Darkness cannot drive out darkness,

Only Light Can do That!

Not too long ago as the Global Director Logistics and Export / Import Optimization, I reported directly to the CECO (Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer) at a major oil and gas company. Our team (LEXIM – Logistics Export and Import Management) was tasked with transporting product across the globe legally, ethically, and most efficiently.

Studying history in this space, you will find poor choices and wrong doings of companies often resulted in hefty consequences (loss of customer trust, fines, penalties, restrictions, and even business bans). This is serious business for the shipper and transporter and can cause great harm to your customer and your company if the right choices are not made and proper procedures are not followed correctly.

Due to the significant risk, I frequently started my meetings and presentations with the following statement to make sure I had everyone’s 100% attention, focus, and commitment:

There is never a wrong time to do the right thing!

There is never a right time to do the wrong thing!

Based on my upbringing and being a lean six sigma black belt and engineer, mixed with my personal life lessons and a study of history; the above statement seems clear to me.

But what I am seeing today across our nation and the globe is that people vary greatly on what they believe is right and what they believe is wrong.

 What is right and what is wrong? It can be simply broken down as follows:

What is missing from the above is the lens that someone is looking through that contains their specific viewpoint and often emotion. 

With a clear mind, being wise and insightful, hopeful and optimistic, right and wrong are easy choices. When we get emotional, impatient, frustrated, irritated, defensive, insecure, judgmental, and angry, the clarity between right and wrong becomes cloudy. We are not our best selves and not able to make worthy choices. This leads to harm for us and others.

How we do we ensure clarity in decision making and even before we speak? In last weeks’ blog (below), I shared how to stop a downward spiral with a simple tool called the mood elevator. It highlights to us when we are being negative and give us ideas to quickly transform our mind to a clear and helpful state. The same approach can be used here as well to bring helpful, meaningful progress.

Today, we need another level in the elevator. The LIGHT and LOVE floor!

Nearly 60 years ago in 1963, a great leader saw past the raw human emotion and actions of many and offered a simple yet profound solution that is valid today:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Remember, what we focus on expands and it is our CHOICE!

We are powerful individuals and can overcome negativity to enable the very best of ourselves to solve great challenges. And we are even greater when we are together!

Rise above, get clarity, do what is right, do the best you can, show people you care, and be the light that drives out darkness!

Never Give Up!

We have hope!

Change your perspective!

It’s been nearly three months since COVID-19 has largely wreaked havoc here in the US and much of the globe. And many people have found themselves seemingly caught in a downward spiral that has no apparent way out. These times and these current challenges have brought change unlike anything expected or anticipated. While the current view and forecast for many appear overwhelming, the human spirit is resilient, and we have a very stout and extensive history of overcoming. This means we have hope and a great deal of control if we do not surrender it.

A downward spiral is defined as when we find ourselves slipping into a lower mood and our mental health feels as though it is in a decline. It is a slippery slope and often hard to handle as we may not really understand the situation. This drop in mental health drains our intellectual functions and heightens the effect of hopelessness, frustration, and irritation. In this state, our thinking is less reliable, and we do and say things we normally would not in a higher mood state. It’s been proven that we actually lose points of both IQ (intelligence quotient), a measure of a person's reasoning ability and EQ (emotional intelligence), the ability to understand, use, and manage ones’ own emotions in positive ways to mitigate stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

The rapid changes our globe has experienced in the recent three months has triggered many to feel out of control and stressed, further compounded with being isolated (quarantined) for this extended period of time.

The first step to slowing, stopping, and altering course of the downward spiral is to identify the causes that change our mood negatively. Understanding the signs that things are not going well requires self-awareness and listening to how different situations make us feel. Sometimes these cannot necessarily be avoided, however, bringing awareness will allow us to adjust and positively change our course.

Several years ago, Dr. Larry Senn created the “Mood Elevator”. In this simple yet profound tool, we can quickly gauge where we are on the mood elevator and change our mood.

