Leadership that ignites you to action
A very different perspective on how inspiring leadership actually may work.
Too many people think about leadership just as a thing of leading others. Sure, that gets things done but fails often to make our world a really better place. Trust in many essential organizations like media, politics, banks is severely damaged. What if there was a very different approach to leadership that could turn our whole thinking about the essence of leadership around?
Who or what is your guiding star?
What is it with those people that have these shining eyes and follow a passionate road of idealistic dreams and hopes? What is it with those people, whether they are hopeful children, gentle old souls or passionate dreamers, that immediately touches us? What is it that makes almost everyone holds Jane Goodall in very high esteem? Or take the spirited Severn Suzuki, the girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes. Or take Greta Thunberg, 15-year old activating thousands across the planet. What makes such people guiding stars; people we project the best of humanity and hopes upon? And more importantly, how does it affect our own attitude and actions?
What if we’d see true leadership as supporting our guiding stars?
What if our actions were to make sure our guiding stars would never lose their smile, or at the least help them find it back? What if we aspire to help keep hope alive in those that saw the best in us, or others? What if we saw our own inner child, or the most hopeful child we know one full of idealism for a better world, like the one we should show our biggest loyalty to? I don’t mean asking them to lead you. They don’t even have to know you follow them and that they inspire you so much. I’m asking you to consider their hope as your guiding star; you being the one that decides what actions will best support that hope. This is the thing: by helping with that dream, hope, ideal to live, we create a better world or organization.
How does it work?
It’s very much like being good parents. Just imagine, what kind of parent you’d be when you couldn’t look in your own children’s eyes for embarrassment about your actions in this world? With this approach towards leadership, you start to listen to your deepest inner morals. You’d be following guiding stars inside and outside of you, whose light you’d hope keeps on shining. Betraying children with lies, as some adults do, is the worst. And they feel it when they are being bullshitted. You feel it when your boss bullshits you. You feel it when you’re telling yourself it’s okay to bullshit your people, to press them into actions that they feel aren’t really fully ethical. What if we allowed ourselves to feel it deeply when we feel betrayed or betray others? What if we all chose to help the whole by speaking and doing the right thing?
How real is this idea?
I know old cynics (of any age) who shake their head at such people, or this idea. “It’s not realistic”, they’ll say. Yet I know many are hurting inside, yet the fear of letting go of their defensive shields. They keep the focus on profits, targets, pleasing bosses. They fear getting fired. But if you fear getting fired for speaking out or doing what’s right, then in what kind of organization do you work? And keeping such workplaces profitable, is that what really matters in life? The economy should support love, our planet, nature, friendships & community. It should not be the other way around.
It is actually the old politicians and managers that live fairy tale realities where money and contracts are more important than everyone’s health, connectivity, and life on our planet. They offer false promises, prefer personal power, or push us to deliver on targets we don’t believe in. They are the ones that provide us with bubbles of false beliefs that, when broken, lower trust in the economy, banks, media, politics even our healthcare organizations. Following such ‘leaders’ has led to an all-time low in trust in many essential organizations. Where’s the realism in that?
“True leadership starts with acting out of love.”
Guiding Stars act out of care and initiate activities that give hope. Support those who have sparkling eyes, full of possibility. Strengthen those that dare to dream and act on those dreams. See them as your real guiding stars. While their tender hearts may seem full of a fairy tale, they actually see and act on real needs, they sense in the world or organization. They want to protect nature, fight injustice, help the weak. They are kind, give, share, take risks, speak the truth and dare to fully live. Try being more like them, to have a real impact.
(Edit 2021, one such new leader is Aurora, whose loving vulnerable light is so important in our world right now. Watch the whole program to see it in action. The makers too lift people up.)
Because real leadership is not about ordering people around, ordering them into the dark or create suffering to obtain profits and further interests. Real leadership is about lighting a candle and walk ahead into the dark with a smile, whether anyone follows or not. It may seem hard to walk into the dark with just one candle. It is, but mind you, that’s when you become a source of light for everyone truly in the dark. Real leadership is having very high morals and standards and living them. Consider Nelson Mandela before his voice was heard, even when nobody knew his name. Consider Rosa Parks when she just couldn’t take it anymore. Consider everyone you deeply admire for being true to a higher calling. Ask yourself, where is that person within you?
“A leader is anyone who helps”
So start looking for those around you that lift your spirit; people whose eyes show a spirit you’ll hope will never break. This can also scare you a bit because they do what you don’t dare (yet). They act on the needs of the world or the community that you may have suppressed a bit. These people seem to listen to their hearts first. They act on that feeling with open and often original ways. You also immediately feel, that as long as these people shine, there is hope. Thus, as you shine and follow hope, you create hope, you inspire, you become light.
Conclusion: doing your best for the sake of your highest hopes makes you a true leader on a mission for a better whole.
And the sensitive people daring to be vulnerable for and with others are those that keep love in this world alive.
Here’s a girl being the living example of this. Watch how she affects everyone around here, and see them investing in her well-being, as just her presence is deeply touching and empowering. The extra work her doctor does for her pays off big-time at the end and helps touch many others.
