Calling Grail Leaders to the Round Table
Joining with other pioneers to co-create something greater
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
Although Shirley Chisholm is not a household name, she was a pioneer for her generation. She was the first African American congresswoman. In 1972, she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and the first African American to run for president.
She shattered taboos around race and gender at a time when humanity was crying out for more diversity in governance and the board room, demanding seats at the table of the wealthy white men in the Old Boys’ Network.
While we have made incredible strides in the past fifty years, our civilization today is calling for far more than equal opportunity at the same old table.
At this time of radical shifts in our foundational systems, we are calling for an entirely new table ~ a Round Table ~ a wholesale transformation of the space from the zero-sum game of win-lose to the infinite game of exponential wins.
This new-paradigm table represents a quantum leap forward. Unlike the existing leadership models that are crumbling under their own weight, the Round Table:
- moves outside the box of hard angles and fixed positions, taking the form of curves and arcs that connote the wholeness of spheres and the openness of spirals;
- surrounds a fire at the center, a vision and determination to serve something greater than itself, which burns in the heart of all who are called to it;
- is co-created by Grail Leaders ~ those who have withstood the Seige Perilous, having courageously walked through numerous layers and dimensions of initiations, becoming intimately familiar with both the light of their genius and the shadows of their wounds, and transcending the duality of the conditional matrix;
- is self-organized and self-governed, led organically through dynamic hierarchies by those who have no need to exert power over others but rather see themselves as vessels for the power of the unique genius that moves through them;
- forms the conditions for its own Holy Grail ~ the magic that emerges from the alchemical fusion of Sovereignty {self-determination, expression of unique genius} and Unity {awareness of our interconnectedness and the creative life-force that flows through all};
- and so much more {click here to read Leading from a Round Table}.
It’s time to leap
Through the many facets and perspectives in the full spectrum of roles I’ve played in the business world over the past three decades, I’ve been observing, experiencing and contemplating the monumental shift that is emerging.
I’ve been reading about it. I’ve been dreaming about it. I’ve been talking about it. I’ve been writing about it. I’ve been white-boarding about it with other amazing whole systems designers.
And now I’m chomping at the bit, ready to do it … to be the change I wish to see in the world.
The time is now.
I want to play at a round table with other grail leaders. I want to be engaged in meaningful work that creates world-changing, global impact. I want to feel the electricity moving through me that happens when I’m bringing my genius forward, shoulder-to-shoulder with others who are doing the same.
I want to feel a loud “Fuck Yes!” ringing through all my cells, shouted in ecstasy from the innermost authentic core of my being. I want to look around the table, witnessing the radiant faces beaming from the shared experience of being transported to a higher frequency, carried on the waves of a symphony of individual Fuck Yes’s felt collectively.
And I want to feel the coherence of a group where I can show up on any given day and admit that I’m not feeling it, it’s too much, I’m overwhelmed, I feel inadequate, I’m witnessing old wounds and survival mechanisms being triggered, or all of that at once ~ and see the steadfast looks of love, compassion and knowing smiles that say “I feel you; I’ve been there; all is perfect; and this too shall pass. Go ahead and feel those feelings, even though it’s not what your entire being and awareness is feeling, even though you know it’s not the whole truth. We’ll carry on, loving you and keeping your seat warm while you move through it.”
I’m done searching for the “right’ table to join. I have no interest in convincing, defending or inserting myself into a seat at an old-paradigm table. And I’m no longer walking around with my folding chair, looking for a spot at a table that feels like a fit for me.
I feel the Wildling in me, breathing fire and wanting to shout, “Fuck bringing a folding chair! I’m bringing my own damn table!”
And I feel the wise, “Infinite I” in me smiling, quietly saying “Yes and … it’s not really my table.” I am a leader, not the leader. I’m simply showing up in my role as a catalyst and a voice of what’s possible, waving the flag of round-table leadership, trusting that there is a Holy Grail wanting to emerge from that co-creative space.
In the space of equanimity where both those voices are true, I am clear that what I most want is to co-create one or more round tables, locally and/or globally, with other grail leaders who feel the same desire bursting from within them.
A pivotal moment
I was recently in a phone conversation with my highly intuitive friend Julia in Australia who asked me to speak out loud what Grail Leadership is to me. As I completed my breathless and impassioned monologue, I told her that I had no idea where this is leading ~ whether I would be consulting with founders and executives, beginning my own initiative, or something else entirely.
She then asked if she could share what she was seeing as I spoke. She said, “Holly, you are the round table. The vision is living so deeply in you that it radiates from your being, allowing others to trust the truth of it, the possibility of it. And you are a people manifestor. I see you calling people in to the round table and seeing how all the dots join up, how the genius of each person fits together synergistically.”
