The Calling of a Great Leader

23/04

Calling

We call all the time. I receive calls and send calls out. There are many types of call. For instance, what is it like when I ‘call you down’? Like that? Which form do you like more, to be called down or to call another person down? When someone is ‘calling down’ another, what is behind that? My guess it is not exactly respect. How often do you use this variant of calling? How come?

Thinking more on the ‘calling someone down’ it strikes me that I, as the caller, am hurting somehow, at least that is my memory of those times. Taking it one step further, the likely reaction is not too friendly which has a result like, “oh yeah, well zing boom bang to you!”. Now what? When I receive a calling down, what if I skip this part? What do I need to understand in order to choose another response?

I can also call someone out. This is high noon at the OK Corral and you’d better have a gun. The reason can be that I have just had it with you. It is a threat, often delivered with a few labels and insults to get a rise out of you. Calling you out means I have given up on you, done, not one more concession. It can also be that I am terrified of you, I feel inferior around you. Notice the feeling as the deliverer or as the recipient. Hmmm, how effective is this form of calling? It is not encouragement though the words might later be argued to have been that. Not true.

Another way is to call someone forth. When I call you forth there is an underlying faith that there is more to you, that you are worthy, that something ‘higher’ is in you and that it would be welcomed if you brought more of yourself forth. Calling forth is a Divine invitation to shine. How would that feel, to be called forth? A little scary perhaps but really gah gah awesome, high, like a flower turning towards the sun. Yeah, I want that. Effective ‘calling forth’ is the alchemy of the most accomplished business Leader

Lots of ways to call forth. Lore tells us that Henry Kissinger, in his first interactions with new staff, would ask, when being offered the results of some task, “and before I take this, can you please assure me that it is your very best work?”. Well, don’t know about you, but I’d take it back and go through it with a fine toothed comb before offering it again. From the get go Mr Kissinger called forth the very best in his staff. No insult, no demand, just a question.

In the book The Ultimate Question (Reichheld) the purchaser is asked, “on a scale of 1 to 10, how willing are you to recommend our product to others?”. If the answer was an 8 or lower the company had more to do. The company that asks such a question calls itself forth. If I really want what I say I want, what am I therefore willing to do more of, to do less of? That is an example of calling myself forth. No doubt about being able, just a question that assumes you can be more. So, is today the day?

Joseph Seiler MCC