Helping other engagement at work is more than being active, it is about receptivity - finding and accepting who you are called to be. Discover the Missing Link of Leadership with White Oak Consulting.

1. The Missing Link of Leadership
Nov 1, 2016 by Paul Breaux
Since Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution in 1859, we have been searching for the missing
link. When I was a 13-old boy, my mother took my friends and me to see the feature film about Big Foot
called The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972). I remember feeling a sense of awe during the movie thinking we
had finally found the missing link. Well, of course, it just ended up being a tall guy in a monkey suit.
Just as elusive as the missing link has been, leadership luminaries have promised the thing that makes
all the difference with leadership and they too have fallen short. It might be the five secrets of a great
leader or the ten laws of leadership or the five steps to awakening the leader within. Some of these
propositions are quite insightful, some profound, others just a tall guy in a monkey suit.
It’s essential to understand one of or perhaps the biggest illusion for leaders today. Here is our take on
the challenge:
A deeply held, often unconscious, belief is that action is what matters. We believe we can, through the
force of a disciplined will, produce work that will flourish and happiness will naturally follow. A life
that is based on action as an organizing principle, however, leads to the opposite. Leaders of today are
exceedingly active: very busy people doing more and more with less and less. If this culture of action
were working, the results of the 2013 Gallup poll would be quite different. Their findings were that 70%
of people in the workforce are disengaged, and only 8% feel an overall sense of well-being.
Now that we have framed the challenge, here is our hypothesis regarding the solution:
We believe in a different organizing principle that will lead to meaningful, productive and joyful work.
Pat Lencioni in his book, The Advantage, argues that organizations spend 90% of their energies on what
he calls, “smart” things such as, strategy, technology, and finance. The remaining 10% on they spend on
“healthy” things such as minimal politics, good relationships, and time for reflection. We, like Lencioni,
argue for more organization health amidst the “smart” things: a “Sustainable Balance.”
At White Oak Consulting, we believe we have found more than a set of secrets, laws or steps. Our
solution: discovering and living one’s call only found through time spent in reflection, openness and
receptivity. That, we believe, is the missing link that results in purposeful work, productive outcomes
and a happy life.
During the next several months, we will be interviewing successful leaders across various industries with
a variety of worldviews who believe they have discovered their call and are striving to live it. Our
research will be aimed at finding the evidence of what academics and others have theorized about this
topic. We will be sharing these interviews, analysis, and insight and would like to learn from yours.
Please consider joining us on this journey through our monthly blog at whiteoakconsult.com

2. Photo is from the Legend of Boggy Creek.