Tag: space

Vulnerability in leadership

I love to watch trees in the autumn. It used to be I liked them most because of the colours, notably in Canada! However, with age I notice in forests around me how trees grow wider each passing year. I see the bark they shed regularly, as they outgrow these boundaries. I reflect on how nature shows us the way to grow personally by shedding our boundaries, our defenses, originally designed to protect us. The point is that what has once protected us becomes an impediment to our ability to expand and become our full potential.

We all need a layer of protection as we grow to face the many challenges in life. We all have a vulnerable core that needs defenses, so as to develop as grown-ups, and to heal when hurt. The delicate process of personal growth, however, requires that we soften and loosen up to shed those boundaries if we are to continuously grow. Many of us prefer to stay safe and start feeling constricted in our environment, not realizing that the constriction is actually imposed from within, from an inability to question the structures and the defense mechanisms we ourselves have put in place.

You may have decided as you age that life is less about you and more about others, from children to grandchildren and beyond. You may have chosen to become of service to your community and lead in some respect for the benefit of others. However, looking at the trees, this is less about shifting your focus to others, and more about becoming wider. It is not about disappearing yourself so much as becoming large enough to hold yourself and others. This requires an important process of questioning your defenses and softening to release the previous boundaries and grow so as to create a new space for yourself and others. This is about leadership in community building.

Inner calm and leadership

I moved into a brand new office space about a year ago. I have been struck at people’s reaction whenever I have meetings in this office. So often, I hear the very same phrases: “oh it feels so nice in your office; it is calm and peaceful here; I love coming to your office.” I wondered what it was in this office that had such an impact on people. Our work environment is highly stressful, with a pervasive state of uncertainty when it comes to people’s future in the organization. I have developed an ability to maintain a sense of calm in the midst of the surrounding chaos. People seem able to feel this calmness just coming to my office, as if it was activating their own sense of calm.

We all need to be able to reconnect with our sense of calmness to function in this world, and I have come to realize that in today’s chaotic world, people are looking at those of us who can connect to this inner calm to cope themselves, and lead the way for others to weather the storm. People are increasingly caught up in either emotions throwing them off when disturbing news come their way, or unrelenting thoughts about what might happen next. Both emotions and thoughts activate each other in a vicious circle that get them confused and helpless in the face of external challenges, even if this does not (yet) affect them directly.

It should be helpful to remember that you do not need to fully understand what is happening around you, nor to anticipate what will happen to you in future. You only need to locate the stillness within, at the center of your heart, to find composure in most situations. You only need to find peace with what is happening, let it come without resistance, and let it pass. Leaders have an innate clarity about that process and the place within, which can help others recognize their own.

Taking the Lead of your Information Space

As the U.S. mid-term elections result came through all of my media outlets, I realized once more how much time and space in my life is devoted to following international news, and how little control I have in the choice of news I am getting. The longstanding practice of selecting various sources to ensure a balanced daily intake of information has been challenged by the sheer amount of information coming from an increasing number of outlets with websites and social media, in addition to printed press, television, and radio. The pervasive presence of the media is part of many people’s everyday life, and quite apart from the challenge of selecting one’s information, I am increasingly aware of the crowding experience in one’s brain and the triggering effect on our emotional state. Do you feel as I do, oversaturated to the point of seeking a break from an information overdose?

We are subjected to an insidious flow of negative and stressful news day in and day out, just as we are now discovering the addiction phenomenon with the dopamine connection of liking posts on social media and the negative impact of not getting any “likes” to our posts… As we consciously walk back from this over-stimulation to enjoy a few days of quiet and disconnect (assuming we still can), we may come to realize the miraculous impact of creating a void in our daily routines. Creating space around ourselves, emptiness, is an invitation to new things to appear in your clutter-free life.

You have a choice and an opportunity to lead the way in your own life. Research shows that news, especially images, have a direct effect on your emotions, moods, and stress levels–not to mention your relationships. Free of the constant external stimuli, you have a chance to refocus your attention inward and resort to your own imagination for stimulation, creating what you desire, rather than reacting to the soap opera unfolding around you. New ideas will present themselves to you more readily, and you may even get around to developing a more conscious relationship to the news and external entertainment, controlling the time and type of media exposure you decide to accept for yourself.