MOOD ELEVATOR

You can find a downloadable PDF version of the mood elevator at https://themoodelevator.com/ to print and share with your family, team, and organization.

The GREAT NEWS is we have abundant control over our mood by our thinking, our thoughts. Our thoughts create emotions which create actions which create results.

Here are some actions to take now to stop the downward spiral, move to the positive side of the mood elevator, and remain there!

1.     Be mindful of your feelings, your state of mind, and the root causes of the negative feelings. Make a conscience and honest effort to account of where you are on the mood elevator. Stop negative and unhealthy thoughts from becoming an emotion.

2.     Be responsible for you. Being of sound mind is a combination of proper care, nourish, application, and continued growth in mind, body, soul, emotion, and spirit.

3.     Realize your thoughts may be unreliable in the downward spiral. Delay making key decisions, create space, and move up the mood elevator. If you must act immediately, use caution and do not exaggerate. Seek council of others to confirm a sound decision.

4.     Change your viewpoint through gratitude, creativity, hope, and humor. Adding a daily gratitude practice is a powerful mood acceleration. It has been said that discontent cannot exist in a grateful heart. The top end of the mood elevator provides perspective and clear vision for optimal handling of challenges and complexity.

5.     Be self-aware and attentive to your influence. Moods are infectious. The culture and mood of a family, team, and organization, is most greatly influenced by the influence of their leader.  

Where do you find yourself on the mood elevator?

Are you in a downward spiral?

What can you do TODAY to alter your downward spiral and positively change our outcome?

“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.” – Paulo Coelho

Get out of the river (the downward spiral) now, it is within our control!

Never give up and Get Creative!

YODA

“Do or do not, there is no try!”

I had no intentions of leaving Cameron International in late 2015 after the announcement of the future purchase by Schlumberger. In fact, the idea of optimizing global logistics for Cameron and Schlumberger combined was quite thrilling. Our LEXIM (Logistics Export and Import Management) team had incredible momentum and it seemed the timing was perfect to add the giant oil and gas leader Schlumberger to the mix. Unfortunately, at the same time, the price of oil was dropping dramatically, and this strategic purchase for Schlumberger became an opportunity to right size to the current demand and we understood the potential ramifications.

Oil Price $$$

Out of our control

As one door seemingly closes, another always opens and in early 2016, I had found another tremendous opportunity. Upon my departure from Cameron, my direct manager, the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Dan Chapman, my peer, the Director of Global Compliance and Project Logistics, Chad Johnson, and my wonderful team gifted me a beautiful clock plaque with one of my favorite sayings engraved on the front; “Do or do not, there is no try.” These words came from Yoda, the great Jedi Warrior character from the movies Star Wars. I had fully embraced the saying into my own leadership style always challenging others to achieve results and not merely try, being careful not to confuse activity for accomplishment.

Do!

There is no Try!

In honor of this May 4th, (May the 4th be with you, now best known as Star Wars Day), I wanted to share a few other fantastic leadership lessons from the great Jedi Warrior, some of which are very timely given today’s global environment.

“Fear is the path to the dark side.”

“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering”

“Named must your fear be before banish it you can”

A leader must demonstrate mental strength and understand fear always leads to trouble. A leader must be careful to teach the importance of not letting one’s mind accept fear.

“Always in motion is the future”

Be mindful of the present. If you thought you had an idea of the future in 2020 when creating your annual plans just a few months ago, you now fully understand the meaning behind this lesson. While strategic planning is essential, it is equally important to be present, pivoting as needed to maintain progress on the vision.

“Mind what you have learned, save you it can”

Be a great servant leader always sharing and teaching others to become better than they thought possible. Join your team in the battle for the mission, serving side-by-side. Great leaders understand improvement must always continue, even in your legacy.

“May the Force be with You” Always!

Never Give Up and Never Settle for Mediocrity!