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10 Thoughts
on Leadership
1. Simultaneously experience
and witness the situation.
It increases the speed and
accuracy of any necessary
adjustments for ease and
positive outcome.
2. Keep it simple.
Ask, "What is the simplest,
most pleasurable way to
achieve sustainable,
outstanding results?"
3. Be transparent, vulnerable.
Look for each person's gift.
Emulate the best in people;
contemplate the worst as a
reflection of something in
ourselves that we have yet
to learn.
4. Acknowledge that learning
and newness can be awkward,
and can take extra time and
energy. Do it anyway.
It's a good investment.
5. Leadership is one role
amidst a team of leaders.
Do your part, and make a
place for others to shine.
6. Trust yourself.
Create a team you trust.
Earn each other's trust
again every day.
7. Model growth and teamwork.
Inspire and support
discovery and success
versus control outcome.
8. Who we are, what we do,
and how we do it, always
makes a difference.
Include yourself with others.
9. Lead with the Golden Rule.
Lead as you wish to be led.
10.Rest, eat, play and pray,
every day.
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Experience and perspective. Being in the moment while simultaneously witnessing it.Playing the game while also noticing what’s occurring. These help us make tiny adjustments, or wholesale changes, that can keep us in the flow of things. Most days this is easy for me. And sometimes, for whatever reason, I lose my footing or stretch beyond my rest or deep pleasure and all bets are off. The game is stopped until a new play is called.
I like to notice things before, during and after they are occurring. Now, as I reflect on our journey to Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, I wonder what might have made for an even smoother, more pleasurable experience. And yes, my focus is on ease and excellence. For while we can learn from everything, even the most difficult, I also think, let’s have it as fruitful and pleasurable as possible.
Most often, what we see in each other and around us is actually what we see in ourselves. So as I reflect on the development and execution of our journey, I notice the following in me. I see the times when I am growing beyond my existing experience. I notice doing something new often requires an extra investment of time and energy, both in the doing, and in bearing the awkwardness of being “new” again. I value this growth as a worthwhile investment.
I notice that I dig deeply into my love and personal relationships to create new journeys. I notice my occasional uncertainty about people, wondering if they will meet me and those participating with us in a way that I feel will honor and deepen the relationships I am calling upon. When there’s even the slightest quiver in my trust, clarity or receptivity, I notice my faith and right action take a downward spiral in fear. My grip tightens, in turn leading to exhaustion or overwhelm. When this happens, my and our resources get unnecessarily depleted.
I notice the part of me that can feel on the line to create something extraordinary, because I can, and do. It’s who I am. And when I create from an inner sense of on the line rather than from pleasure, trust, receptivity and clarity, I move slightly off the center point that allows me to both experience and witness what is occurring.
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A bit of my ability to adjust in the moment is lost. When off center, I become more focused on what would make something great, and less on what I also need throughout the process.
Conversely, when I include myself in the project while also maintaining leadership, partnership has a chance to flourish, and I have more energy to do what I and we intend with greater ease, less effort and richer results.
So what might we as leaders do to increase our energy, pleasure, trust, receptivity and clarity?
- Engage more often in activities that feed our souls, open our hearts, strengthen our bodies —walk, read, sing, play, pray, eat healthy food, listen to music, be alone, talk with friends.
- Even more often and openly discuss our needs and concerns with our teams, asking their support and input, naming our experience, jointly discovering and agreeing upon both the origin of any difficulty and its resolution — not by our singular definition, but by our collective definition.
Thankfully, I know I can trust myself. This faith always carries me. When I am rested and refreshed, I remember all the skills, love and resources that have for more than three decades assisted me in helping people create great things together throughout the world.
I’m reminded that we’re never too experienced or too accomplished to remember the basics. I remember to come back to faith, in myself and in the power of what we can create together through presence, communication and cooperation. Peace."
© Copyright Kathy Eckles, M.A. |
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