With gratitude to Peter Senge, who talks often about
decentralizing the role of leadership in order to enhance the capacity of all
people to work toward healthier human systems, I offer these observations,
insights and experiences.
As leaders, we are acutely aware of trying to meet the needs
of multiple constituencies – directors, associates, colleagues, employees,
customers, and others in the larger community. We have to learn how to receive, with a measure of
appropriate grace and humility, invitations, requests, suggestions,
recommendations, ideas, information, bad news, and demands. The challenge is to attend to the
smallest of details while remaining connected to a larger vision, mission and
purpose and representing the organization as the main spokesperson,
cheerleader, sage and guide. And,
we must not let any of the roles we perform go to our head and allow us to
think that we know all the answers.
In fact, it’s very good if we can ask the right questions and help
people clarify their own intentions and goals and be sure that we know our own.
I remarked and wrote recently that I found no particular virtue in
being busy and that I often marvel at how people seem to measure their
effectiveness by how full their calendars are. What is essential for a leader, according to Senge is “to
learn how to manage the precious resource of paying attention.” I believe that what he means by that is that before
venturing out and engaging all those other people, places and events, the
leader needs to venture inside, and listen, to pay attention and be still. It is here where we will find the
resources and possibilities that will enable and empower us to reach out and
connect with those others.
When we pay careful attention to our selves, to others, to
the legitimate and genuine needs around us, we are in a much better condition
and position to challenge and resist the status quo, to take creative and
intelligent risks, and to encourage and support others.
This means we must carve out the time and place for that
reflection, contemplation and renewal, be it solo or with a group of
like-minded folks with similar needs and priorities.
When we trust our own personal core beliefs and values, our
intuition and senses, and our inner teacher, we can learn how to deepen our
connections to what matters most.
We are confronted and confounded by many choices every day,
not only for this day or that but for the weeks and months ahead. Do we pay attention and give time and
energy to every hangnail that comes in the door or across our desk? Do we allow our days, or our lives, to
become fragmented by everyone else’s concerns, or can we find a way to be in
touch with a larger purpose, still attend to the details, and communicate a larger
concern? Helping others frame
their work and give them a larger context could be a great service, not only to
them but to those others whom they serve as well.
Living close to the land in northern New Mexico, I continue
to learn a lot about the uniqueness of creation. Every animal, stream, forest, and tree is unique. No two animals or trees or branches or
streams are the same. As human
beings, we are expressions of that same creation and just as those expressions
are essential parts of the eco-system, we can show our uniqueness too. We would not ever think of a tree or a
bush as being lost, or confused,
so why should we be any different?
We may forget from time to time or we may even get lost on occasion but
if we remember who we are and what we are about, and from whence we have come,
we can find our way back. We can
let go of the “delusion of separateness” so that we can learn to express
ourselves in a way that is more connected to our nature. We must let our own creation find us
and in so doing live and work more completely, more congruently.
I can assure you that if we participate in this exercise,
besides knowing of our vulnerability and imperfection, we will come to our
rightful place in the world and be very much at home with ourselves. For many
of us it has been a continual journey of inner exploration and discovery in
order to be somewhat useful for outer exploration and discovery. None of us can know the end from what
was begun, thus we have to trust the evolving and unfolding while perhaps
nurturing it along the way. We can
only contribute to the extent that we have developed the inner resources to do
so. Therefore it makes such great
good sense to find the place, take the time and pay attention to the
development of the inner world of being.
It is here that we will know not only what we can do, but
more importantly, who we are.
When we discover our authentic selves, we can
express the uniqueness that is ours and ours alone, and we will then be able to
fulfill the imperative from the Oracle of Delphi of Know Thyself. Equipped with such knowledge we
are then prepared to know others in the context of meaningful, productive
relationships. And that is what
makes all the
