The Season of Fall: Embracing Change and Introspection

Join us as we explore what the season of fall can teach us about leadership. We'll talk about the closure the season offers and the anticipation of something new on the horizon.
 
 Fall (as we are about to experience it in the Northern Hemisphere) is a time of year when we are inspired by the natural beauty of the fall colors. We'll discuss the super blue moon that graced our skies on Aug. 30 and how its occurrence aligns with the theme of closure and anticipation. We're also excited to share our Spotify fall playlist, curated to enhance your appreciation of the season and foster growth and reflection. 

Resources:
Seasons Leadership Fall Playlist on Spotify

Join Debbie Collard and Susan Ireland, certified coaches and co-founders of Seasons Leadership, in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception on Wednesdays on the Seasons Leadership Podcast. (Selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Positive Leadership Podcasts on the web!)

And now you can join our community of values-based leaders on Seasons Leadership Patreon at Patreon.com/seasonsleadership. At our gold-level, unlock our exclusive Lessons in Leadership Column from our Resident Seasoned Leader David Spong, a lifetime member of the Board of the Malcom Baldrige Foundation and our Leadership Elements Series.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to fall with the seasons leadership podcast, where we recognize the time in your leadership journey to integrate new insights and knowledge. Throughout this season, we will bring you actionable advice to improve your leadership and life today. Thank you for joining me, susan Ireland and my co-host, debbie collard. As certified leadership co-coaches and co-founders of seasons leadership, we share a vision to make excellent leadership the worldwide standard. Learn more at seasons leadershipcom. Join us in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception. By listening and engaging in the discussions featured on this podcast, you help us bring leadership excellence to the world. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Well, thank you, susan, for that great intro and because at seasons leadership we use the seasons in nature as a metaphor for leadership and for life and what people might be going through, it's really important that we take a little time and focus on whatever season we're in and we're getting ready to be in fall, personally my favorite season of the year, and not because of what goes on there, which we're going to dig into, but just everything about it. I love fall. So we're going to dig in a little bit to fall today, the two of us, and share things with our listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Right, I love fall too. And you know Edwin Way Teal, who I really didn't know him, but he has a great quote that I'm going to read. He is an American naturalist, photographer and writer, but he says change is a measure of time and in the autumn time seems speeded up. What is not, and never again will be what is, is change. And that really spoke to me, because it really does feel like time is speeding up. You know it, I think it's the. We were in summer and we were riding the wave and things were, you know, fun and I went on lots of trips and it was, there was a lot of action, and and I was in the flow. And you know, just like everything, you know, it starts there's like a cold crisp, something in the air, and it feels like, oh, it's coming to an end, and then fall, with the different colors, the days getting shorter, it feels like time is speeding up.

Speaker 2: 2:56

Well, absolutely and imagine like children that are going back to school. Of course, time feels speeded up for them because now they're back into this routine where they don't have all the free time to go play with their friends or do all the summer activities. And the same thing for adults, even though many of us don't get time off in the summer like children do. We still had that more relaxed feeling in the summer, kind of like oh yeah, as you said, riding the wave right, but when it gets to fall it feels like things need to move faster, because you got to be more focused on things and and get things done and yet at the same time in nature, things are ending, things are coming to a close.

Speaker 1: 3:45

Right, the leaves are falling off the trees, the birds are migrating. It's just, and I for me also. What comes up for me is I I'm in the last quarter of the year, so those goals that I set out for myself for the year are are are really, you know, becoming real. There's things that I need to do to make them happen if I'm going to stick with my plan and we look at, of course it's getting into fall in the northern hemisphere by the way and the southern hemisphere.

Speaker 2: 4:19

You all are going into spring and you're like thank goodness. But fall, as the metaphor, again represents a time in a leadership journey to integrate new things. We look at it as integration, integrating new insights and knowledge that you got from that downtime over the summer, maybe and checking results. You're getting, as you mentioned, your goals right. You've only got one quarter left to achieve those, as the fall is closing out, and then so are you on track to achieve them or do you need to make some big changes, small changes? What do you need to do to get there? And building confidence in yourself and your leadership and your business practices, skills, everything about it. It's a time for testing and integrating Right, do I integrate this? Do I get rid of it?

Speaker 1: 5:14

Right, right, right. I also want to throw in something here, because this is pretty fun too. By the time you're listening to this, this is going to be passed, but I think we're going to be under the influence. But, as fate would have it, we had a blue moon, a super blue moon, on August 30th actually the day that we are recording this and this represents the powerful window of closure. So it's interesting.

Speaker 1: 5:45

It's a closure, it's the same thing as fall. It's releasing some old ideas, some visions, some focus, and moving into a new space, and it's an empty space. Maybe it's waiting for something new, but and we don't exactly know what that is yet and this time requires patience, as we're as this, something new finds its way into our lives and, you know, be ready to manifest. I think that's a perfect description of what fall is is for us as the metaphor in leadership is. Sometimes you feel like things are changing and it's time to adjust or end. It could be, you know, a job or a career, could be your personal vision, or maybe something has changed for you that's out of your control. Maybe you know there's a, there's an environment change or a business change, or, and so you're kind of forced into the fall idea and we need to adjust. We need to need some time.

Speaker 2: 7:03

And it's super cool that that rare celestial occurrence that you mentioned aligns with our seasons. Leadership take on the meaning of fall, because it is a time of closure and we may not know what's next. In fact, many of us don't know what's next. We don't even have a clue. Or even if we think we know it's next, something else could just pop up in our way and go wait, what about me? And just as a little factoid for our listeners, the next super blue moon is scheduled for March in 2037. So hopefully you didn't miss it when you got out there and saw it. I know.

