Can Leaders Flourish in the midst of chaos and complexity?

Can Leaders Flourish in the midst of chaos and complexity?

I answered the call and asked, “how are you?”. I got the following answer from an honest and transparent leader who I was walking alongside.

“I’m just so tired right now. I don’t know if I can handle one more surprise or bad news call.”

How many of you, in your life as a leader, are saying something like this right now?

It’s a natural and human response and I have experienced the growing state of languishing that leaders are enduring in this current cultural moment. At best, leaders are often doing their best to survive and make it to the next day, week, month, or fiscal year!

At Design Group International, our desire as we walk alongside you as a leader and as an organization is that you would experience transformation that moves from languishing to surviving to flourishing.

How can we define Human Flourishing?

If something bigger, the flourishing of leaders and organizations, can be a new aspiration for leaders and organizations, it’s important to start with a working definition that can align our expectations and collective effort to work, together.

When I ask webster, flourishing is defined as being “marked by vigorous and healthy growth” and is “very active and successful”. Taken at face value, we can see that flourishing shows health, growth, and success. This definition is helpful in giving a broad picture of flourishing yet isn’t quite specific enough to show the full picture.

Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, offers a more complete definition of flourishing in his book, Flourish.

The Elements of Human Flourishing

Let’s explore the key elements of flourishing. According to Martin Seligman, human flourishing contains several key elements that are broadly described in the P.E.R.M.A. model, including:

•    Positive Emotions: experiencing key positive emotions in your life consistently including joy, gratitude, and contentment.
•    Engagement: having the capacity to find “flow” in your life and the ability to be absorbed and connected in your tasks and work
•    Quality Relationships: experiencing a depth of quality and positive relationships with others
•    Meaning and Purpose: finding a bigger purpose in your life that connects with your core identity and values
•    Accomplishments: being able to set and achieve goals in your life and seeing the meaningful results of your efforts

Good news for Leaders in the midst of Chaos and Complexity

In the midst of chaos and complexity, human flourishing is possible! The expanded definition gives us a window into what makes human flourishing possible, even when faced with challenges, things out of our control, and the complexity of leading in today’s world. Here are five suggestions for promoting your own flourishing in the midst of chaos and complexity. 

1.    Voice your Gratitude: It’s physically impossible to hold anxiety and gratitude in your being at the same time. By daily voicing your gratitude for the people, places, and things in your life that bring your joy, fulfillment, and purpose, you can counteract the effects of those ever-present challenges. 
2.    Time Block for Impact: The tyranny of the urgent distractions in our lives as leaders make it difficult to find high levels of engagement in the work that is most important. By blocking a set of time, 2-4 hours, you can increase your chances to find “flow” that connects you more deeply to your important projects or tasks. 
3.    Put Relationships in the Calendar: Take the time to get quality time with your friends and family on the calendar. When you set aside that time to build those relationships, you are building in the space to strengthen your flourishing (and theirs)! 
4.    Name your Why (Constantly): Make the space and time to name, over and over again, your “why”. As process consultants, our design process always starts with why for a reason. This clarity of purpose will strengthen your focus and keep you tracking toward your own flourishing. 
5.    Celebrate the Small Wins: In the midst of chaos and complexity, take the time to celebrate the small wins. Did you complete a project as a team and it went well? Celebrate! Did you just complete a big event as a team? Celebrate!

My deep hope for you as a leader is that you experience human flourishing in your leadership, in your team, and in your organization. I recognize that in the midst of chaos and complexity, you can experience more languishing and surviving in your daily leadership journey.

An Invitation:
Choose one of the prompts above to test out this week and send me a note letting me know what you learned in the process. I’d love to celebrate your small win and walking alongside you toward your own flourishing!

Walking alongside,

Matt Visser

Senior Design Partner
Design Group International

Ps. Read my in-depth article on human flourishing here.

Matt Visser serves as a Senior Design Partner with Design Group International. Matt’s greatest joy is empowering you as an adaptive leader to tackle your most difficult problems and help you build flourishing organizational ecosystems. Matt has invested over 20 years in growing organizations focused on leadership development, community engagement, fundraising, and innovation.