He is keeping, but expanding, the role of CEO to broaden the footprint of Strathmore throughout the region and State, to raise big dollars for long term investments, and to build a "2020 Vision" for the coming decade. He'll spend most of his time out of the office as a "rainmaker" seeking bigger resources, new talents and mutual collaborations with outside entities,
He'll focus on finding ways to take Strathmore's considerable assets into places quite remote from the traditional 11 acre home base. He will get his head out of the weeds of everyday crisis management so he can raise his eyes to the horizon, to new worlds of relationships and new missions. He will think everyday on something other than other people's problems.
(Funny. Everyone readily agreed it was time for this change. No one blinked. No one expressed any concerns. Hmmmmm...)
Maybe Lance was the last, not the first, to discover this logical next step. Maybe it has been obvious to others for sometime now and he just had to get away to see what others already knew. Maybe all this inner turmoil was for naught. No big thing. No drama. Ho hum.
Bummer. Even now, the trumpets of heaven are silent. The fireworks fizzled. Tomorrow is Thursday...and life plods on.
Lance misses the drama of daily discovery he had all summer long. He's gotta get back to that sense of adventure soon or his voice might fall silent. He described that voice today as the sound of truth without manipulation. Not trying to impress, convert, motivate or hide anything, the voice of Lance just speaks raw truth as he perceives it and always before he has formulated any logical argument to substantiate it. It is instinctual, not premeditated.
Occassionally, over the past few days, it has popped out, quite unedited and at inopportune times. Today, n the midst of a meeting with some consultants, Lance found himself overtly (almost rudely) driving the conversation to the already obvious conclusion just because he couldn't stand the ponderous pace of the consultant's meanderings. His stunning sense of self importance aside, the man took twenty minutes to say what he could have said in one sentence. The new Lance doesn't take kindly to such conceits.
And while we're on the topic, there are a few other things Lance has been noticing about his new office demeanor.
This new Lance uses silence like a power tool to drill down on what is important beneath people's initial screen of safe talk. He is almost painfully aware of their tone, tempo, inflection and vocal tension - hyper-aware, in fact. He is getting more adept at keeping his mouth shut and watching others leap before they think.
All of his "antenna" seem to be operating at much higher levels. Life all around him seems to be moving in slow motion compared to his mind's narrative. He has seen this movie already and knows the ending.
He is no longer romanticizing work relationships, but rather silently evaluating them for their ability to achieve real outcomes, not just good intentions. And at least for now, he assumes every relationship must be re-established finding that some may take considerable time to get back to "comfortable", if ever.
It is as if some internal clock is ticking faster and he is more aware of time running out than ever before.
There is a sense of "no longer suffering fools lightly" and far less interest in taking the long way around, just for the sake of some kumbaya ritual of everyone coming to the right answer after seemingly hours of discussion. The language of the staff is different now and the center of gravity is shifting daily. What is exciting and new in their world isn't for Lance. What is important and vital for Lance isn't even on their radar.
Yeah. This is a good time to strike out on his own into a new and expanded world of possibilities. The site isn't big enough anymore. That is fast becoming apparent to him. And he isn't interested in hunting in a pack like he used to. You travel faster alone, Lance thought. Distance isn't as important anymore. Time is.
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