Leadership – Okeefe – Minka – Essential

What do leadership, Georgia O’Keefe, a Minka farm house and the concept of essential have in common? Well, a few years ago, my partner and I spent an afternoon with an architect to determine what would be the best way to duplex and remodel a very large 1907 house with only the Victorian ‘lace’ left of its original design. After much fussing and dithering, we showed him a series of slides and photographs of what influenced our tastes and life style. When we had opened the last book to the last marker and the laptop had been scrolled down through the last images – we waited quietly for his response.

He swiftly surveyed the material in front of him “I think I understand . . .  what you would like is just a little shelter from the rain!” I exhale and grin – he had got it! Then he frowned and glanced around the house we wanted to renovate. “This existing structure may be difficult to turn into a 200 year old Minka Japanese farm house though – how far do you want to go in that direction?”

This posting about leadership is very much like that conversation. My question is – what would leadership be like if we stripped it to the bare essentials? In The Japanese House: Architecture and Interiors (2000), Norboru Murata and Alexandra Black trace Japanese aesthetics to Laotse, an ancient Taoist scholar. Laotse believed that “the true beauty of a room lay in the vacant space enclosed by the roof and walls, rather than the roof and walls themselves” (p. 6). The influence of Laotse’s philosophy led to a minimalism or restraint in Japanese interior space. Georgia O’Keeffe used a similar approach in choosing her external creative environment – the New Mexico desert. In both instances, the paring back of influences was purposefully sought, in order to allow the mind and imagination of the beholder to complete the picture in the mood of the moment.

This action is not necessarily about creating a place of comfort or ease. When O’Keeffe was interviewed, by WNET/Thirteen Production (1977), about how she spent all day from early morning until evening painting in this formidably hot location, her response was “Hot!? Of course it was hot!”  Again, it is the emptiness and pure functionality of the Minka farmhouse that is first apparent. When we are placed into situations with only the merest suggestion of colour, pattern or texture we must reach inside ourselves to discover patterns and structure and design. At the same time, the essential elements are strong, graceful and limiting. What if we presented an environment for leadership with the same spare purposeful intent?  What might that be like?

Questions for thought:

What might be the experience of your leadership if it was pared back to its essential elements?

What is it about the essentials you offer that will attract and keep attracting others?

What would it be like for you to be present to your own rich emptiness – an emptiness that you invite others to enter?

All the best!

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

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Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
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