The Sound of Silence – Are you Disturbed?
By: Loretta Biscaro Smith
September 2019
Another meeting has just been completed. Numbers weren’t met, disappointment is everywhere so it wasn’t a pleasant meeting at all. The data shows the misses – they can be traced to sectors, groups and right down to individuals. We are in a culture where someone must be to blame. The boss is frustrated, angry and voices raise, in deflection and in blame. Questions are being asked yet the sound of silence prevails.
Finally the meeting ends and each leave with their own individual thoughts of inadequacy, frustrations, defeat and dreams of being able to work in a better environment are just dreams.
Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon scene. We have all been part of this, some of us may have even been the leader – the instigator of this – it exists.
If you were like me, in the evening your mind, still engaged in the would have and could haves and mired in if only. Our rants are silent, further deflating our spirit. We whisper to our inner soul. Waiting for that flash of a neon light
Simon and Garfunkel’s lyrics come to mind: “hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again, Because a vision softly creeping, Left its seeds while I was sleeping and the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within the sound of silence”
Those silence is deafening. The mind won’t shut down. What could have been done to make this different? Where was the moment, what were the words, the signal that could have changed all of this? Where was the “flash of the neon light that could split the night and touch that sound of silence”?
“Silence like a cancer grows” and when we choose we see it, feel it, recognize it in the disengagement, the lack of trust, the absence of drive, curiosity, belief in the people we work with, the company we show up to each and every day we realize how toxic our environment truly is. Why bother – where is the neon god, the white knight that will save us?
“The words of the prophets may be written on the subway walls” – the posters that highlight the great products made by great companies, but are they really great. Are the subway walls the blogs written by people that have broken free of the silence and are speaking truth to power? Are the subway walls the books, the keynotes that provide the guidance we need?
Can you hear the whispers? They are there and getting louder. People are talking, they are speaking the words out loud and others are truly listening and they are disturbing the sounds of silence. Are you?
There is a change happening. We are disturbed by the sounds of silence. Silence isn’t the norm. Use your voice, take that walk through vulnerability and come out the other end and disturb the sound of silence.
If you want to learn more about being A Courageous Leader – contact us for coaching, corporate group training or register for our two day program focused on Leader Character, Principles of Leadership, Habits of the Trusted Leader and ending with a personal roadmap of honing your leadership skills to becoming the courageous Trusted Leader at: loretta@genesis-em.com
Loretta Biscaro Smith is the founder of Genesis Executive Management Inc. A consulting firm that specializes in, Leadership Development, and Executive Coaching. loretta@genesis-em.com
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made
And the sign flashed its warning,
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls”
And whispered in the sounds of silence