I think we could all agree that it’s been a long (long!) time leading up to yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration.
Regardless of who you voted for or if you are happy or upset about the outcome, the US Presidential Inauguration is one of our country’s most illustrious rituals, and I think we’d be missing out if we didn’t see how it can help us all become great human leaders.
Here are some of the most impactful:
- The outgoing president leaves a letter with some words of wisdom for the incoming president.
- The White House staff presents the outgoing president with a gift on their last morning. For example, President Obama received a hand-carved box with two flags in it: the one flown on his Inauguration Day and the one flown on his final morning in office.
- The presidential greeting and handoff between the outgoing president and the incoming president. After this, the presidents take their ride to the capitol together in “The Beast” (the presidential limo) where they have their chat. This is the only time they’ll be alone.
But the Inauguration wasn’t the only event yesterday that was ripe with rituals. Yesterday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a U.S. holiday and national day of service—had people out participating in various service projects.
As PBS notes, “Just about every major city and suburb has some revelry the weekend before, including parades, street festivals and concerts. The various service projects run the gamut — community clean-up, packing food boxes, donating blood.”
Why do these rituals matter? Not only would we miss them if they suddenly went away, but as I wrote in my second book, Rituals Roadmap, rituals give us what I call the “Three P’s:
- A connection to Purpose
- A sense of Psychological Safety
- A boost in Performance
Great human leaders like you can use rituals as a tool to ground your teams and organizations and remind people that, regardless of their opinions, parties, or background, we’re still human. As the great Martin Luther King Jr. himself said, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
How’s that for a new year’s challenge?
If you want to check out more about how to transform everyday routines into workplace magic, grab a copy of my bestselling book Rituals Roadmap or my article in Harvard Business Review, “The Hidden Power of Workplace Rituals.”
1/21/25
