I spoke to my staff and Council at my office’s Year End lunch event and I shared some thoughts that have become very dear to me as I have been reflecting on another year gone by. When I spoke to them, I said that last year I felt I had to share a message of strength and solidarity after so much that had happened in 2018, especially at a personal level.
However, this year was not much different as we all experienced many new challenges at many different levels, including the loss of a colleague and some friends, always very difficult to every one affected.
But in 2019, in our workplace, we have also embraced the Japanese Ikigai message of hope and inner peace and because of trying to apply some of those principles in the hope to develop some good habits that can help us live a better life, I felt there were three specific thoughts that have powerfully surfaced at the top of my closing thinking for this year.
1. BE GRATEFUL
David Steindl-Rast has said: “A grateful world is a world of joyful people. Grateful people are joyful people, and the more and more joyful people there are, the more and more we’ll have a joyful world.”
I truly believe this. My family can tell you that my main mantra is that I owe it all to the good God and to the people that believed and continue to believe in me. The reason I do what I do the way I do it is because I am grateful and I attempt, maybe often in a very clumsy way, to repay for all the blessings that I have received in life.
I can also say that gratefulness and giving are great companions and a wonderful combination that makes you feel warm and happy inside. Just recently, I received an unexpected email from a former director that I had hired in another local government. He wrote he was grateful to me for inspiring his desire to be the leader he wanted to be. He then informed me that he had become the CAO of a local government on the Island. This email caught me by surprise and truly humbled me. It made reflect on the fact that people always observe us and so I am grateful that I behaved in a way that was inspiring and multiplying rather than diminishing.
2. BE HONEST
My father was a City Clerk in my home town. When I told him I was becoming a CAO, he was quick to give me his advise. He said to me: “No matter what, always, always, always be honest. There will be moments when people will come to you and make you see things in a way that they seem okay but they are not. Just be careful because a reputation that is built over the years can be destroyed in a minute or less.”
Those words resounded clearly just a couple of years later when a Mayor and other councillors in the town I was managing tried to bribe me to award a contract to a road contractor they knew well, contrary to the procurement laws and regulations. This in fact meant that criminal laws would also be violated. Thanks to my dad’s advice, however, I had no doubts on what to do and I stood for what I believed to be right. It worked well and the right thing was done. This episode in my life continues to have an impact in my life.
But being honest is not only obeying the law but also to proactively instill an ethical course of leadership that can make a difference in the world. We don’t need to be CAO’s or Mayors or Prime Ministers to do that. We just need to be the best we can be and promote our best behaviour. We just need to be examples and ambassadors of goodness rather than misery and we will change the world one person at a time.
3. BE VULNERABLE
I have just read a book titled “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene’ Brown. You may have heard about Dr. Brown and her research, but the underlying message in this book is that in order to be truly successful and be at peace with ourselves we need to be sincerely vulnerable.
In a world that is obsessed with perfection, there is more need for honest imperfection. The false assumption that we can work our way to becoming perfect has caused and is causing so much mental imbalance in the world that we have a hard time figuring out our place within it.
Values are crumbling, debate has become a series of confrontations, true dialogue is stifled by the overuse and the hiding comfort of social media, and even our leaders are not leading anymore.
We need to admit our weaknesses, our frailty, and our mistakes not as a negative platform but as a trampoline to better ourselves. A weakness is an opportunity that we have in order to become better and to understand ourselves.
So in conclusion, remember to:
• BE GRATEFUL always, beginning with your family members and recognizing the higher power that can help us shape who we are;
• BE HONEST and become a true example for those who watch closely and hope that we can be something they can look up to so that they find inspiration to improve themselves; and
• BE VULNERABLE as we are all good people and we all need each other to be stronger and stronger and have a life full of good things even when things go wrong.
As we close this year and prepare for the new one, keep this principles in mind. You will find that better things are awaiting for you.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
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ASD Innovation 
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