Leadership: Personal meets Professional
“The journey to authentic leadership begins with understanding the story of your life. Your life story provides the context for your experiences, and through it, you can find the inspiration to make an impact in the world. As the novelist John Barth once wrote, “The story of your life is not your life. It is your story.” In other words, it is your personal narrative that matters, not the mere facts of your life. Your life narrative is like a permanent recording playing in your head. Over and over, you replay the events and personal interactions that are important to your life, attempting to make sense of them to find your place in the world.” - Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
It is time for CEO’s to rid them of the notion that they can somehow separate who they are from what they do or the way they lead. As we listen to people talk we hear the words coming from their mouths and yet we experience the sign on their chests that is broadcasting who they are – their essence, their integrity.
We think we can live these two different worlds and then wonder why it doesn’t take. Howard Schultz explains in this video.
Parker Palmer in his book The Courage to Teach writes: “…two of the most difficult truths about teaching, the first is that what we teach will never ‘take’ unless it connects with the inward, living core of our students’ lives, with our students’ inward teachers. The second truth is even more daunting: we can speak to the teacher within our students only when we are on speaking terms with the teacher within ourselves. Deep speaks to deep, and when we have not sounded our own depths, we cannot sound the depths of our students’ lives.”
Now replace teaching with leading: (it’s a bit clunky but it works)
…two of the most difficult truths about leading, the first is that what we lead will never ”take” unless it connects with the inward, living core of our constituents’ lives, with our constituents’ inward teachers. The second truth is even more daunting: we can speak to the leader within our constituents only when we are on speaking terms with the leader within ourselves. Deep speaks to deep, and when we have not sounded our own depths, we cannot sound the depths of our constituents’ lives.
Start with discovering your personal narrative. What is the story of your life that has become you? There is not a right or wrong or good or bad story. It is your story. Knowing it will free yourself and the people you lead.
Written by: Bix Bickson, Director of Mojofication
Awesome. Thanks for this.