Go to Grow

Best and Worst of Leading

CIO Unplugged — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:17:51 GMT

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative

re: Go to Grow

Gregory Scott — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:20:14 GMT

Ed,

Thank you for the share. I remember it only too well. Saying "goodbye" to my only daughter as she went off to Boston University was one of the most sweetly painful experiences of my life. Just as painful, and just as rewarding, have been those times when I have had to say "goodbye" to myself. Fritz Pearls said it so well, "To suffer ones own death, and to be reborn, is not easy." But often that is exactly what we must do when WE decide to "go to grow". Thanks again for your insight.

re: Go to Grow

Jivesh Sharma — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:29:19 GMT

Ed,

my eldest child is starting her senior year of high school. She is my pride and joy. We started the process of letting go by gradually introducing summer traveling into her life. She spent three weeks in Spain this summer living with a local family. It will be a big and difficult adjustment to go for months without seeing her.

As Kahlil Gibran so eloquently stated:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

re: Go to Grow

Alan Block — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:34:20 GMT

Ed,

I've been fortunate at all of my previous employers to have had leaders who were always wiling to help me thrive in a new role at a new employer. Your words here remind me how thankful I should be for their actions.

When I left a tentured college faculty position to come to Cleveland and work at UH to challenge myself to live in a city environment, to see if I could make it in a field (healthcare) and teaching something (Oracle) that I never encountered, many thought I was crazy. But my dean said he was amazed and thrilled and happy and sad at the same time. His support truly helped me to grow in so many ways.

He has remained a mentor for me from a distance.

You are doing the same for many that you have led here at UH.

Thanks for your candor and vision. I continue to benefit from it.

re: Go to Grow

Mark Eimer — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:26:13 GMT

Ed,

Thank you so much for your unedited version of letting your son go and grow. My son just graduated high school and it is now his turn to go and grow. I appreciate the honesty in your blog and I too will be crying like a baby when my son leaves this fall. I also pray that all of the teachings and actions that I have shown his will guide his moral compass and encourage him down the right path.

re: Go to Grow

Brandon Marx — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:36:04 GMT

Wow. It never ceases to amaze me how you can take true, realistic, and powerful situations and apply it to work. You have done an incredible job of being one of those leaders who isn't afraid to let go and let grow. Not just in the workplace, but with your family...with me. I only hope I can be half as good of a dad as you, and in the same sense, I hope to channel all of the leadership you have shown into my own life as I strive to be a leader like you. Thank you for your encouragement and for the unending model you have been to me.