For some reason this stuck with me. It went deeper into me than all the other platitudes about commitment I’ve heard, and it got me reflecting. I noticed with clarity the areas of my life where a lack of commitment was having an effect, a pull down effect. There were some glaring areas. Yet, at the same time, I could see the massive effect that bringing full commitment to the situation would have. It was transformative. There was in that moment a renewed sense of possibility, and it was beautiful to witness.

What is it about commitment that makes it such a powerful act of creation? I’m not speaking about a halfhearted commitment, but one made with the fullness of our being. A complete commitment. No wavering, no humming and hawing.

And yet so many commitments we make lack, well, commitment. It’s as though we are hedging our bets. I see my mind playing this game, thinking: if I commit fully to this thing or that person and it doesn’t work out, then I’ve lost out on something else. So I hedge my bet, back off some, and then maybe if the one way doesn’t work out the way I had hoped it would, then I can always go the other way. Is this me wanting to have my cake and eat it too?

The reality is, when we fully commit to something or someone, inherently we give up other opportunity. That is the nature of commitment. It is a choice, and choosing is a power that is often overlooked. Choosing is an art.

I’ve seen some extraordinary examples of commitment recently. I’m sure you have to. It’s awesome to behold, isn’t it?

This year Taiwanese ultramarthon runner Kevin Lin ran 10,000 kilometers from Turkey to China through torrid environment in 150 days. That’s two marathons per day for 150 straight days! Every time I go for a short run in my neighborhood I try to get my head around the size of that commitment.

My parents who celebrated 45 years of marriage. An exemplary model of what a marriage partnership is all about.

I recently came across Alain Moulis’s work Ancient Spirits at an art gallery (see inset photo). Alain spent 7 months painting this portrait of an American Indian chief. Up close the detail is mind blowing. It is gorgeous. The curator of the gallery told me he spends time each day simply getting lost in a small part of the painting. More than the commitment to paint this one portrait – this is about what it took to become the master who could paint that one portrait in 7 months.

These are some examples of personal internal commitment at its finest. It’s not solely about succeeding. Success is a relative external marker used to judge whether the commitment was “worth it” or whether the level of commitment was sufficient to the task. Commitment itself is an internal attitude that is itself a creative force. That is what makes it an attribute of masters and of mastery.

I have a client Bryan, the president of a growing metering company in eastern Canada. He has recently made a life-shifting, personal internal commitment and I want to share it with you. Take a moment to read this. I love this as much as I love the man Bryan and all that he stands for in this world. And we can all make such bold acts of personal commitment, to show up to life fully.

This will be my final Unusual Leading newsletter because I have too made a personal internal commitment—the biggest commitment of my life–to turn my life over to my highest calling and to live and serve fearlessly and without limits from that place. For me, it is a massive commitment. A little trepidation? Definitely. Will I miss out on some things in life? Quite possibly. But what an act of creation it will be.

——-

P.S.  If after reading this you feel like you’d like a little more inspiration in making your own internal personal commitment, watch this: TBOLITNFL (long version recommended). It’s the Deuce Lutui story as told by Steve Hardison.

What is unknown is what will follow these words—at this point, for both of us. For this article I have no clear idea at all, at most a vague concept. What I know is that I’m compelled to write, so I am putting my fingers to the keyboard and letting it flow. What I can promise you that there will be something here for both of us to understand. Heck, it might be of a life changing magnitude! But neither of us will know that unless we take that first step. So let’s go.

Clichés aside, at some point in our lives we are all asked to move courageously into the unknown. No question, no hesitation, just move because you know it is the right move.

I have spent a some time these last few months learning about where our world—this big beautiful blue planet of ours—is potentially heading. Thanks to some good friends and extraordinary resources, I’m seeing with much greater clarity and knowledge the Shift that is taking place, and the massive changes in store. In hindsight, I now see that the signs are everywhere, but it takes some effort and focus to see how it all connects, and to see the beauty in it all.

The fear around what is going on is palpable. If the markets were a dog, they’d be running skittish around the yard. When your dog runs skittish around the yard, what does it tell you? Is it a sign that something is amiss, and best you take a look around? Or…ignore it, just a thing that dogs do on occasion.

And that is what many of us are doing—ignoring, or choosing not to see what is there to see. In this shift, as systems crumble around us to make way for the emergence of something even greater, much is being revealed about our past and our potentials.

