The Gladstone — shifting perspective.

Situated in West Queen West, one of Toronto’s most creative neighbourhoods, the reimagined Gladstone House maintains its emphasis on culture, art, and diversity, while ensuring the building’s rich history and iconic original architecture remain preserved. Featured in Michelins‘ Toronto Hotel Guide, the celebrated boutique hotel, steeped in history, features restored exposed brick walls, curated local art and innovative lighting applications that transition throughout the day, bringing the building to life (Taken directly from their website)

It was only by circumstance that brought me to the Gladstone for a little under a week, and my only endorsement would be the elevator is very cool, the kitchen is amazing, and they make a fine Manhattan.

In under a week, I have:

• Gotten a pile of work done.

• Wrote a couple of blogs.

• Was reminded how amazing my daughter is, even as she questions how hip I think I am.

• Was reminded how honoured I am to have a great circle of friends.

• Learned more than I thought I would from an U of T alumni sponsored on-line course — Needs, Circumstance, Characteristics, Capacity and the Scripts. All dictate how we approach our life and greater than I appreciated. It has offered new language to navigate the human condition.

• Was reminded that diversity is strength.

• Was reminded everything is possible

In one of the conversations during the week, and as the universe is apt to do, the Gladstone was explained:

“I need to see issues and ideas from all sides, so people sometimes feel I am not "siding" with them, or criticizing them, when I am truly just curious and considering all possible perspectives....”*

The Gladstone allowed me to shift my perspective and because of this, things happened. Does shifting perspective make things happen? No. What shifting perspectives offers is a broader view of current situations, challenges preconceived notions, and in theory**, offers a clearer picture — it is with this, that you can make new things happen.

On the third floor of the Gladstone is a beautiful pool table for the guests to use at their leisure — what I noticed is from one angle there is no shot but as you move around the table, the shot you didn’t see, comes into view. How’s that for an analogy? Is any of this earth shattering or a monumental shift; not at all, but the journey is taken with small steps — one foot in front of the other.

Gladstone[verb]: to change perspective. Example: I’m just don’t see it, it’s time to Gladstone.

iamgpe

* Shayva Steinberg

**I say in theory because you must be open to seeing situations differently.

A series on leadership — insight two

Recently I thought I had reached a level of wisdom that I could offer thoughts on a number of things in a blog; one of which was Leadership. In my brief overview on the topic, I said this:

Leadership is defined when times are difficult: with vision, decision making, and ownership. This applies to character for that matter.

It struck me that maybe it was impossible to define leadership in a single sentence, and even if I did accurately hit on the three key elements, it’s obviously a very deep subject which warrants more than a sentence. With this in mind, and the need to explore a very important topic further, I thought I’d share some insights from those leaders I have known over the years. I suspect most will fall into what I’ve pointed out as decision making, with vision and ownership being figurative bookends. As I make my way, hopefully I will find something I didn’t pay enough attention to — a reminder that reflection is a powerful tool.

insight two

I remember being informed the Chief Commercial Officer had decided to cut the marketing budget by fifty percent. When asked why the reduction was so drastic, the answer was to drive more innovative thinking and action — his thinking was having less money to work with would force different thinking and actions. There were other things going on at time that influenced his decision, but his point and decision was nonetheless valid.

In a discussion about goals and objectives I heard recently, a leader reenforced she was more interested in what was done opposed to what wasn’t done — the primary message was to drive action, review what was done and learn from it. It should be noted the only thing you learn from inaction is that nothing was done, and that isn’t much of a learning opportunity.

In both these examples, deciding to create an environment (and a culture) to drive action, measure it and learn from it, was the goal.

There is also another consideration to why action is an important indicator of leadership — action is something you can own and as mentioned, ownership is a key component of leadership; whereas inaction reflects nothing, and you can’t really own “nothing”.

ac·tion /ˈakSH(ə)n/ noun : the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.

The definition of action itself does a pretty good job of suggesting the decision to drive action may be a crucial part of defining leadership.

iamgpe

PS — We all believe we’re making things happen and getting things done. It is important though to either spend some time with honest reflection or get honest feedback, and then ask the question, “Am I driving action or just keeping busy?”

A moment in time...

As the languishing effects of COVID -19 continue, one of the habits I had fallen into was not blogging on a regular basis. The excuses, and there are many, would come easily but none would serve any real purpose if I wanted to change the situation. So my plan is to go into my file of half finished blogs and thoughts, figuratively dust them off, and change the habit from not blogging to blogging. I found this start to a blog from October 2020

Well here we are — Halloween. Or was that a month ago.

And then just a push to the middle of November, and as they say it will be a hop skip and a jump to Christmas; then ringing in the New Year — 2021. Spring is just a heart beat away (crocuses in the lawn); I believe it’s then the celebration of the Queen’s birthday* and couple of birthdays to celebrate the formation of sovereign states. And then, wait for it… tic toc… wait for it…. the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine — a logistical nightmare unto itself; but everything is then, finally back to normal.

Tic toc; tic toc.

I look back on what I do and it’s been months since I have written anything for myself — buried in work is my excuse and of course a pandemic; damn that SARS-CoV-2. A convenient excuse I suppose. What I call the sameness of the COVID-19. Was that yesterday or last month?

…

Six months later I still remember starting this commentary on COVID-19 and why I abandoned it. I was concerned that my previous blogs had been on the same topic and I was moving away from the tenets that ground what I write about. It is also quite possible I never meant to publish this and it was simply cathartic writing to help on my journey through the pandemic (although in the end it doesn’t really matter). I don’t have any interest in unpacking what I thought six months ago. What’s important to realize at this point is that, although we are far from having this pandemic under control, we do have vaccines, effective treatments and a global community that continues to work hard to put this behind us.

Tic toc; tic toc

This pandemic will come to an end, and if you listen to the pundits, there will be an over zealous desire to celebrate like they did in the roaring 20’s. Whether you raise a glass or review the history books, this pandemic will be a moment in time to seriously reflect on and ask yourself what you learned and what you would have done differently. Everything is a learning opportunity and knowledge does make everything a little easier — particularly in the tough times.

I’m not sure if this has satisfied anything other than me being able to say I wrote a blog (which is definitely better than saying I did not write a blog). What it has reinforced though is that action is better than non-action, and that definitely satisfies one of my tenets.

Because remember, and COVID has confused this concept, there is only so much time to get things done.

Tic toc; tic toc

iamgpe

*in Canada on May 24th we celebrate Queen Victoria’s Birthday (most likely pandemic style)