Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

In the wake of multiple natural disasters, exacerbated by some evil idiot with too much time and money compared with his morals, values and sound judgement, we just witnessed our President spending time in Puerto Rico and Las Vegas. Both locations devastated for entirely different reasons.

Sometimes a leader simply needs to be present. You know they care when they show up. If you were to put a meter on each side of a Leader’s head (maybe attached to their earlobes ?) to measure how much their time is worth (in terms of dollars on one side and improvement to humanity on the other) you might gain a better understanding of why they do what they do and how hard it is to balance it all.

Presence can be measured by physical, mental, emotional and spiritual metrics. The media seems to believe they themselves are the appointed hall monitor when someone shows up or when they don’t. So-and-so didn’t show up fast enough at this hurricane landfall or…not at all… Presence is implied to measure the amount that some one or some entity cares. I think there are limits to this theory and hesitate to believe the media has the general public’s interest in mind. They exist to sell papers, advertisements and clicks. To mix human interest and commerce creates a variety of results but I will never believe media exists solely to do the right thing for each and every one of us. Call it fake news, biased opinions or total crap (found in the grocery store checkout lines)…we have lost a single, reliable source of information. Instead we are left to sort out questionably motivated conjecture from facts.

No wonder we put so much weight on presence. With every other mixed-value source of data, the importance of taking the time to show up, make eye contact, press the flesh, be seen, heard, felt…and inspired… is genuine. No filters, false lighting, photoshop or editing or spinning the words already spoken. Just presence.

Consider this a note to self that you may or may not identify with – presence at work is important, presence at home is essential. For instance, Angelica, the 9 year old singer, from the recently completed America’s Got Talent season sat next to us on our plane ride to LA. tonight. Her Dad was pleasant to talk with and as a (now 10 year old) tiny girl with an enormous and now famous voice, she couldn’t tour, sing or function without Dad being present.

I’ve wrestled mightily with the world’s forces calling me to have purpose outside of home while my family continues to need me to be present. I try to do both. I travel extensively back and forth from home to work and work to home, tending to needs and sleighing dragons. The lessons I’ve learned so far;
•wherever you are, be there (engaged with focus on purpose)
•you can’t please everyone so use discretion and be disciplined and deliberate
•God has called you to where you are and what you are doing right now-you can spend all your energy questioning it or you can be present physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Have a blessed weekend!