Veils are being lifted, and we can far more clearly see what lies behind. We can see the manipulation, the powerful puppet masters at work, their grand designs for a new world order a giant blueprint long in the making.  And on the other end of the color spectrum, if you look hard enough and listen quietly enough, you can see the celestial artisans at play, energizing and magnetizing and lighting up the grid, opening the channels for the realization of our extraordinary potential.

Do you see all this? Do you know you have a role in this?

It is all there in black and white, the dance of the light and the dark. While the puppet masters scheme for a world in which power is centralized in the hands of a few, a force of great magnitude shines brightly as it calls out to each and everyone of us to make a choice—to become truly engaged.

Yet the truth is, so many of us are not engaged. We don’t want to know the truth. Or if we do, we shrug that powerless shrug, hoping and possibly praying for the best. What can I possibly do?

Yet this diminishes the magnitude of the shift that upon us, and your potential. What is unfolding is far greater, far more magnificent than the masters of the new world order could ever imagine. It is so much more than the engineered collapse of economy, it is the collapse of the old consciousness and the ascendance of our planet into a whole new level of vibration…and every living thing upon the face of this earth will be affected.

So what is your role? What can you do?

The beauty is you have a choice. Simply put, there is light and there is dark. Now choosing dark does not mean you support darkness. It means you choose to remain in the dark, to disengage, to shrug your shoulders and get back to your life as it is. Don’t ask me to change, awaken, or evolve. Just let me get back to things.

To choose light is not just to root for the “good guys” (this isn’t Star Wars!).  It is, in fact, the higher path precisely because you are being called to awaken, and to live from that awakened state. This takes effort, commitment, discipline, and the courage to live in the unknown; to walk without clear direction, to trust in That Which Can Be Trusted, to know that your life is about so much more than just living day to day. To choose light is to learn how to elevate your vibration and to allow love and light to permeate your very being so that your consciousness supports the entry of our world into its potential…as you emerge into yours.

Ahhhhhh….

I realize this is a blog on leadership…and that is to whom I am speaking. You who are capable of leading are being called to this. We have no more need for leaders who portend to serve while in fact serving themselves or their hidden masters.

We have a need for leaders who understand that the way forward begins with an energetic integrity, who are willing to look within and peel away the layers that stand in the way of the fullest expression of Self, who are willing to attune to a quiet voice as old as time itself and allow it to guide their actions.

But…where will this take me? What will I be asked to do? Will I be safe?

Welcome to the unknown! This is the adventure! It is Indiana Jones stepping off the cliff and into the void…and the first stone on the invisible path appearing underfoot. As then does the next.

Because on another level, what is unknown is known.

So it caught my attention the following day when one of my Facebook friends changed his profile picture to that of Canada’s newly anointed Prime Minister wearing on his head a nice pair of bright red devils horns. Clearly my friend was not a fan of Mr. Prime Minister, which is perfectly fine, and clearly it was meant to be funny. But I didn’t laugh when I saw the photo, and not because I’m a fan of the Prime Minister. So what was it about the photo that gave me pause?

It’s this: where does the impulse to invalidate other human beings come from? Because that is what the photo was intending to do. Yes, politics can be contentious and divisive, but that is not inherent in politics itself. Polarization is the result of the way we choose to conduct our politics, and it is a projection of our worldview.

Yes, when “our guy”(whoever he or she may be) loses an election we feel disappointment. Naturally. Whenever in life expectations are not met there can be disappointment, and we do need to find ways to let go so we can accept the outcome. Yet for many of us the path for releasing the disappointment of hopes and expectations lost (and of fears gained) is to disparage and belittle those who “won.” The Prime Minister is a devil! In Taiwan it’s, “The President is a Chinese lackey!” The intent is the same: invalidate. Cut the other down.

Where does this come from? And more importantly, how helpful is it? What is the value of tearing the fabric of our connectivity in a time where connectivity is needed more than anything?

It is easy to denigrate those who lead us when they do not meet our standards or agree with our views. Easy. Anyone can do it. It is much harder to find creative ways to support their efforts to be the best leader they can be.

Whenever energy is spent tearing down the work of those who are leading, two things can happen. One, those leading spend an inordinate amount of time defending themselves from the attack (and that’s exhausting and wasteful). Two, those doing the attacking spend an inordinate amount of time, well, attacking (energy used destructively, not creatively; to tear apart, not bring together).

So I’d like to propose a radical idea. When those who lead you do not meet your expectations, when you are lead by people you do not care for, send them creative energy, in whatever form you desire. Send them the energy of wisdom, insight, courage, grace, openness, truth, whatever it needs to be for you. Send it and send it continually, regardless of whether you agree with their actions.

