Healthy Leadership is more often needed than you think
In the last years, mainly through working intensely with people
in higher leadership positions and with large responsibilities in
the world, it has become very clear to me, that there is one
thing that holds many people back.
It even holds us back from making a step forward as humanity, I
believe.
It is the myth of professional-ism.
I encounter many people that are highly capable, intelligent and
willing to make a change through their work…and more often than
not, they find themselves drained, frustrated and without
inspiration.
We all have been spoon-fed a certain idea, that in order to be
efficient and a good professional, you have to distance yourself
from your emotions.
Keep the emotions out, stay professional!
Don´t let your personal opinions cloud your rational judgment!
Be an Adult, think straight!
I have heard these and similar statements by now many times over.
The sad thing is though, it simply doesn´t work.
If you try to disconnect from your emotions and internal
experiences as a human being, they start to control you from
behind.
What you create is not more clarity, but more disconnection and
unconscious identification with what you don´t want.
What then tends to happen is that we create so called
“professional environments” that become cold, emotionally numb
and simply much less intelligent and creative than they could be.
Modern leadership research is exactly pointing in this direction,
and it is also by no means exclusive to the corporate world.
Maybe you already had an experience with a medical professional,
a therapist, a social worker, or a teacher in school, or even a
spiritual teacher or workshop leader, who– for good reasons – was
trying to keep it cool and professional, but you could feel the
unprocessed emotions and patterns underneath, affecting their
work.
As human beings we feel it when emotions and triggered states are
in the room.
It can be quite uncomfortable when those feelings are not held in
a mature way.
You feel it when your therapist is keeping it cool and hide their
vulnerability under a cloak of professional distance.
Everybody can feel when the team leader is in a bad mood, when
the meeting gets difficult or conversations get personal, while
only talking “numbers or facts”.
Have you ever had a meeting, a session, or even an interview with
the teacher of your children, and you remained busy with it long
after it ended?
Most likely there were triggered emotions or even trauma states
that clouded the meeting. ‘
Maybe you took it personally, got angry at the person, or felt
responsible or guilty for what happened.
Often, we call this normal.
The way things are. They way people are.
Try to shrug it off!
I know there is another way.
I believe the future of work (really ANY work) needs Inner Work
– it needs an embodied way of Leadership.
Embodying the way you lead, teach, facilitate, parent…and lead
your own life.
Embracing the full humanity that you are.
A creative, beautiful, sometimes difficult dance between your
inner world and your outer behavior and responsibilities.
This doesn´t meant that you simply act out your emotions and
impulses.
On the contrary.
It means that you cultivate a way of being professional AND
personal at the same time.
You learn to feel and navigate your emotions.
That you know your own trauma triggers and the ways to hold them
well.
That you allow vulnerability and lead by example.
That you cultivate your heart qualities of empathy and
compassion, even while holding clear boundaries and commit to
efficiency.
This is what creates trust, authenticity, engagement and real joy
among students, team members and really anyone who comes in
contact with your work.
What it needs is practice and the right understanding and tools
to know the territory that you are sailing in.
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