Who Needs the Most Coaching and Mentoring?

November 8, 2021

Good morning! These Musings come to you from the northern 46th parallel where light now appears an hour earlier than it had been. I’ve been enjoying the pre-dawn emerging and then soon — sunrise. We lost another great one last week, as we do nearly every week; Mary Lou Jameson deserves to be specifically named.  May she rest in eternal peace and happiness. Thank you if you are associated in any way with military service, past, present, or future.  Thank you!

That isn’t enough, it doesn’t even scratch the surface to being enough, but still, thank you! The references to Eagles throughout these Musings are coincidental to Veterans’ Day, a serendipitous bonus.

• “A sale is a sale.”
  • I had stopped at my favourite old-fashioned hometown meat market to see what might find its way to our supper table later that evening.  I usually purchase more than I need at this iconic location.  Among the reasons I consistently over-spend my budget — besides the taste temptations — is good old-fashioned guilt.  The quality, service, and merchandising are exceedingly spectacular and I find it difficult to buy just one of something.  If one pound of bacon is good, ten pounds must be better.  I want the workers to be pleased I’m once again generously expressing pleasure at their perfectly-arranged display case filled with superior product.  On this occasion I purchased only a couple pounds of meat with the thought of making a pot of beef stew.  The amount came to $10 and some change.  In an attempt to justify my presence in their sanctuary, I said, “Sorry, but this is all I’ve got today, I usually purchase much more.”  “A sale is a sale,” the woman accepting my money said.  She sounded and looked genuine, happy even.  There are always lessons to learn if you pay attention.
• Whether ’tis better to prepare the mole from scratch over a three-day period, or to purchase the product from a reputable grocer — or whether to bribe a friend into making a batch for you, those are the questions.
  • Then, what if you are hosting the world’s #1 expert on the subject — and more importantly, the taste — of mole, what then?
  • Would a double-blind taste test be in order?
  • Always remember, one cannot make mole and also write a weekly column.
• On a route I frequent to see clients it is more common than not to observe a Bald Eagle or two or three soaring high in the sky.
  • There must be an aerie nearby though I’ve never spotted it.
  • On a recent trip not only were the Eagles soaring, but there were four or five immature Bald Eagles which I had not previously seen.
  • These birds, less than two years old, don’t have the white heads and tails… they have yet to earn those distinctive adornments.
  • Their size is full-grown but not their plumage.
  • Among the successes in a never-ending list of environmental failures, is the return of the Bald Eagle from the precipice of extinction and the frequency with which it can now be seen.
  • Makes me really happy and I never get tired of spotting one — or two or three or more.
• I first suggested this book to you a month or more ago and now I’m going to re-suggest it:  Failed Promise (Levine, 2021)
• “Hell no!”  (Svante Thunberg when asked if he would be going with Greta to the 2021 Climate Change summit in Glasgow.)
  • BTW, the above reference is for humor only and has nothing to do with anything beyond a good laugh pertaining to parenting adult children.
  • Greta is now 18 in case you didn’t know — and she can row her own boat.  So says Dad.
• Turns out groupthink got a bad rap.
  • “It is often the desire for cohesion that produces potentially destructive groupthink, not cohesion itself.”  (Packer, Van Bavel, 2021)
  • In other words, beware the wannabes and/or the culture that incents the wannabes.

Who Needs the Most Coaching and Mentoring?

• Here’s a riddle:
  • Who needs the most coaching and mentoring?
    • Answer:  Those who least want it.
• Those of us in white collar/ executive jobs (guilty!) tend to forget the vast majority of workers have been going to work throughout the plague.
  • We tend to see what we know and to know what we see.
  • Still, as the white collar/ executive types return to offices — gradually it seems, very gradually — what are we learning?
  • According to Samuel (2021) the most oft-cited benefits of returning to the office are no surprise:
  1. It’s easier to distinguish between home/ family/ personal time and work — and to set boundaries;
  2. It’s easier — and more enjoyable — to have face time with co-workers and supervisors;
  3. Technology support is better — and it’s free, or included at least (not for the employer/ owner, of course);
  4. Doughnuts and coffee!  (Or perhaps hummus and cauliflower if you’re in the right office — or even bagels and lox.)
  • Not often found at home.
• “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”  (National Archives, Washington City, DC)

We Were Always Here

There is a moment between autumn and winter

when the burgundy-clothed oaks emerge

not suddenly from the distracting

red and yellow colours of the maples and aspen

to claim what has been theirs all along.

Not even the winter dissuades themas nearby eagles soar and cornfields rest.

By Michael A. Mullin