Imagine the potential of that, on a mass scale, if we all did it. The entire energy changes. Consciousness itself changes. And the gates open for the potential of something greater to emerge.

Change will happen to you as well. The more time you spend sending the light of validation to others, the deeper potentials within you begin to emerge. No longer will you desire to waste an ounce of energy cutting down another human being, regardless of their actions in this world, and all that energy can then be channeled towards creative action, inspired action. Action that fosters the flourishing of a world or workplace or family that works.

It starts with you…magnificent you.

EXECUTIVE HEALTH November 11, 2010

New research shows that when people’s minds drifted from the task or activity at hand, they reported being less happy than when they were fully engaged in whatever they were doing.

The human mind is uniquely capable of wandering — that is, to ponder things that have happened, to anticipate things that will happen, and to plan for things that might happen, explained study author Matthew Killingsworth, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Harvard University.  The ability is one of the traits that makes human beings human.

Yet, cognitive wandering comes at a cost, which is that when people are thinking about something other than what they’re doing, they feel less happy.

“Human beings seem to have this unique capacity to focus on the non-present. They have the ability to reflect on the past, plan for the future and imagine things that might never occur,” Killingsworth said. “But at the same time, human beings are clumsy users of this capacity and it tends to decrease, rather than increase, happiness.”

In the study, 2,250 participants were prompted at random times throughout the day using an iPhone Web application.  They were asked how they were feeling, what they were doing, if they were thinking about something other than what they were doing and whether whatever they were contemplating was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral in nature.

According to the study, participants spent nearly 47 percent of their waking hours with their mind in a wandering state.  ”This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present,” Killingsworth said.

In some ways, the research provides scientific evidence of what many self-help books and some religious traditions espouse, which is that being in the “here and now” is critical for happiness,

Participants were from 83 counties, a wide range of occupations and ranged in age from 18 to 88.

Barbara Becker Holstein, a psychologist, said the findings speak to the importance of doing things that provide a sense of purpose and meaning.  Such activities make it easier to stay focused. …long before the research, psychologists and many educators recognized that in order to feel a sense of well-being, you need to feel you have purpose and meaning in life.  That means you are containing the mind around certain projects and activities, and are forcing the mind not to be all over the place all day long.”

If you feel your mind starting to head down a “dark tunnel” of worry and anxiety, try to snap yourself out of it by bringing your thoughts back to the present, she said.  “It’s such a natural tendency to go over bad news or things that haven’t worked out, to dramatize the drama we are already experiencing,” she said.  ”But (when) we can distract ourselves by getting involved doing something, we get some distance from whatever we were ruminating on and it’s better for us.”

If you’d like to be part of Harvard’s happiness research project, visit trackyourhappiness.org

What would you do?

Would you flee the country without a fight like Tunisian president Ben Ali? Would you be like Egypt’s Mubarak and try to negotiate the handover of power on your terms? Would you simply resign? Or would you fight with every last ounce of your strength, as Libya’s Gaddhafi is vowing to do?

Think about it, you have held power for 25, 30, 40 years. It’s almost all you have ever known, absolute power, wealth, glorification, deification. The rich and powerful from all around the world have come to your doorstep seeking audience, favors, concessions. To say it’s heady stuff is an understatement. And now, in the blink of an eye, you are being asked to give it all up. All that you are and have ever known is being swept away by the tide of the times.

Really, what would you do?

The other week I heard Bron Bowery-Ireland, CEO of the International Coach Academy, give an inspiring talk in which she shared a recent personal revelation. She spoke of personal identity markers—those internal images groomed from childhood that we hold of ourselves—and how our fixation with upholding those identity markers narrows our point of view, insists that our worldview prevails over other’s, and places our self at the center of the world.

What are your personal identity markers—in your mind, how do you see yourself? As a man or woman, a leader, a businessperson, a family member, a community member, activist…?

Bron told the story of a person who once told the Dalai Lama on a visit to Mexico that if you look at how the continents are arranged you will see that Mexico is the centre of the world. The Dalai Lama answered, “If you follow that line of reasoning you will find that Mexico city is the centre of Mexico, my house is at the centre of the city, my family is at the centre of my house, and within my family I am the centre of the world.”

The challenge is that those images we hold of ourselves become the way in which we define ourselves, and any threat to those images can be seen as a threat to our security and survival, if not our very existence.

Case in point, our friends in North Africa. What do you become when all the personal identity images you have ever held of yourself are taken from you and you are vanquished? Can you imagine the fear that that engenders in the very hearts of those to whom this is happening?