As she was speaking, I felt tears of truth rise up in my throat and an electric energy activating my cells into life. It felt as if she was the voice of my all-knowing self nudging me to step further into my genius, to play my part in creating the more beautiful world I wish for me, my children and humanity.
In that moment, all the pieces of the puzzle that had been ping-ponging around in my mind coalesced, floating into a crystal clear vision of what has been moving through me, especially intensely over the past several months.
I exhaled, with a centered, deeply integrated “fuck yesssss……”
Calling in the Grail Leaders: Is one of the seats at the round table yours?
So here it is….
I am putting out a call for Grail Leaders to step forward and join me at a round table that we create together to exponentially amplify our impact, the things we are here to do, and the people we are here to be.
I know you. I see you. I’m calling you….
You have been on the Hero’s Journey, you have found the Holy Grail of your own unique genius within, and you have returned home ready to share the medicine of your magic elixir, ready to serve through your leadership and work in the world.
You have felt the purpose that is moving through you ~ moving you ~ and you likely have founded or been a key participant in new-paradigm initiatives. And yet, you know there is an even better way ~ a way your impact can be magnified, a way you can make an even greater difference ~ by coming together in synergy and co-creation with others like you.
You resonate deeply with the concepts I’ve been sharing here in the Grail Leadership collection of articles ~ notions like the Hero’s Journey, Sovereign Unity, Prosperability, Zone of Genius, and Mutual Thriving Networks.
Words like co-creation, synergy and synarchy zing something in you at a cellular level.
Because in your own unique way, you are carrying the same blueprints, the same maps, the same grail codes, and the same vision for what is not only possible ~ but inevitable ~ for humanity at this time on this magnificent planet.
You are devoted to bringing your greatest visions into reality. You are unplugging {or have already unplugged} from the conditioned programs of our culture that are rooted in lack and scarcity. And you are ready to work synergistically with others who share a vision that serves the greater good in some way.
You have gone deep into the initiatory process and tapped into your genius at some level, you take radical responsibility for the experiences you are creating, you know how to recognize and meet the shadows that inevitably arise, and you are ready to not only bring your genius to the table but to also recognize, honor and learn from the genius of others who are doing the same.
Are you ready to join other grail leaders at a round table, bringing your genius and your full self forward?
Are you ready to fulfill your purpose ~ the thing that you can’t not do, knowing that the mission that is moving you can only be truly realized by joining with others?
Are you ready to thrive, being in the flow of giving and receiving, being rewarded in many ways ~ not as the goal but as a by-product of you showing up in a shared vision to serve something greater than any of us can {or desire} to do on our own?
Have you been feeling like a lone wolf, even if you are surrounded by great teams? Are you ready to join with other members of your pack who have been silently howling at the moon for each other?
This is not an invitation ~ it’s a calling
This is not an open invitation for all who may be interested.
It is a very special Calling ~ a beckoning from your soul that you have, at some ancient and deep level, already said Yes to, a story that is already written in the stars.
This is not an invitation that will set off a giddy excitement in you, a response from the head saying that this experience will give you something that you are lacking.
If this calling is for you, it will hit you in your solar plexus and will sit there as a deep knowing ~ because it’s a song you wrote long before I came along to sing it back to you.
Are you feeling the “fuck yessss” and, at the same time, anxious butterflies in your stomach as something deep within you knows you will be stretched beyond your comfort zone?
Grail leaders do not wait for invitations ~ we respond to the callings of our highest expression, which is sometimes voiced through others who we sense are resonating with that same frequency, drawing us in to a place that we somehow already know as home.
You may feel that centered, calm, quiet “fuck yessss” ~ and then your mind may step in with lots of questions. But when you sit in stillness, allowing the mists of self-based questions to drift by, there won’t be a question ~ only a knowing that it is already done.
Your name was etched on a seat at the Round Table long ago, for you and by you ~ as was the name of every other person who will be seated at this game-changing table we are called to co-create.
What is the cost?
A natural question ~ likely one of the first that came racing to your mind after the initial knowing that you’re in.
The short answer: Nothing.
If this is truly a calling for you, you are likely willing to pay any {remotely reasonable} cost. And you have ~ many times over.
As you’ve journeyed along the path of your grail quest, first to uncover your genius and later feeling called to serve and share your unique gifts, you have likely invested a great deal of money. You’ve been asked many times to contribute much for free and even to pay to attend conferences and gatherings of world-changers ~ and you have willingly done so in service of bringing the vision that you see to life.
A sure sign you are in your Zone of Genius is that you are doing work that you would do without pay ~ because you’re not in it for the money. It is your passion, your purpose, the thing you can’t not do.
