Crossing our own Internal Threshold toward True Leadership

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The three Leadership Labs held between the two international conferences have been very inspiring encounters with a deeper and more intimate inquiry into ‘true’ leadership.

In the Leadership Labs participants spoke of how they had stepped forward, across an internal threshold to assume an even greater level of presence, visibility and responsibility to lead.

The inspiring thing was not only that we are all stepping forward but that we are really challenging ourselves to reflect on the essence of leadership. The leadership that is needed if we are to create a world where the greater good really prevails.

As we explored the qualities that we perceive fundamentally shift the dial we identified leadership through the heart to be one of the most significant. But what does that mean? Whenever we speak of the heart and love the mind almost always conjures up the ‘sentimental’ love we associate with family, lovers and friends. This sentimental love is vital, can be profound and shows us something of the wider aspects of love such as self-forgetfulness, humility, others before self and more. But as we know there is still so much to be understood and explored about love in its purest form.

And when we seek to apply that to leadership it can become even more obscure. Our exploration through the conferences and the Leadership Labs so far has taken us into factors such as our ability to hold everything (the so called ‘good and bad’) without judgment and to seek to act from a place of balance. To expand our capacity to include – perspectives, people, ideas, difference – and to seek a new point of understanding based on a genuine commitment to see that we are all part of a unified whole. We are all connected.

We’ve also recognised that the old models of leadership need to be let go. The fact that they are so deeply embedded in our psyche and DNA doesn’t make this an easy task. It requires a focused and determined group effort to let go and move toward something new, simultaneously. Not just within ourselves but on behalf of Humanity and the Planet.

So as we reflect on the ‘new’ model of leadership we can also comfort ourselves that it exists already in a higher consciousness. Our task is to precipitate it into our consciousness which in part demands that we raise our consciousness and in part that we set clear intent. We are told time and time again that clear, genuine, soul felt intent is enough to activate the pathways that will precipitate the new.

We might call this crossing our own internal threshold. Examining the part of us that is able to choose a new way of leading. To step into the experiments that will yield higher outcomes for all. To take the risks (as we may perceive them) that make us feel somewhat vulnerable – stepping forward, taking greater responsibility – energetically and in the material world. Stepping out of our comfort zone is itself an act of leadership.

One of the primary effects of new leadership will be our ability to truly create a global community.

A world where we build right relationships with all, enable all people to share their voice, to be heard and help create the conditions where all can grow and fulfil their potential. We might call it a deeper sense of community. This means letting go of any sense of competition and moving more toward cooperation and inclusion. Imagine this applied to politics, religion, education, business, our own families…where, as leaders, we seek to see the whole and cultivate a culture and an intention where a genuine connection for the good of all informs our every act.

So as we contemplate our own inner threshold, the invitation is to gather our courage, set clear intention and open to the leadership ‘model’ based on a fiery, loving heart, inner balance that fiercely seeks peace and harmony, and a deep commitment to the greater good.