So what! You might say. They are egomaniacal despots who have ruled for too long with feigned care for the wellbeing of their people. I am not that kind of person!

But the truth is that we are all human, and it is our default modus operandi. We will act and live through our personal identity markers until we do the inner work necessary to bring them to light, let them go, and ground our sense of self in something far more real.

As Bron said so eloquently, “Here is the lesson I learnt.  When I am pursuing my personal identity I am attached to every outcome. My personal identity is driven by ego. It is limiting my potential. It creates limitations…to achieve this [a purpose greater than oneself] everyone must let go of their personal identities and strive for something greater than self.”

And this is the essential lesson: leaders who have a sense of greater purpose, a noble vision for an exalted tomorrow, must themselves step out of the way. Not by physically removing themselves (though at times this can be helpful!), but by removing the limitations of their personal identity markers which put themselves at the center of the world.

We must all strive to become the vessel through which great things flow, as unimpeded as possible by the survival, security, greatness needs of our egos.

Our true greatness arises when we recognize it as not something that we need to create, but something we can allow to emerge as we clear the space in which it flourishes.

–With light to all those who today stand for what their hearts yearn –

For your reading pleasure, a related article The Struggle Within

The reality we’ve painted for ourselves is that everything runs by the clock. Time blinks away on our wrists, phones, computers, appliances, and dashboards. The opening and closing of the stock market, the days and weeks on the calendar, births and anniversaries, and the endless moments of history are all marked and measured. Time is never more than a thought, a glance away…What time is it anyway? I’ve not enough time. I need more time. Is it already that time? How much time will it take? Can I have more time please!

Yes, you can.

Recently I read (though I can’t remember where) that stress is the greatest disease of our time. Is that surprising? Probably not. It seems about right that the inevitable result of our obsession with time is some kind of dysfunction.

How did we get to this place, where time has become such a critical measure? When did time become so significant that our entire perspective of life and what it means to truly live became so skewed by it?

Let’s spin this thing on its head. It’s not really time that is the problem at all, is it? Maybe it’s just that we’ve lost sight of its purpose in our lives. How does time serve us?

Time has a practical purpose: it supports the progressive growth and evolution of our body, mind and soul. If we didn’t exist in time and space there would be no way for us to become anything. There would be no growth and no potential. We could not come to know ourselves as the magnificent beings we innately are.

Time has a second and even grander purpose: it works to reveal the highest truth that time is an illusion. Time is not a quality of infinite life. So the paradox of time is that it serves to awaken us to its unreality. (Bang!—that is big.) So what is the value of that in my life, you might rightly ask?

Let’s bring it to something we can get our heads around, the right here and now.

Take a moment (really). Be still. Look all around at the spectrum of life which encompasses you. Take it all in—the people, the space, the objects, your body. Gaze out the window at the world passing by. Now take and release a deep breath and connect with it all. Expand your awareness to take it all in, and just hold it there. Feel the energy of your mind, the vibration of your being in this moment, the only moment that ever was. How do you feel?

This is your reality; not just in the moment of your conscious breath but in every moment. You have called this moment into existence and made it true for you. Every single choice you have made in your life has led you to this, surrounded by these things, connected with these people, experiencing this sense of being. This moment is your life in completion; there is nothing more that you can have or be or add to it.

Do you sense the perfection in that? In the stillness of timelessness, each moment is no different than this moment is right now. And if in this moment there is perfection, then in each moment there is perfection, regardless of what is happening. It takes great learning to hold present moment awareness at all times, yet this is the path to self-mastery.

So as Wayne Dyer blogged recently, “Forget about those New Year’s resolutions in which you decide on the first day of January how you will be conducting your life in September, some nine months later…The important question to be asking is, ‘How am I going to use my present moments this year?’”

After all, you have an infinite number of them.

I’m greatly attracted to this whole image of Obi-Wan because he is both a leader and a teacher of man, and despite his status as Jedi Master he is a fully fallible human being. Yoda, a Jedi of an even higher order, warns Obi-Wan, “Do not assume anything, Obi-Wan. Clear, your mind must be if you are to discover the real villains behind the plot.” Even Obi-Wan needs occasional reminding by his teachers that he may be losing his way, allowing his mind to become muddled. So we can learn from this man because he understands the struggle in the becoming.

I’ve distilled it down to three keys which Obi Wan gives us for ‘getting our Obi-Wan on’, keys that will elevate us as leaders and as people.

