J Alfred Prufrock ‘measured out his life in coffee spoons’ in the T.S. Elliott poem about his Love Song. He missed the opportunity to fulfill his life’s work, to achieve his potential, because he frittered his time away.
Well: there’s nothing wrong with a good cup of coffee, but Elliott had a point: we don’t just want to end up with a pile of coffee spoons and empty glasses, but no great achievement.
This is issue #99 of Social Leadership Daily, and hence behind us lie a pile questions and reflections, a sequence of activities and thinking. Maybe you have been with me from the start, or maybe you are just embarking upon this journey, but in either case you are part of a growing community of people exploring Social Leadership in practice, often through the very smallest of actions. We carry our coffee spoons with pride here.
This is a space for daily reflection and action, but it is not the whole of the journey. The real challenge is to make the link between your ideas, reflection, and thinking, and your everyday practice.
In ‘The Social Leadership Handbook’ i represent the topic in a circle, not simply because it fits more easily onto a page (it does…) but because our leadership should be circular or, more specifically, spiral. We learn - reflect - make sense - learn - do - reflect, and so on. And hopefully on each loop we gain height, but are unafraid to retain our curiosity.
Use your sixty seconds today to reflect upon your motivation for this journey: who is the leader that you are, who is the leader that you wish to become?
Prufrock was unfulfilled because he was too nervous to take action: to move from the familiar into the wilderness is always a step best taken in company.