What floor you at? Developing context for conscious leadership

Let's play.

Imagine a gorgeous, tall building. Aquamarine blue. Gaudi-style. And this building happens to be your home.

You actually live on the third floor floor. It's an exquisite floor, marble and jazz. Soft pillows and beautiful touches everywhere. There's all sorts of cool services and people there. You like it here.

However, after a while, your home floors starts to feel a bit...blah. Like there's nothing wrong with it...but you can't help yourself being curious about floor 6...floor 8. What's there? You vaguely remember catching a glimpse between that golden elevator's doors...a button that indicated "floor 8,000"...your mind sure likes to play games.

Today, you're feeling extra giddy. You're curious. You realise that you'll never know if you don't even try so today, you choose to peek into another floor, higher up.

You walk to the elevator. Actually - you run to the elevator. Today's the day! The elevator doors close and you start making your way upward, with such precision and softness it makes you smile. Hmm, you wander, how come do I feel...so elevated?

Shortly, you arrive. Floor 6 - ha you made it to a new floor!

The doors open...

...wow. Simply W-O-W.

Floor 6 is out of this world. Why has no one told you this place exists?!

You've never seen anything like this. These shapes, the colours, the art... You feel so much clarity it's insane. Feels like the floor 3 worries are so much smaller now...at least they're distant - this realisation makes you sigh with relief. You look out of the glorious floor to ceiling windows - you've never seen this far. What a vista! The whole world looks different. Somehow it's better, in all fronts. It's hard to explain, really. It's just...so different.

You feel totally different here...no, hold on: feels like you are a totally different person here. You're not sure if it's the floor six magic or if it's your morning coffee...but in any case, you like it.

And this building, be it level 3, 6 or beyond - it's your consciousness.

Let's step back - big time

To explore that story a bit, let's step back. Let's talk about you and I.

For the first 20. years or so, our lives are pretty structured. We go through certain systems in order to learn x, y, and z that someone somewhere, has decided, are the right things to learn.

Suddenly, we're 20 and we're supposed to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives, what to study, who to marry, what diet to have, and where to live.

And we're supposed to figure this all out by ourselves. Just after we've finished structures that told us everything we needed to be and do.

Hello... Where are the instructions to adulthood??

How is this going to work?

Depends, I'd say.

I'm not being judgemental of the structures. I'm simply pointing out the lack of structure to move us into adulthood / within the period of adulthood, so we'd have a greater chance to thrive. (Plus I recognise my privilege in being provided for, eg in terms of education, which is not always the case.)

It's indeed like a rite of passage is missing. Like the Maasai in Africa, going to the bushes and killing a lion with a spear; the Plains Indians heading into a vision quest alone, without food or water; the Aborigines of Australia leaving to a 'walkabout' with a walking stick and a water gourd; and the Achuar traversing into the rain forest and only returning after they have had a vision.

These rites of passage demand extreme levels of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual courage and once (if?) the individual returns, they are not only brave AF but embraced as members of the society.

More importantly, this courageous individual knows they've got it: they have what it takes to be a thriving adult, and they feel a sense of belonging to their community.

I can only imagine how much personal power entails.

Well... no rites of passage where I grew up. Many are unconscious, seduced by Netflix and home delivery everything, leaving the mind untrained, unfocused and dull. It's up to the individual to pick up the baton...or not.

This is the opportunity.

Getting down into the detail

I'm actually a very practical woman. That's why I've talked about brainwaves and presence in my previous newsletter (nerdy, sure), to bring these topics into our everyday life.

The distinction I'd like to offer is that what I often talk about, is hopefully developing the context, not the content alone. I believe we're already doing plenty of things that develop the content (what to think), but we don't necessarily pay attention to the development of context, who we are being (aka how we think).

In this world, that is increasing in the amount of information, complexity and velocity by the day, developing context becomes a necessity. Especially for leaders because it is their level of awareness that sets the level of awareness for the wider group.

When we talk about developing the context, the abilities include eg:

• Shifting perspectives on demand
• Holding lightly to opinions, challenging one's own mind on the regular
• Observing complexity without losing center, holding opposing views neutrally
• Knowing both 'right' and 'wrong' can be 'right' - at the same time
• Discerning own emotions from facts
• Making quick, sound decisions
• Staying calm under chaos and pressure
• Tapping into creativity, intuition and higher thinking - using more of our faculties
• Leading self and others from presence that invites leadership in others

When we become interested in the quality of our being and our character, we invite a new level of awareness, from which the doing and the experience, are elevated.

There's been a lot of progress over the recent decades...Now it's less about knowing (we all know how to Google), but about knowing how.

What's in floor 8,000? I'm curious ??

Happy weekend,

x Anna

Ps. I'm aware this work goes deep - yet, it can also be held with lightness and fun! If you'd be interested in how we could work together and add more value to you/your team, here's a short overview what I offer at the moment:

• 1:1 private coaching and mentoring - always bespoke, built around your needs and goals. Minimum of 3 months, often my clients stay with me for 1-2 years, for a more transformational effect. This is a partnership with deep dialogue.
• Leadership/high performance team training - I have 3 offerings you can choose from, all increasing self-awareness and the ability to regulate oneself. These are engaging, interactive and fun workshops to step into the unknown in a safe environment and gain direct experience how you can grow as a leader. Get in touch and I'd be happy to hear more and share with you an overview of these programs.
• Talks! This is new! I have 3 talks to choose from, and they are all experiential, meaning it's definitely not a presentation, more like an experience. Choose from a topic related to brainwaves/stress/relaxation; your leadership energy & creating relational fields OR for the brave: the Spark - you provide the spark and I respond. The ultimate challenge which is making my palms sweat...the good sweat. Message me and I'd be happy to share more!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you - either in the comments section or over in my DMs!