And yet, how long will those of us who are here to serve, whose genius is moving through us and calling us into ever great stretches, be asked to keep giving without return?
I have spent the better part of the last four years deep in my passion, working for little or no money with businesses and initiatives that are in alignment with my purpose. I’ve maxed out credit cards, exhausted savings, and delved deep into my retirement account to sustain myself while following my bliss.
The gifts have been many. I no longer question whether I am drawn to something because of the money. I know what it is like to “give first” ~ diving in because it felt right. I’ve had many direct experiences of surrender and trust in the innate abundance of life, always being supported no matter how dark and dismal it may have looked. I have radically redefined my definition of what safety, security and abundance looks like for me. I have dissolved attachments to material objects, while refining my preferred standard of living, knowing that we need not live like paupers to do what we love and to serve others.
While I am grateful for the many gifts of these experiences, I am no longer willing to continue this practice, no longer willing to accept nor fuel the notion that living our passion and purpose is somehow removed from our thriving financially.
In this great period of transition in which we find ourselves, our economic systems are not {yet} set up to reward trailblazing new paths outside of the conditional realm of capitalism with its perverse incentives and narrowly focused obsession with short-term returns on investment.
I was in a conversation last year with a wonderful change-maker friend who devotes his life to co-creating the emerging new world. He said, “Well, you know, until they create new-paradigm financial systems that allow for more abundance for the work we do, we all need to be willing to take less than we’d like.”
Feeling the resistance that was rising up in me, I replied, “Who is the ‘they’ who are going to create this new financial system of abundance? How will this ever happen when we, the change-makers, continue to operate in an energy of lack, perpetuating the old system?”
“If not us, who? If not now, when?”
When I shared with a friend recently my vision to call in a round table and that I was getting the strong guidance not to charge anything for it, he was surprised. He said his uncle runs CEO Masterminds where executives pay $10,000 per month to sit at a table like this with other leaders, because they see the massive value they will get from doing so.
I was so grateful that he continued to challenge me on this notion, as it helped bring crystal clarity to my vision.
In that moment, I got really excited as it became so clear to me. “Exactly!” I replied. “The people coming to those mastermind groups are drawn there because of what they can get out of it for themselves. The people that I’ll be calling in to the round table are grail leaders ~ they are operating from their genius, moved by the opportunity to give more, to serve more for the good of the whole. That’s the difference!”
Ideally, I’d like to see every member of a round table rewarded in multiple ways for their contributions ~ bringing a more natural alignment to the flow and allocation of resources that has been upside down for so long.
At a minimum, I want these grail leaders to have the direct experience of being recognized, valued and invited in for who they are, the genius they are embodying, and the critical piece they are bringing to the table ~ without any need to pay for that seat and free from any wondering whether they’d been invited in as a way to contribute to my income.
So, how do I reconcile these two seemingly paradoxical intentions ~ that I will not charge the grail leaders for a seat at the round table that they are co-creating, and that I intend and fully trust that I will be supported financially, having my own essentials for thriving met, while serving and sharing my gifts?
I do not know the answer to that question. And I don’t need to know.
I feel strongly, though, that it has something to do with releasing a foundational assumption that there must be a direct transactional exchange ~ a conditional ‘I will give you this if you give me that’ premise that keeps us stuck in a loop of lack and scarcity.
I feel certain that the solution ~ even several solutions ~ will emerge naturally and organically through the synergy of collective genius that is being called forth. That is the beauty of Round Table leadership ~ I do not need to have all the answers!
And that requires a great deal of trust, surrender and release of any need to control the outcome or to be ‘guaranteed’ of income, which has been linked for generations to an illusion of safety and security.
From that space of trust and abundance, I can imagine any number of infinite-game scenarios that could emerge here.
One that has me really excited is a vision of calling in true philanthropists to the table ~ those grail leaders who really get the notion of Prosperability, who have a large surplus of resources, who share the vision of a world of mutual thriving, and who wish to serve that vision through financially supporting initiatives like this.
Far from viewing these philanthropists as walking checkbooks, I see these leaders also seated at the round table, bringing their many gifts, and being intimately involved in the co-creation and manifestation of our shared vision.
Not just for social entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs ~ those purpose-driven founders of organizations and initiatives aimed at positive impact ~ are a natural fit for the Round Table.
And yet, there are many other ways that grail leaders show up and many varieties of genius that are required for the kind of synergy we are cultivating.
As an example, I have a friend who has an amazing gift for listening intently, synthesizing and then communicating clearly the core essence of what has been expressed. One aspect of his genius lies in helping others to gain clarity, distilling the many elements swirling around into alchemical gold.
