Fiddling – While Rome Burns …

Is this you? It so often feels like me I have to say. Every day there are reports of ecocide on a grand scale…our planet literally burning to death. Did I light the match – no…have I done enough to stop these and the many other horrors in our world…no.

And before we all rush into the depths of despair, I raise these questions really as a note to self – every day asking myself what else can I do? In what way can I help to lead the transformation of our attitudes, mindsets, and behaviours so that the changes needed are brought about.

We can be forgiven a sense of helplessness given the scale of the task. And yet if we each look in our own ‘backyards’ there’s always something we can do – one business at a time, one team at a time, one community at a time…

We can become true leaders and be uncompromising in our commitment to living through our heart and expressing our love – for our fellow human beings, colleagues and co-workers and for our communities and the wider planet.

We can treat each other with kindness. We can ensure that we advocate and get behind a shift toward real expression of care and consideration in any team, organisation or community we are part of. We can reflect deeply on our choices and decisions and ensure they are aligned with a commitment to the greater good and a better world.

As Jacinda Arden (NZ Prime Minister) has reportedly said ‘empathy and kindness …can drive social change – they aren’t just sentiments, they are tools’. So as we reflect on our own leadership formal and informal, we need to ask ourselves, are we using our full toolkit? Are we (unwittingly) conspiring with actions within our organisations for example that hurt our colleagues or our planet?

Whether Nero really did play the violin whilst Rome burnt or not, the phrase is a useful one as we all find the new level of activism needed to shift our existence to a higher level.