“A leader is best

When people barely know that he exists.

Of a good leader, who talks little,

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

They will say, “We did this ourselves.”

                                                      Tao Te  Ching (Chapter 17)

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When does the foundation of leadership form?

Rhode Island School of Design students talk about the many meanings of “leadership” on the RISD campus. (Courtesy of Animal Studios)

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Somtimes we find that an idea or  behavior becomes viral; other catch on quickly when what is needed in a situation begins to emerge.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jedd2FiZTqM

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I want to ask you to imagine sitting in your meeting today, or one in the near future. Can you consciously make room for the other? You know, that quiet teammate who holds so much tension that you can’t help but find them irritating, or the one who overly compensates and jumps into the gap in defense of her managers, her behavior – more in service of controlling how she is perceived than adding value to your meeting.

Can you make room for these people without reacting or shutting down? Can you find a strategy to utilize them and leverage their talents verses reacting and contributing to counterproductive patterns? Can you move through your own considerations” leading” the process so that all who are involved are enhanced, outcomes achieved,  productivity increased? How much choice do you have?

Here is one way to bring more consciousness to such an opportunity/challenge. Right now, as you are reading this post, bring your awareness to your own body and close your eyes, taking three full breaths. Now with your eyes open find the predominate sensation in your body. Simply note this sensation and again breathe three times while relaxing the rest of the body. Now, allow your awareness to travel to another sensation that calls your attention, breath and relax. Notice if there is a shift in the quality of your attention and gently hold your awareness with these sensations predominate, breath and relax. Note that you can open your awareness now to include the context you are in while remaining aware of sensations, your body, the breath and the space around you.

While sustaining this attention, imagine that you are back in the meeting with your team. Gain a sense of the distance and the degrees of separation. Notice the space and discover with curiosity, canyou choose your response?

Practice this today.

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The more positive we are the better we adapt. The good feelings that go along with being positive actually increase our capacity to pay attention, “Beyond their pleasant subjective feel, positive emotions, positive moods, and positive sentiments carry multiple, interrelated benefits.” (read more)

As a leader, feeling positive, is a good thing. You feel better and you are able to broaden your capacity to pay attention and you make better decisions, right? Yes, and only yes, if your feelings include the feelings of others. This means, your empathy quotient needs to be very high; you feel good, your employees, family, and colleagues feel good and you flourish.

If your “positive feelings” are disconnected from these people in your life you should worry. It is a clear indication that you reside in a world of your own making, you have drawn a line indicating that; ”everything on this side I care about and everything on the other side of the line does not concern me!” 

Today, we clearly see that -what affects the global economy, directly affects me, my loved ones and my personal economy. Being connected and empathically attuned – maintaining space for how you think and feel while being available for how other people think and feel – is more important now than ever. We are moving into an age that requires us to have the courage to remain open and available to ourselves and one another. The science of human and social development reveals one simple message: “we are all in this together, what is good for me also has to be good for you.”

For more please email me at tim@drtimothydukes.com

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Latest Twitter – a commercial but a good reminder of the value of our relationships.

@tonyrobbins Hey Tony I thought you may like this comercial from Coca Cola Spain!!! http://tinyurl.com/dgx3n7

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“Your image is the concept that others form about you as a result of the impressions you make on them.

Your effectiveness as a leader is tied to your image.

Your ability to project a leadership presence in the eyes of employees, customers, other important constituencies, and the general public is closely related to your ability to do your job well.”(Read the rest of the article)

For more please email me at tim@drtimothydukes.com

Photo: Tdukes, Paris, 2009

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“What can this aging warrior tell you about creative leadership? Honestly, I am not sure. For I am, like each of you, a peculiar balance of contradictions: a large ego and a deep humility; a decent intelligence (no more than that), albeit with periodic blind spots and stupidities; a strong presence along with a profound insecurity; an astonishing confidence, but one that is often punctuated with doubt; an intellectual bent that lacks an academic depth; an aspiring, passionate leader, but without the skills-or, for that matter, the interests-of a manager. I mention this litany to suggest that I’m no more, nor less than each one of you: just another human being.”

by John C. Bogle, Chairman and Founder The Vanguard Group of Investment Companies
Address at the 176th Commencement of Widener University
Chester, Pennsylvania
May 17, 1997

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Leadership requires the capacity to open to and allow change. To accommodate change in the external world, the leader needs the “tools” to open to change internally. “Allowing Presence” is one of these tools. Rooted in Mindfulness, this ability to open to the life-that-is-seeking to reveal itself, requires the allowance of complex feelings and thoughts while externally settling into a place of equanimity and peace. Peter Senge, in his book Presence explains:

“When this happens, the field shifts, and the forces shaping a situation can move from re-creating the past to manifesting or realizing an emerging future. . . . In esoteric Christian traditions such shifts are associated with ‘grace’ or ‘revelation’ or the Holey Spirit.’ Taoist theory speaks of the transformation of vital energy (qing, pronounced ‘ching’) into subtle life force (qi, pronounced ‘chi’), and into spiritual energy (shin). This process involves an essential quieting of the mind that Buddhists call ‘cessation,’ wherein the normal flow of thoughts ceases and the normal boundaries between self and world dissolve. In Hindu traditions, this shift is called wholeness or oneness. In the mystic traditions of Islam, such as Sufism, it is known simply as ‘opening the heart.’ Each tradition describes this shift a little differently, but all recognize it as being central to personal cultivation or maturation.” (Senge, p. 14)

Effective leadership requires the capacity to access as much information as possible about the changes that are occurring in our life. However, this information is not limited to what goes on around us in our organizations, industry and the world. Managing change may very well require us to have equal presence in our internal environment where a quiet mind allows for insights and understanding that simply are not available when there is too much internal activity.

Senge, Peter, Scharmer, C. Otto, Jaworski, Joseph, Flowers, Betty Sue. (2004). Presence: An exploration of profound change in people, organizations, and society. New York: Currency, Doubleday.

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These times call for leadership and clarity of mind. While most managers, employees and staff are struggling with fear, a leader steps forward and remains focused on opportunities and a way through the doubts.

I am reminded of a story:

 ”When I was a little boy growing up in Ohio, I would spend my weekends alone with my sister playing on the dusty stacks of packing boxes in my father’s factory. The four story WWII factory was empty and cold but for the whispers of two small children as we constructed our fantasies. We would make castles out of these boxes, grab snacks from the vending machines in the grimy break rooms of the employees, and wait for endless hours as my father worked in his office.

We would leave this exhaustive play, tired and hungry and nestle in the back of his Buick while we listened to Drag Net on the radio. I remember this one line from virtually every show. . . . But first, imagine two tired, hungry and dirty children on a bone-braking cold night . . . . in the plains of Ohio, just outside of Detroit and its sprawling auto-industry plants. . . . a lone car driving through the frigged snow covered corn fields on a dark and moonless night.

The line we would hear on the radio was something like: “Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts.” As a boy, I found this strangely comforting. That steady voice of whoever that actor was comforted me. I felt, perhaps, that somebody would be unaffected by the mystery and the drama of the story. He would sort it out and find a way to solve the problems.”

If you are a leader during these troubling times, who, better than you, is there to face the challenges in your life and find solutions? Can you use all of your resources to sort through the mystery and confusion and get to the “facts?” And as always, I encourage you to turn to your relationships as a primary resources for support, insight and the immediate value found in human connection.

© Tdukes, November, 2008

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