake Coaching & Consulting has provided me the opportunity to be surrounded by wonderful people. The Awake team was formed by asking talented people who have a passion for life and people suppressed by oppressive and poorly led work environments. Glenn Finch and I were high school friends, and have been through life’s highs and lows together. Joe Coury was a mentor during my midtwenties. Chad Trahan, Cammie Hauser, and Jim Rogers entered my life at strategic moments, and the results have been profound.
With all of that being said, nothing can compare to the thrill of working with phenomenal clients. The clients I have had the honor to coach represent a diverse group of leaders from diverse industries. The intersection of our services with their needs has produced dramatic impacts for all parties.
I first met Larry at a two-day workshop that we facilitated in New Orleans. Our initial handshake was shrouded in the words “I am such a technician; I am not sure what my value is to my clients.” Over the course of the two-day workshop, I was able to serve Larry by issuing a series of wake-up calls.
The fi rst wake-up call came in the form of Larry being able to identify his professional passion and seeing how this could be linked to his business model.
The first twenty years of Larry’s work life were shaped by simply doing what his father did before him. Larry became an attorney, like his dad. He went into the family practice, like his dad. Larry wrote wills and settled estates, like his dad. And like his father, Larry had a passion for the transference of values, not only valuables. What Larry’s dad was not able to see was the need in the marketplace for an attorney and counselor-at-law to walk people through a process that helped identify those values and put in place a plan to pass them along to the next generation.
What this wake-up call created for Larry was the possibility to not just sleep walk in the steps of his father, but to dive off the foundation this wonderful man created. Each week, Larry and I would strategize on what it would take to transition this traditional estate planning practice into a wealth-coaching business that helped people transfer their internal values, and not just their valuables from one generation to the next.
This process involved gaining clarity that it is a healthy thing to pursue your passions. It included the letting go of team members who were not on board with the idea of transferring values from one generation to the next. A series of wake-up calls were required, as partners and parents needed to be brought together to design the new business model. Entire new systems were esigned, new alliances were formed, and a new marketing message was crafted.
Larry will tell you that the ride has not always been smooth. The complete disruption of business due to Hurricane Katrina certainly did not help. However, being awake , and not simply taking the path of least resistance has provided a continuous stream of wind in his sails. It also provides a readiness that allows for quick responses to a marketplace in constant flux.
Larry and I had a schedule coaching session on the Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans. I was shocked when my phone rang at the appointed time, and I heard Larry state, “Life, as I know it, is over.”
During that initial week, Larry would learn his home was destroyed; his team was spread out across the eastern and central time zones, and one of his closest clients had passed away. It takes a leader who is wide-awake to reassemble a dispersed team to congregate in a deserted city. It takes a wide-awake leader to provide critical services at a time of great despair, out of a temporary makeshift office. Ultimately, it takes a wide-awake leader to lead people who are hurting, to care about the mission of helping people to treasure their values when most valuables were swept away in the flood. Larry was able to do all of this and more in less than three weeks.
Where would we be if people did not heed their wake-up calls?
