Lead with Success
I've been working with a new company to develop a comprehensive program to grow and support their new leaders and high potentials. And so I asked myself, if I only had one conversation to impart the most powerful insight I've had on leadership, what would that be.
Look within for your answers.
The diagram below is what came from this reflection, and what I'd like to share with you today.
As an overarching theme, I want them to know the breadth and depth of what they bring to their role from day one. This doesn't mean that technical leadership skills are not important - competence in our craft is a critical component to develop. But, we're building these skills on a powerful foundation of innate capacities. I want them to get a feel for this, to see it for themselves, to know that they can depend on it. I want them to know how well they are made to lead their careers, businesses and life.
The foundation for successful leadership comes in our innate, freely flowing capacities for presence, awareness, empathy and wisdom. Looking in this direction animates these areas to the forefront and leadership becomes a natural connected unfolding, even if it doesn't always feel that way.
Let's look at each innate capacity more closely.
Presence is the here and now.
It's realizing that we are only ever living this moment, the one that we are leading now. That our fears and hopes all live in our minds as concepts, not as life. And while in and of themselves fears and hopes are no issue at all, believing their materiality and importance so often takes us on a magic carpet ride that feels scary and stressful. This is useful to see. Our leadership shifts when we realize that imaginary carpet rides are NOT reality. Reality, is only ever now, as a continuous flow of energy unfolding around us. When we show up to reality, the one that is now, we come alive, the system is tuned, and we are ready for anything that arises.
Wisdom is our real-time, built-in response system.
It's our asked and answered. It's our guidance, our knowing beyond the business case, strategy and facts. It's what tells us what needs our attention, has words come out of our mouths and has me writing this to you today. It's the space before thought, where infinite possibility lives. It's the intelligence of life beneath what we see. This guidance is a leaders best friend, guiding us on what to do next, who to talk to, what to say and where to direct our creative forces. It works in the moment, just in time, to meet what is. It's specialty is real life, not magic carpet rides.
And just as presence has the leader within see what is here and now, wisdom has her meet life's energy with her own.
Awareness is the endless evolution of leadership.
It's the ability to see fresh and new. It's the infinite ways to see what is occurring around us. It's the ability to be in the biggest catastrophe of our careers one second and in a beautiful feeling the next. It's the kaleidoscope of our life and special effects department of our reality. It's seeing one thing, one way with all our heart and soul, and in the next moment, a new reality appearing. Understanding this capacity to see anew, is a leader's most powerful magic trick. It allows us the humility to know that there is always more to see, the ability to see ourselves and to place ourselves in the shoe's of others.
It's this innate spontaneous potential to see anew that allows us to hold things lightly, continue to grow and to see the same old world in a whole new light .
Empathy is you before form.
It’s what’s left when we are not engaged in the circular nature of our thinking. It's the care and peace that is underneath the struggle and conflict. It’s the natural connection that occurs between people when we show up with little on our minds. It's the innate care between thoughts. The still waters between waves. The you beneath your story. It's what allows a leader to build trust and connection. It's what has teams come alive under a film of togetherness. It's our shared humanity. The why beneath it all.
Imagine a world where leaders are intimately aware of the equipment they're born with for the adventure of leadership.
A leader that knows that now is where leadership happens.
A leader that's familiar with their built-in, real-time response system perfect to handle any challenge the world throws their way.
A leader that explores the never ending fresh and new views of reality, rather than getting stuck with one skewed version.
A leader that appreciates that "all we are is peace, love, and wisdom, and the power to create the illusion that we are not" ~ Jack Pransky