At the beginning of anything new there is often a burst of inspiration or vision. And then time passes and often that inspiration and vision wanes or gets lost. What do you have in place to create a sustainable relationship with your leadership vision?
Leading from vision is a practice that is re-committed to regularly. It is not a New Year sensation. It is a lifestyle choice. It is a sacred contract with yourself. Transformational leaders organize their lives and their work in a way that radically supports the vision they intend to fulfill.
If you are a C-suite leader, founder, or high performer leading an organization, then it is essential to prioritize stillness, structure, and support for you and your vision. These three ingredients give you the directive and receptive range that leadership vision requires.
Let’s talk about the first of those three ingredients—stillness—possibly the toughest one for most leaders.
Very often my clients struggle to create time for stillness. Either it feels like something they’ll squeeze in after all of their demands, or stillness lives as an aspiration that they will someday accomplish once they hit a particular business goal or their kids are out of the house.
I’d like for you to recontextualize stillness. Consider that stillness is the necessary foundation for everything you are creating in your life and work. Stillness is the foundation for every powerful, impactful, lasting transformation that has ever existed. It is the place from which good things come.
So what does that mean? What does stillness look like? How do you create it, access it, know it?
One of my very favorite books that I recommend frequently is Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. I have given away dozens of copies and think of it as required reading. It’s simple. It’s short. It’s profound. And you can read it over and over again and pick up new gems. If you’re ready to take on transformational leadership, stillness may be the next practice to unlock your expansion.
When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.
When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Eckhart Tolle
Stillness is your essence. When everything gets stripped away. When the stimulus of the outside world goes away, what is left?
Stillness is where and when you can access vision.
If you avoid stillness, that’s good information—there’s something you’re running from or avoiding and you are allowing that to be in charge. If during the practice of meditation or the quiet moments of your life you find yourself nagged by neuroses, then you know you have some untangling to do. Most of us do.
Start small. Accessing stillness occurs in micro moments. If you don’t already have a regular meditation practice, don’t all of a sudden commit yourself to an hour a day. Five minutes is fine. We’re building muscle so you can hear what really matters to you and what you want to share with the world.
The team that you form and lead from stillness will experience less agitation, drama, frustration, and conflict.
A team operating from stillness and led by vision naturally focuses on the most important things—the work that turns your big ideas into reality.
Most leaders and teams waste tons of time spinning around things that make very little difference. They may use big words and complex concepts but when all is said and done very frequently leaders and teams waste loads of energy on the wrong things.
You have a vision. You are a leader with a unique contribution to make. I want to help you access that and bring it more boldly to your team, your organization, and the world. When leading from vision and standing in stillness is your norm, life gets really fun. You deserve that.
I work with C-suite leaders, founders, and high performers ready to transform their impact and realize their dreams. Find out more about working with me 1:1 or joining my Transformational Leadership Circle.
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