First, recognize and embrace the existence of the Force. Obi-Wan puts it this way, “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” The Force has been described in many ways, the quantum field, the divine matrix, the web of energy that connects everything in our lives and in our world. It is this field from which all possibilities flow. When Obi says, “The Force will be with you, always.” he is showing us that there is no separation from it, nothing that is “other than” it. It is life essential and essential to life.

Second, what he suggests that we do is learn to work with it. It’s always there, creating one effect or another, and that we are not separate from it is a humbling reality. At the same time we can learn to become participants in the unfolding of our reality. Are you partnering with the Force with intention, becoming conscious creators, or living life in its sway?

At one point he implores Anakin Skywalker,  ”You were the Chosen One! It was said you would bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness!” The fact is, we are all chosen ones. We all have access to the Force and we all have the ability to bring harmony and light into life. This is the way of things. So what in your life, in your organization, in your world is out of harmony and how can you restore it? What aspect of yourself do you need to access, to embrace, to reveal to bring about that which you are seeking? “Patience. Think. Use the force.”

The final element, what I see in Obi-Wan that epitomizes the ideal of getting my Obi-Wan on, is presence. All Jedi Masters have extraordinary presence. Masters of life usually do. Much more than being energetic or charismatic, Obi’s presence eminates from a place deep within, a place of profound integrity–living life from a place of wholeness, without falsehood or pretense. He does not just understand the practice of presence, he practices his understanding.

The beauty of true presence is that is is grounded in your center, in your essential magnificence, and not your ego (where Darth anchors his being). In life and in death Obi transcends, whereas Darth is consumed.

Our world is in the midst of a leadership shake up, as old systems and those who created them crumble and fade away. All of us in positions of leadership must take a far more humbling, presence-driven approach to leading if we are to see what arises in its wake being a grand movement forward from what has come before.

In the end however it is Anakin Skywalker–protege turned Evil Empire builder–who provides one of the most awesome perspectives on it all: “Compassion, which I would define as…unconditional love…is essential to a Jedi’s life. So, you might say that we are encouraged to love.”

(With a shout out to MLM — it was all you.)

IBM recently surveyed 1500 CEOs across 60 countries and 33 industries, and these executives said that creativity – more than rigor, management discipline, integrity and even vision – was the most important competency skill for effective leadership. According to the survey, 80% of CEOs expect their work environments to grow significantly more complex but less than half believe their organizations are equipped to deal with this successfully – “the largest leadership challenge identified in eight years of research.”

Asking if CEOs and executive leaders are “really willing to make the transformational moves necessary to foster cultures of real creativity and innovation,” The Energy Project CEO Tony Schwartz has an article in The Harvard Business Review, offering the “Six Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation.”

1. Meet People’s Needs: Schwartz says that questioning orthodoxy is one of the keys to fostering creativity, and this begins with questioning conventional expectations around work. “Define what success looks like and hold people accountable to specific metrics,” he said, “but as much as possible, let them design their days as they see fit to achieve those outcomes.”
2. Teach Creativity Systematically: Schwartz lists five stages of creative thinking: first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination and verification.
3. Nurture Passion: “The quickest way to kill creativity is to put people in roles that don’t excite their imagination.”
4. Make the Work Matter: Meaningful work that we feel is making a positive contribution can keep people motivated, not just so we “perform better,” but so that we can offer innovative solutions we really care about enacting.
5. Provide the Time: Time is, of course, scarce for all of us, but the best way to a creative outcome is to make sure to set aside time for deep thinking, rather than always caving to the pressures of instant answers.
6. Value Renewal: Step away from a problem, and go do something else. Even better: go do something active….. even half an hour of exercise can boost creativity.

Ostensibly, startups are a site for enhanced creativity and innovation…many researchers are pointing to an impending “creativity crisis.”

What steps are you taking to help maintain your personal creativity, as well as a creative startup work culture?

