An old silent pond.
A frog jumps in.
Splash.
And then... silence again.
This simple haiku by Matsuo Bashō has stayed with me for years!! 😇
I was flipping through an old diary recently when I came across this and it made me pause.
It reminded me of the lives we lead as leaders.
We often spend our days responding to splashes—a difficult conversation, a missed target, a critical piece of feedback, a reorganisation, an unexpected resignation.
The splash feels urgent. Important. Sometimes overwhelming.
But the haiku reminds us of something profound:
The pond does not become the splash.
It absorbs the disturbance and returns to its nature.
Many leaders unknowingly begin to identify with the latest ripple in the water -
🍀 A failed presentation becomes "I am not good enough."
🍀 A setback becomes "I am failing."
🍀 A criticism becomes "I am not respected."
Yet these are events. Not identity!!
The leaders who create the greatest impact are often those who cultivate an inner stillness that allows them to respond without becoming the disturbance itself.
They recognise that turbulence is part of leadership, but it does not have to define their state of being.
Perhaps what I have learnt from my coaching career is that leadership maturity is not measured by how many splashes we experience, but by how quickly we return to the stillness from which wisdom, perspective, and choice emerge.
So here is a question worth sitting with:
What is the splash you are carrying today—and what would change if you remembered that you are the pond, not the ripple? 😊 🙏