Leadership - the “Cool Strip”
Jul 3rd, 2010 by Administrator
When people talk about leadership they tend to focus on people who are perceived as leaders on the global or national stage, whether in politics, business, sport or any other arena. These leaders are often seen as ’special’ or ‘talented’, somehow above everyday life and living. Yet the reality is very different; successful leadership is mostly about so-called ‘ordinary people’ and their stories. Leadership is a special kind of action, not a special kind of person.
Part of our process to develop our leadership capacity is about us taking a big step back and looking at the whole picture of what we do so we can run it through the frame of ‘What is it and what is it for…..? These questions will take you into the area of values and beliefs, the kinds of connections and structures you can create around you, the kind of culture and environment you choose to work in and sometimes even create. All themes I have covered in this Blog in the past. Underpinning it all will be the core value and intent to make a positive difference in whatever way and environment you choose to do it.
This stopping and looking is important – we all live and work in a world that is essentially made up of a variety of interconnected systems, all acting both as an individual system and as a part of the whole and therefore affecting each other and the whole. As you know, the world is getting increasingly complex! Doing what we have always done is no longer an option, the world changes around us and we need to respond to the changes knowing that we will never be able to stand still again, much as we might like to. Standing still is not an option – if we try to, we will simply slip backwards.
Stopping to look is not standing still – it will help us develop new understanding to create new strategies from which we can then act differently.
Here is an appropriate story from the North-West tribal culture in the USA, turned into poetry by the American poet David Wagoner. In the story the young boy is afraid of getting lost in the dense forest that is all around his tribal land. The elder responds:
‘Stand still. The trees and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you……….
……..Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.’
Whether we consider ourselves to be leaders or not, we need to stop and listen with new ears, see with new eyes, get in touch with our intuition to know the ‘powerful stranger’ that is the world we live and work in.