Speaker 1: 7:42

I hope that. I hope the clouds part so I can at least see it here. Yeah, it's. Yeah, you know it's. I feel like I'm not really quite ready to the give up on summer yet, although it certainly feels like fall is coming quickly. Here in the Pacific Northwest we had thunder and lightning yesterday for hours, and in summer it felt like I was a part of things. You know I'm doing some. You know I'm involved in fall. The feeling is I'm on the outside looking in a little bit. I don't know if this helps people kind of get the idea of the different tones of the season, if there's a feeling that things are changing and maybe coming to an end, but I don't know what's next.

Speaker 2: 8:38

Like you said, right, for me and that's a great analogy used about the outside looking in for me. It's a little bit different, though. For me and it's gonna be different for every person listening to us right You're gonna have to find what's true for you in this season, but for me, it's more about introspection and integration going together, right, because it does feel like things are speeding up and it's like, oh wow, as earlier in the year, I felt like I had all this time to get everything accomplished. And now I'm like, ooh, there's not that much time left to get these things done, and so how can I integrate things in a way that makes me more efficient, more effective and able to accomplish these things, or to set them aside?

Speaker 2: 9:32

If there's something you know, maybe I had and the maybe is a certainty with me in any given year, because I'm a very positive person so I sometimes it causes me to dream big and say I can get all of these things done in this year and here's where I wanna go and what I wanna do with it. But then, when reality sets in and I'm trying to integrate those things into my life and leadership, I say what are some things that aren't serving me and need to go away or go by the wayside or put a pause on them.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Yeah, you know, I love that, Debbie, because I know sometimes I can get very goal-focused. So maybe at the beginning of the year I put all these ideas out there and then I put plans in place and I can execute the heck out of it right, and I can just do it. Well, I love what you added introspection, because just because I can do something doesn't mean I should, or maybe my circumstances have changed, or maybe the world has changed, or you learn new things that made those original goals you set not as relevant for you.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Exactly exactly. So it's stepping back and not being so focused on execution, especially if the execution is something that I don't really want anymore. So it's a nice time for that and to remember that you know that these are natural cycles that we go through and there's nothing wrong. And it gives us the permission I guess maybe that's air quotes permission to actually take some time and to think about things.

Speaker 2: 11:28

Yeah, absolutely. And experience all the feelings that are gonna maybe go with that. Right you could be in denial. I'm staying focused on these goals, no matter what. Right you could be angry about it. Gosh darn it. That thing happened and I had no control over it and now I'm just gonna be mad, right you? There could be any myriad of feelings you could be feeling. You could be feeling relief. You could be saying, oh, I'm really glad that got taken off my plate and I had no control over that.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Right ending or integrating or setting something aside doesn't necessarily mean leaving it forever right. It could be a signal that it's time to refocus, right Integration and refocus. Develop a new vision, develop a new goal, a just a goal that you said early on, and then all these things have happened, or you've learned things.

Speaker 1: 12:27

So just think about it. Yeah, I wanna throw in an example for people so say, say, if I'm thinking about like I don't like my job and so and it's starting to weigh on me that this is not the right place for me, it's not whatever, I could quit and that might be the right thing to do, but that might be a rash decision. And so if I think about it for a while, it may be that maybe I just need to talk to my boss and adjust my deliverables or my focus, or maybe I get a new assignment within the same company, maybe I just need a break because I'm exhausted. So it doesn't necessarily mean ending permanently, severing Right exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2: 13:28

And what came up for me just then, when you were talking about that too, susan, is we like to use the seasons as a metaphor and seasons leadership, but that doesn't mean in all aspects of your life you're going through the same season at the same time. So we like to explain to you what each season looks like. You could be in fall in some aspect of your life. You could be in spring, in a different one, or summer or winter, but if you're in fall, these are the kinds of things that will probably be showing up for you in whatever aspect of your life. You're in fall.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Right, it's helpful. It's helpful to kind of navigate what's happening and what you could do next.

Speaker 2: 14:12

And a big part of fall. And to end on a high note is gratitude. Right, it's about recognizing and honor what was celebrate all that we've gotten like. We've been through the harvest, get to reap everything that was growing over the spring and summer, and we get to say thank you for this. Thank you that we got to have all these experiences and learn all these things and have all this growth. And now let's take a little break while we figure out how we go forward.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Exactly exactly. I love it for that, and I do love the pumpkin spice too.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Yes, that is a big thing for people, big thing for fall.

Speaker 2: 15:03

I, too, love it. Well, we hope you thank you for joining us, by the way, and we hope you have learned something here today about the season of fall and you can listen to this over and over again if you need to, to refresh your thoughts on what fall might look like for you and what you might get out of it, and hopefully it helps you strengthen your own leadership towards leadership excellence, and not only your own leadership, but then, by extension, the organizations and communities, and once you live and work. And we invite you to join us in making excellent leadership the worldwide standard by subscribing to our community on Patreon and remembering that, no matter what level, role, title, you can become more than you are today. Visit patreoncom, slash seasons leadership to become a member and begin working towards your full potential. We'd love to connect with you as we build it continues to build our community of excellent leaders. So until next time, we are sending you positive vibes, gratitude for your leadership journey and integrating these insights into your life.

Speaker 1: 16:18

Thank you for joining us. Thank you Also. We have a Spotify fall playlist that you can listen to. That we'll put in the show notes Thank you.