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Leadership is not granted. Nor is it given. Leadership is not defined by title, role, or position. It has nothing to do with how much money you make, how old or young you are, or where you were born. Leadership isn’t related to the accolades you have received. It isn’t dependent on charisma or class.
Leadership is developed. It is chosen.
Leadership is cultivated. It is an eternal practice of refinement. It is the greatest path to self- awareness. Your leadership must be discovered by you.
The definition of leadership that I use comes from my good friends Diana Chapman and Jim Dethmer of The Conscious Leadership Group:
Leadership is the act of taking responsibility for your influence.
We have generations of experience witnessing leaders use their influence to gain power, control, domination, and authority. We have all been led by leaders who prefer power over versus power with.
The indicators of how flawed our predominant paradigm of leadership is are endless. You can look to the economy, education, environment, government, and systems of any kind to see what’s not working.
It is time for a leadership overhaul. A facelift won’t do it.
Leadership as we know it must be entirely reimagined.
Your leadership is needed. There are no more knights in shining armor. Elected officials aren’t going to save you—they haven’t yet! The CEO of a company can’t be the ultimate party responsible for the fate of a business. And your parents aren’t ultimately the reason your life is the way it is.
This is your life. You get to create it as you most desire it to be.
You are a leader whether you like it or not. You’re influencing people and places all the time in ways that are either beneficial, destructive, or listless.
Leadership is a democracy. It is available to whomever wants access to it. And there really is enough to go around.
The challenges we are facing today require human beings to realize their agency, capacity, and potential. We have to interrupt our habitual patterns of behavior that blame and criticize the “powers that be” and start to wake up to our responsibility in the circumstances we prefer and don’t prefer.
The communities, businesses, families, and marriages we have today are a direct result of the degree of influence we choose to exercise.
My fourteen-year-old daughter is a competitive volleyball player. Watching her games is such a clear demonstration of the human ability to influence outcomes based on our relationship to circumstances. Occasionally her team may play a team that is markedly better in which case skill has a considerable impact on the outcome but more frequently the outcome of a volleyball game is informed by the relationship the team has to their influence—on one another, on the game, on the fans, on the energy of the room. Their influence alters how each play unfolds. The context that they hold is driving the results. When any team owns their influence, they’re excelling. When they forget or lose their relationship to their influence they are often falling behind, lacking energy, and ultimately losing.
Because we have been inundated with fairytales, rom-coms, get-rich-quick schemes, and fast food we have lost sight of the great value in developing ourselves. We all want quick answers and easy solutions but truth be told those don’t last.
No one is coming to save you or me. You are it. I am it.
We can work together and create new policies, new practices, new systems, new structures, new agreements, and new ways.
Creating a new way is the game of Transformational Leadership. It is the work I bring to the world.
The definition of transformation that I rely exclusively on is rooted in etymology and informed by the decades of personal experience and extensive training I have in ontology, mysticism, and business.
Trans: to rise above or go beyond
Form: present state, conditions, or circumstances
A Transformational Leader is one who understands their influence, takes responsibility for it, and reliably goes beyond the current state of things. Transformational Leaders are not stopped by the limitations of what is right before them. They are experts at seeing beyond the current context and imagining new possibilities.
Transformational Leaders are able to be in the world as it stands and yet not get bogged down by it. They are effectively working in multiple dimensions of reality. They have developed the skills to benefit from reason and logic while not over-indexing on it. They are not stuck in the competitive mind of winners and losers but rather rely heavily on their creative capacity.
Human beings are fatigued by the old routine of leadership, including their own. It’s taxing. It’s cerebral. It’s led to unnecessary suffering and impedes real success.
Transformational Leadership is needed in every corner of society. If you are in a leadership role and feel the burden of your current experience I would love to introduce you to a new way.
If your team is overly dependent on your presence or their practices are antiquated and ineffective let us know so we can develop your team to best support your needs.
Your ability to transform the circumstances and condition of your organization will have an impact that goes far beyond your imagination.
The world needs Transformational Leaders, now more than ever.
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