Another dear friend and long-time ally of mine has tapped into her genius to reveal, among many magical talents, a gift for reading DNA activations ~ intuiting the primary energies that each person’s blueprint is coded to activate in others. Understanding that I activate the energies of Safety & Security in others ~ and ultimately being able to consciously receive and embody that energy within myself ~ has been invaluable in my journey. Seeing the interplay of various DNA activations encoded in a group of people who are in a co-creative field is incredibly powerful.
For optimal synarchy to emerge, the round tables will need to be tapestries of genius of all sorts, cross-sections of visionaries and implementors, with a wide variety of perspectives, personality types, work styles, gifts, talents and experiences.
How will this work?
What will these round tables look like?
I don’t know exactly, since we have not yet created them.
I want to allow plenty of spaciousness for the emergence of what wants to unfold at this time, refraining from restricting the flow of possibilities by being too specific or by pre-determining what this must look like.
In my greatest daydreams, I see a flood of players expressing their interest ~ a number sufficient for us to see patterns emerging, dots connecting, and common visions that could burn at the center of several round tables.
I have a sense that the round tables will naturally reveal themselves ~ and will continue to do so over time.
The key will be to identify the shared vision that resides at the center of each round table ~ which could be any one of a myriad of initiatives focused on generating a positive impact. This shared vision will be the central organizing principle, the energy that creates the attractor field that will magnetically draw the key players to the table.
Ultimately, my vision is that at least some of these round tables will take the form of Mutual Thriving Networks ~ round tables comprised of complementary, synergistic businesses and initiatives represented by leaders who each bring their genius and the genius of their organization to the table in service of a greater shared vision. And I am open to the possibility that it may take time for these deeper synergies to unfold.
The round tables could emerge initially as groups of leaders in varying sectors coming together to explore ways that they can bring more round-table leadership into their organizations and initiatives.
There could be round tables of synergistic businesses coming together to simply better understand each other, to share their respective opportunities and challenges, and to support each other in expressing their individual genius.
The initiatives could be in any sector that contributes to a healthy regenerative community ~ education, health & wellness, transportation, housing, communications, food & farming, waste management, energy, water, finance and complementary currencies.
I see each round table containing a diverse assembly of people with an array of experience, skills, traits and genius, including:
- diverse gender, ethnicity and life stage ~ without quotas or artificial preferences, just allowing for what authentically wants to emerge
- established businesses, start-ups, and even visions in the incubation stage
- founders, leaders, facilitators and ancillary support
- varying types and profiles identified in frameworks such as the Gene Keys, Human Design and Kolbe work-style index
What this is not
The round tables I am envisioning at this stage are not for everyone … yet.
In order to generate sufficient inertia to carry us through the turbulence and forces that we’re moving against as we endeavor to sail this ship upstream, we need to engage players who are ready to navigate through those potentially choppy waters ~ with integrity and a capacity for shared responsibility and co-creation.
Round table leadership requires a whole new level of personal responsibility and collective stewardship.
We have work to do.
The work does not need to be long and tortured. In fact, this work can be filled with an incredible amount of grace, ease and joy ~ and it can create widespread impact very quickly ~ especially when the table is populated with game-ready players who are embodying the grail codes of Sovereign Unity and leaders who are devoted to a world of mutual thriving.
This is not a think tank or a mastermind in the conventional sense. This is you bringing what you do and who you are to the table in a way that completes the whole and allows your initiative to flourish at the same time.
This is not a place for us to spend hours hammering out agreements or trying in vain to reach agreement on a uniform statement of our shared vision. This is where we come together to actually do and be, and to move the needle forward by operating in the new model, prototyping as we go.
This is not a place for you if you are:
- primarily motivated by getting something from the round table ~ inspiration, income or community ~ without giving at least as much in return
- looking for a traditional leader or guru, wanting to be taught or told how to think or what to do
- not taking radical personal responsibility in every area of your life {are you claiming to be a leader of the new paradigm yet continually leaving dishes in the sink for others to clean up after you?}
- in need of rules, agreements and promises in order to do what you are here to do and to trust that others will do the same
This is not about judging, demanding perfection {vulnerability is in fact essential here}, or about creating some exclusive, elite club.
This is me taking a stand for the vision that I see and not diluting the potency of what is possible by being bogged down in a “green meme” of over-inclusivity.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein
If this calls to something deep inside of you, please reach out to us at GrailLeadership.earth.
I am a firm believer that there are no accidents. As you are reading this, please know that I see you and your massive potential and gifts to this world, I appreciate you, and I deeply honor you.
Thank you for all the ways you are contributing to this monumental shift, bringing yourself and the world in closer alignment with our true nature.
