EARNESTNESS 101
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
I don’t really like being in the centre of attention. I’m not used to that. All my life I have been like the invisible girl at the back that no one sees or listens to.
Greta Thunberg (2003—) skipped school and inspired an international movement to fight climate change. Her concern stems from her belief that the government isn’t taking climate change seriously. She has become a leading voice, inspiring millions to join protests around the world. She has become the face of the youth climate movement. In the summer of 2018, Thunberg started sitting outside the Swedish parliament every Friday as part of a climate strike. On September 20, 2019, Thunberg led the largest climate strike in history.
Thunberg is so open about her diagnosis, the bio line on her Twitter page describes her as “16-year-old climate and environmental activist with Asperger’s.’’ Asperger’s, a neurological disorder characterized by difficulty with social and communication skills. It’s considered within the range of the autism spectrum, although those with Asperger’s typically have normal language development and normal-to-high IQs, so they’re regarded as “high functioning.’’
Thunberg is direct but earnest. Unlike trained politicians or book-touring authors with significant media-training, she sometimes searches for the right word. She answers the questions posed, not the ones she wished she’d been asked. She writes her speeches last minute. She shows her emotions. She ignores attacks and conspiracies—she’s clear about what’s in her control and what isn’t. She doesn’t want her efforts to be reduced to a “stunt.”
It is ironic that someone who shies from the limelight must stand squarely under it, and someone whose condition makes connection challenging, requires it to be heard. She’s received a lot of attacks, most regarding the speech she made at the UN. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that she’s made a mark on international politics. Thunberg is an important example that youth can be well-spoken, informed, influential, and very focused.
16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg joined Skavlan talk show in New York in September 2019. Watch the full interview here. Click the CC icon for English subtitles.
EARNESTNESS 101
Sincere and intense conviction. Being earnest, especially when times are tough, can galvanize connection.
Friendship, bonding, cooperation, and cohesion are essential core qualities enabling success. How? They inform us we cannot become successful unless we work well with others. Earnestness binds friendship, bonding, cooperation, and cohesion. Therefore, being earnest is essential for reaching success.
Being earnest might not make a friend, but it will most certainly keep one. It takes time to become trusted, but once a person knows that our word, character, and commitment have withstood life’s trials and tribulations, a firm connection can be established and maintained. It might even evolve into a friendship.
When we recognize that a connection (in the form of a trusted colleague or friend) during times of need when we see that their values don’t shift with every changing tide, we are far more likely to stand up for them—and vice versa.
In every sector—from the military to education, to technology, to healthcare, to sports teams—people will do more for an earnest and sincere leader than they will for an insincere one, especially when the pressure is high. Being earnest works the same way in work environments. People will do more for a manager who genuinely cares about them than they will for one who is using them as a stepping-stone for their career or better their record. When people know the leader cares about them, they give their personal best. Earnestness is the agent that brings this dynamic to life.
Achievement and recognition will distance us from some people, and it won’t be our fault. There are always some people who want to trip us, keep us down, and there are others who want to keep us from going up. Even benign neglect can cause damage. Those are not friendships based on earnestness.
Keeping people at a distance doesn’t have to be the norm for us. If we leave people floating, drifting, and drowning like debris in our wake, then we aren’t a success, regardless of the recognition the world gives us. Without earnestness, we will alienate people needlessly. With earnestness, we will have an abundance of connections and be one step closer to success.
How do we proceed earnestly, while keeping people connected to our cause?
PRACTICE
Consider the following questions:
Identify one incident in which you stood for what was right or truthful, but there was a cost that you had to pay.
When you make mistakes, how fast do you seek to repair or make amends?
What can you do to reduce the number of cracks you contribute to relationships, situations in which you participate?
When we practice, we must be earnest – honest, serious, and present. Our practice need not be hard. At some point, it becomes automatic. Over time, our day is not complete without it.
COMMIT
[ ] I commit myself to become an earnest person in every area of my life, even when there is a cost.
FURTHER READING/ WATCHING
Interview Greta Thunberg (in English): "I'm a realist. I see facts." 3/30/2019 for ARD (German television under public law) Interviewer: Anne Will
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference: The groundbreaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist who has become the voice of a generation, including her historic address to the United Nations. In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a global movement, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Her speeches, collected here, have made history across the globe, from the United Nations to Capitol Hill and mass street protests, her book is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel.
Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis: The story of Greta’s family and told through the voice of her mother, this book tells the story of how they fought their problems at home by taking global action. It tells how Greta decided to go on strike from school, igniting a worldwide rebellion. When Greta Thunberg was eleven, her parents and her little sister were facing a crisis in their own home. Greta had stopped eating and speaking, and her parents had reconfigured their lives to care for her. Desperate and searching for answers, her parents discovered what was at the heart of Greta’s distress: her imperiled future on a rapidly heating planet. Steered by Greta’s determination to understand the truth and generate change, they began to see the deep connections between their own suffering and the planet’s.
In Her Words…
"The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say - we will never forgive you." —UN Climate Summit, New York, 23 September 2019
“My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.”—Greta Thunberg, at UN Summit in New York
"We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable." —UN Youth Climate Summit, New York City, 21 September 2019
"We are striking because we have done our homework, and they have not." —Climate protest in Hamburg, Germany, 1 March 2019
"Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago." —COP24, Poland, 4 December 2018
"I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is." —World Economic Forum, Davos, 24 January 2019
"The moment we decide to fulfill something, we can do anything." —Houses of Parliament, UK, 23 April 2019
"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you're winning!"—Instagram, 31 August 2019
"You must unite behind the science. You must take action. You must do the impossible. Because giving up can never ever be an option." —US Congress, Washington DC, 17 September 2019
"We deserve a safe future. And we demand a safe future. Is that really too much to ask?" —Global Climate Strike, New York, 20 September 2019
"Right now we are the ones who are making a difference. If no one else will take action then we will. It should not be that way. We should not be the ones who are fighting for the future. And yet, here we are."—Global Climate Strike, New York, 20 September 2019
"Change is coming, whether you like it or not. " —Instagram, 21 September 2019
What we don’t see on the resumes we review or the job descriptions we want is the litany of emotional entanglements we bring to our roles, uninvited, to the team and organizations we work in. Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves in the presence of setbacks. In short, those who learn lead.
Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.
References:
Motte, Warren. (2009). Playing in Earnest. New Literary History. 40. 25-42.
Work and Play: A Conversation with Warren Motte—WWB Daily