I have just finished reading this inspirational little book by the late Clayton Christensen. In 2010 Christensen gave a speech to HBS’s graduating class where he used his research and thinking about business to lay out guidelines for meaning and happiness in our personal and family lives. The book: How Will You Measure Your Life? builds on his original talk and, in collaboration with James Allworth and Karen Dillon, presents a series of parallels between struggles and successes in business and ways we might use these known outcomes to teach us ways to live.

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Maryam Mirzakhani was born in Iran in 1977. She won gold medals in 1994 and 1995 in the high school International Mathematical Olympiads, gaining a perfect score in 1995. She earned her B.Sc in Tehran and five years later a PhD from Harvard University for her dissertation Simple Geodesics on Hyperbolic Surfaces and Volume of the Moduli Space of Curves. After doing further research and teaching at Princeton University Mirzakhani became a professor of mathematics at Stanford University in 2008. Sadly, Mirzakhani died in the summer of 2017 of breast cancer at the age of 40.

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Jim Collins in his wonderful little book From Good to Great, and his follow-up for the social sectors, influenced so many of us in the nonprofit world when he helped us understand not only the importance of good hiring but also those vital first three years of employment, when both the new employee and the organization ought to be actively working on understanding and developing the nature of the “fit” between them.

Thinking back to how Collins influenced me as a leader and hiring manager through his books, and more recently the practical advice Adam Bryant gives in his New York Times article called “How To Hire the Right Person,” I find myself considering deeply the enormous importance of this aspect of our work as leaders.

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Sometimes we overthink things; sometimes we spend so much time getting our “ducks in a row” that we forget why we wanted the ducks in the first place. As an author, speaker and innovator, Seth Godin, urges us to be open-minded and willing to take risks, to try new things and to stop putting up barriers or talking ourselves out of even beginning or convincing ourselves that what we really meant to do was shave a yak.

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There is always opportunity in crisis. This maxim seems mostly right, and often absolutely right, after the fact. During the crisis you are in a coping and reactive mode, as changes and new information bombard you. Today, dealing with Covid-19, is no exception—except perhaps it is. While it seems impossible to think ahead when new blazes start up every minute and you haven’t even been able to tackle the root cause of the fire, perhaps there are some small steps you can take.

So many organizations have been publicizing guidelines for how they will work with us during the coronavirus; what we should do and what they, as organizations, are doing to ensure our safety and well-being. Here at SmarterWisdom Consulting we have been discussing what we can share about our thinking with you on this important topic that might be useful.

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Watching this young, impassioned leader on the television and media made me think: how do you prepare for leadership, especially the kind of leadership needed more and more all over the world as instances of violence and terrorism plague us? Part of the test for a leader in any organization relates to their ability to handle crisis. And as our world becomes increasingly complex, institutions often call for more pastoral leadership that aims to bring people together; the community of an organization becomes so very important?

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Sadly, on January 17, the world lost Oliver, but obviously not her words. Published in 25 or so books, Oliver will be available to us all forever. As a lover of Oliver’s poetry, I scoured the Internet for articles and tributes to her and her work. I rather liked the one on forbes.com by Alyssa Wright, titled “Three Lessons Change Agents Can Learn From Mary Oliver's Life And Poetry.” Wright outlines how Oliver’s prose and poetry “capture the challenges we face in these trying times.” Oliver’s writing and Wright’s interpretation and analysis illustrate life lessons that apply to all aspects of our work, whatever it is.

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Our session ended with a panel led by three New York school heads (from Hewitt, Trinity, and Friends Seminary) discussing seismic change from the head’s perspective. They put a great deal of emphasis on our need to seek and stay connected to purpose—even beyond individual mission and values where possible—helping families and students see the greater good and greater purpose beyond the daily pressures of grades, assignments, and next steps in their educational journey.

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