IBM最近訪問了60個不同國家、涵蓋33種產業的1500位執行長，他們說：談到有效的領導力，創意是最重要的能力，超越嚴謹、管理能力、誠信，甚至願景。根據問卷結果，80%的執行長們期待他們的事業環境的複雜度將會大幅提高，但只有半數不到的執行長認為他們的組織具備能有效面對這個變化的能力：「這是經八年的研究所發現領導力最大的挑戰」。

問起執行長與高階主管是否「真心願意採取能培育出真正的創意與創新文化所必需的改變性行動」，The Energy Project執行長Tony Schwartz 在哈佛商業週刊發表了一篇文章，提到「創造創新文化的六大秘密」：

1. 滿足人們的需求： Schwartz先生提到，對正統做法存疑是培養創意的關鍵之一，且要先從質疑對於工作結果的傳統期待開始。他說：「定義好我們所要的成果是什麼，且允許人們可以加上他們的特定要求，盡可能地，讓他們去規畫他們認為要如何完成這些成果。」
2. 系統性地教導創意： Schwartz先生列出創意思考的五階段：第一洞見、滲透、熟慮、啟發和確認。
3. 培養熱情： 「扼殺創意最快的方法就是把人們放在完全無法激發他們想像力的角色中。」
4. 讓工作變得重要：讓我們覺得能有正面貢獻的工作能讓人們維持動力，不是只為了「表現得更好」，而是為了能夠提出我們真心想去執行的創意解法!
5. 給時間：時間，當然對每個人來說都嫌不夠，然而，要有創意的成果最好的方式就是要撥出時間來做深度思考，而非一直在壓力底下遷就方便的答案。
6. 重視能量的補充：放下問題，去做點別的事。更好的是去活動活動…就算只有半小時的運動都能提升創意。

表面上，新成立的企業是高度創意與創新的地方…許多研究者指向即將來到的「創意危機」。你採取些甚麼步驟在維持你的個人創意和具創意的新工作文化呢?

The question immediately reminded me of a time years ago, when I was first beginning to move into leadership coaching, and I asked a mentor of mine what the difference is between executive coaching and life coaching. He replied with a big grin, “It’s all life coaching, it’s just the executive doesn’t know it yet!”

And you know, the more coaching I do the more I see how spot on that answer is. Executive and leadership coaching focuses on helping people make positive changes in behavior, and that is always an inner game.

So the question of bringing spirituality into leadership is not about bringing religion or religious beliefs into the workplace. Forget that. I believe it is a question of addressing a much more fundamental issue: there is a yearning, a thirst, to experience in organizational life, from the highest offices to the cubicles of middle management, a new kind of governance.

Not only more ethical or responsive governance (though these too are important) but one that is simply more humane. To put it in “spiritual” terms, there is beginning a call for leaders who themselves are consciously connected to the essence of life and are acting through the wisdom, integrity and compassion that such connectivity brings. Leaders who are compelled to govern not because of the grand ego benefits that power and influence brings, but because of the recognition that their core purpose is nothing more than the empowerment, the uplifting of others.

This is what is sorely missing and what is now being called for (softly at first, mind you). This has nothing to do with religion but with the communion of the human mind with something greater than itself; something from which are drawn inspired ideas and the energy and fortitude to bring them into existence. And beyond that, the recognition that that same essential source lies within each of us, marking each of us as unique, special, and fully worthy.

There is no shortage of capable mean and women who have the intelligence to lead, nor is there a shortage of ideas. We are awash in them. What is needed are leaders who actively nurture an inner spiritual life, free from dogmatic and religious considerations, and simply live the expression of that within their organizations. Much as they would breathe.

It is interesting the debate in the United States on the religion of President Obama: is he Christian, is he Muslim? Rather than being grateful that the leader of the free world has any spiritual life whatsoever, people become deeply obsessed with the form his that spiritual life takes, and cringe at the notion that it be anything other than Christian.

Maybe it’s just me, but I get the distinct impression that Obama is neither Christian nor Muslim. What I see is a man who pays lip service to being of the former to placate the huddled masses who bay for blood at the idea that spiritual lives can be rich and rewarding in any other direction. A few things are evident for me: Firstly, Obama has a spiritual life. Secondly, Obama is beyond religion, meaning that his spiritual life transcends the need for adherence to any particular code of belief. Thirdly, there is no way he can speak about this without being dethroned.

Yet the greatest values of humankind—the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness—are ceaselessly actualized when we quietly look within for answers. There is not a trace of shame or embarrassment in this; rather it is the source of our greatest strength, courage, and wisdom. The quality of our thoughts and actions increase when we access the stillness within and ask, ‘What is needed of me at this moment?’, and move with what comes up.

Returning to the original question of how to bring spirituality into leadership, my answer is this: bring it into yourself first. And from your space of connectedness bring your light into organizations that need it—as a coach or a leader—and simply be the light. Nothing more is required. It is not necessary to actively, overtly “bring it in”, nor to impose it in any way. It is your presence that brings it in, it is your presence which attracts people to you who recognize that somehow you are different, and it is your presence which ultimately affects everything.

Life is good!

Leon