A Surprisingly Good Week
Maybe my work as communications consultant and coach is closer to my mission of a tealy masculinity than I realized
This was a good week. In ways that surprised me.
For the past two years, I’ve been aiming to do work at the intersection of #teal culture and the reinvention of masculinity.
That is to say, I’m trying to help organizations become more soulful through more wholistic, purposeful and democratic cultures. And I want to free men and all those around them to live fuller, healthier lives by breaking out of confined, outdated ideas of manhood.
I’ve struggled to figure out the right path to that work. As a speaker, teacher and author.
But as my wife and others have suggested, I may have been doing it all along.
Maybe I’ve been working toward those goals in my “day job” as a communications consultant and coach.
That seemed true this week. Because my two main clients rocked presentations that I helped shape. And the successes advanced the cause of a tealy masculinity.
One of my clients is a mid-career Latina. She delivered an internal company presentation that earned a high five from her CEO.
This isn’t surprising to me. My client is brilliant. I’m jealous at times of her ability to craft inspiring, clever content. And she is passionate about the mission of her organization. A mission that is closely aligned with my vision of more human-centric, equitable company cultures.
So there’s the teal part. The reinvented masculinity aspect has to do with my commitment to amplify underrepresented voices.
I don’t want to paint myself as a white male savior! In fact, my client came to me with 80 percent or more of her talk in good shape.
But she said my small tweaks and suggestions made a big difference. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Ed,” she said. This was excessive gratitude. But it felt great to hear I helped her shine.
The very next day, my other main client crushed it.
This client is a mid-sized company, where I help with executive communications. On Wednesday, the CEO led a quarterly town hall that was informative, entertaining and inspiring.
As I coached the CEO leading up to the town hall, he told me he wanted “to just be me.” He wanted to show up as his genuine self — a down-to-earth, funny guy — rather than as some fake “authority” figure.
He was even willing to admit to his whole company that he was struggling with his work-life balance. The presentation we built poked fun of a decrease in his endurance race finish times amid an increase in his weight.
All this was music to my ears. Authenticity is key to great public speaking. And the CEO being willing to “bare his soul” a bit fit my mission to help men liberate themselves from having to be stoic and invincible at all times.
After the town hall, some employees I spoke with called it the best since the CEO took the job roughly two years ago.
I wasn’t surprised.
Yet I was caught off guard this week to realize my bread-and-butter work is so aligned with my mission.
Pleasantly surprised. I had this Manhattan to celebrate. Here’s to a good week!
