Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM OCTOBER 2015 44 Libby Wagner Culture Coach I 'm feeling a bit nostalgic this week. At this time last year, I was visiting the wild, west coast of Ireland, the green seaside villages of Ballyvaughan and Kenmare. I was immersed in Irish culture—hilly walks through The Burren to ancient stone dwellings, rousing sessions of traditional music in intimate pubs, sacred song and ritual in a fourteenth century church. I'm only a little bit Irish, though many foreigners claim to be and are searching for their long-lost relatives. It's easy to get heritage envy, as the Irish people are deeply connected to their landscape, their history, their customs, and each other. As the daughter of a nomadic military family, I'm sure I can't fully understand such a resonant sense of belonging. As a poet, I could be utterly wrecked by trying to live up to the rich literary tradition in Ireland. How do the Irish do it? Here's the thing: the only real responsibility you have is to honor your inheritance, no matter your culture or country. Do something with what you've been given, whether it's songs passed down through generations or the vivid memory of a landscape. Importantly, your heritage is not embedded only in your surname; your heritage is all that has come before you—-your era, your personal history, social movements, experiences and relationships. Every step along the way, every conversation is part of what you inherit and what is yours to transform into your one, true life. This is real artistry: to honor what brought you here. It's the same for teams and groups, organizations and corporations. You inherit the vision of your founders or owners. You inherit the leadership lessons of your predecessors, good and bad. What will you make of this inheritance now? Where will we go from here? The most creative, indeed innovative, thing we can do is to honor our inheritance by listening deeply, beginning anew, and forging a way to our future selves. No need for heritage envy. All you need is precisely here. Sometimes in transforming organizations, especially at the edge of significant change, there's a tension between what has always been and what can possibly be—the scope of the past and the future horizon. It's important to honor the past because we are defined by it on some levels, but it is not the only blueprint for the future. The space between the history and the future is the present, the absolute perfection of the now, and that's the exciting place where creativity and innovation happen. When we stand firmly in what is, and say "what if?" How are you stepping into your leadership artistry to create an innovation for your work or business? What are the defining moments and experiences that you bring to bear on your work now? What about your team? Are there things to honor, and then move on to the new horizon? LEADERSHIP ARTISTRY: HONORING YOUR INHERITANCE RO RO Libby Wagner, author of The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, works with clients to help them create and sustain Profit Cultures. www.libbywagner.com

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