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Spiralling Up

April 3, 2000

The other night, I went to hear Peter Sherrington talk about Golden Eagles and see dramatic pictures of their young lives. If you haven't heard of Peter, he is the geologist who, as bird watcher extraordinaire, made the discovery that goldens migrate. it's not just that they migrate, but how they migrate: they rocket down the Rockies in long, high power glides at speeds over 100kph along an eagle superhighway. My friend David Pickersgill and I witnessed the phenomenon by fluke when we climbed the end of the Livingston Range near Crowsnest Pass in South Alberta, and discovered them 7 or 8 an hour zinging past our noses!

It is a privilege to be inside the world of golden eagles - they are intensely private - although I thought later, that's not so different from what I do professionally. I am admitted into a world of eagles. The TEC group I chair, and its members of which I am so proud, is a sort of eagle flock. I work one-on-one with eagles who believe enough in themselves and in what they are doing to invest in working with me. I am there to bring out the best in them, even if their best is something they don't yet see in themselves! Through them, I go on to bring out the best in their companies or organizations or ventures. I believe that the best organizational change begins with and emanates from the leader.

With spring, the eagles and hawks return. Some summer days on Vision Quest, we watch goldens fly, just spiraling majestically up, not hunting, arcing over the foothills. Once I asked "Why?" and I realized the answer was "because that's what we do".

We're all asked, "What do you do?" The challenge for us is to field an answer that is compelling, accurate but interesting, one that invites further exploration with the right folds. Developing those answers is certainly part of what I do for clients, but I have been moved to try to make that statement for my own company: what I do in the broader sense.

What I do is intimately connected to what you want to do. Do you want to spiral up as eagles do? that means exponential growth, being strong in the self, and through that, creating dramatic impact in your business world - giving those you touch the best benefit of contact with you. Are you interested in tapping inside to reach that indefinable potential you know exists inside you and your company? Are you ready to pay a price in order to see just where the ride can really take you? It all starts with the individual, moves up and out to the organization and into the marketplace. So too do eagles start on the perch, begin flight, and, spiraling up, touch all the points in the sky. It's a spiral because we can join up anywhere and will tend to involve the other stations over time. And as with a spiral, you revisit the same territory over again, but from a different and higher perspectives you grow and change.

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