Lead from Wherever You Are

Wherever you are, you have power and influence. Just as in physics it is so that your presence alters the molecules and atoms of that which you are interacting with; it is also so that any situation is changed by what you bring to the conversation.

If you are not mindful of your impact then you have none. If you are conscious of what you are trying to bring and be then there is a chance of influencing an outcome.

What is the basis of individual influence?

• Awareness that you make a difference just by your presence.
  
• Knowledge that can be applied to any situation about those technical areas of competence that you are trained in and your interpersonal know-how that is just as valuable as technical skill.
• Hard won or natural competencies- these are skills that you are able to demonstrate.
• Your unique mix of talents and gifts.
• Your emotions
• Your intentions for the conversation.
• Two from the list that I can comment on now:

Emotions- Positive emotions are a bell weather to learning what is right and wholesome for you to engage in- they tell you when you are feeling connected to something that is good for you and conversely negative emotions are a tell tale to what is off or not as you want it to be. The contrast between what feels good and what feels bad for the wise person is the initiator of action to improve the situation.

Intention for the conversation-

To have a clear desired outcome in mind for any conversation improves your chances of moving the dialogue to something that is in line with your intentions. Preparing for interactions with a sense of what “you are up to” is a good way of leading form where you are.

Many of us think that position and power is what determines whether you are able to make something happen but in reality people impact from the position and role they are in most effectively when they believe they can and act as if that were true.

Lead with Courage

The word courage comes from the root word “couer” or heart in French. Heart is essential to leadership and having a heart is necessary to leadership that is imbued with compassion not just passion.

My key point is that you- like anyone who chooses to stand for something that is more than your own self- interest- requires kindness. Kindness is not maudlin nor feelings- run- wild. Kindness is an active state of care imbued by a concern for the best in each person. Kindness demonstrates recognition that people are capable and can be actors in their own life in contrast to being at the mercy or victims of whatever bedevils them.

We are noble beings who were born to be courageous in our lives and life work.

How does one develop courage if it is not in evidence today? A good place to start is with any conversation that you have been avoiding for the sake of fear.

Open your mouth; speak what is true to you. Resist the temptation to hold back for the thousand reasons that you already know. The truth is relative- it is yours and it has relevance to you because it is yours.

I cannot be true and brave without courage to speak the words that I hold back. I cannot find my nobility of purpose without braving the resistance and disagreement of others who have their own truth.

My saying what is true for me does not mean another person is persuaded to think or feel differently. It is simply a good, wholesome and healthy thing for me as I develop more heart.

A skill that helps in speaking your truth is preparation. Take 20 minutes to think through what you want to say. Ask yourself what is the essence of the most critical item that you want to insure is communicated and that you intend to have understood?

Conscious Action and Noble Purpose

What is the relationship between conscious action and noble purpose?

Why don’t we learn from our experiences?

Have you ever wondered why it is that history repeats? How could we as a country not recognize the signs of Viet Nam refrained in Iraq? How can people have alcoholic parents and witness horrible interpersonal behavior for years fueled by alcohol and then drink way too much making others and their life miserable?

Isn’t it just tragic that it takes so many generations to seemingly develop an ability to remember that hatred and greed only lead to more hatred and greed?

This entry explores the subject of learning and how it is possible to make best use of the brain’s plasticity to acquire new habits of heart and mind that can lead each of us individually towards noble intentions coupled with skillful actions.

To learn we have to be aware. If I am developing a new skill and only 10% of my attention is invested in learning and the rest is focused upon the future or the past day my ability to use what is going in is severely diminished. I am likely to have a fuller ability to make use of the tools, skills and knowledge if I am reflecting upon what I am hearing, seeing and sensing. Reflection and the tool of observation bring new ideas into the lens of objective observing. My observational skills can deepen, synthesize, and see patterns and themes while ingesting the ideas. In other words, my active participation in learning makes that which is being taken in something that is now partly mine.

I offer that there is a direct connection between the way we view learning and our ability to bring our highest self into our life. The best we are is consciousness-in-action. I define conscious as being an active, objective and observing self in your moment to moment experience. To be conscious is to engage with each interaction. To lead from a point of view of nobility self requires that we be conscious beings. All it takes to be a tiny bit more conscious is to consider as something is being felt, heard, and thought that there is an observer in you that also is looking on able to reflect on what it is experiencing. The moment of observation can turn this event into one in which insight is possible. Insight is to see into something with more depth. Leaders must bring insight into their lives to improve the quality of interaction and communication. Leaders turn the most mundane events and situations into a time of synthesis, insight, development and value.

We cannot learn from life experiences if we are not present at the time it is happening. If we are preoccupied by negative emotions: desire turned towards acquisition, trying to show up another person as less than we are or attempting to win at all costs then we are not looking into experience with observation, objectivity and compassion. We don’t benefit from what is being experienced. Noble leaders are conscious people who reflect upon their experience and look for meaning, value and opportunity to become a better person or to help another be happier and kinder.

Introduction: Meet Elad Levinson

Let me introduce myself, my name is Elad Levinson and I will be your provocateur and host on this blog.

My purpose is to offer a few ideas, preferably Big ideas that move your inner furniture a bit; share some tools and skills and speak to social and environmental concerns that I feel strongly about and maybe you do too.

I am a 40 plus year veteran of the work world with just as much time put into spiritual practices. I say this because my point of view about leadership is inseparable from my spiritual life. By spiritual I do not mean religious- I refer to a complex set of values, beliefs and experiences that are integrated into my world view. I am a practicing Buddhist but many times I have thought of myself as a Pantheist- one who celebrates all religions, spiritual paths, deities and philosophies. I continue to care very deeply about and am curious about how others experience their connection to something bigger than themselves- for many of us- work is a part of what is bigger. I am intensely interested in how people bring a noble purpose to their lives- as a parent, friend, employee, leader but for the sake of this blog, I will limit myself to a dialogue about the way work, spirituality and leadership interact.

Something highly paradoxical is occurring in the work domain- and the dichotomy is bidirectional- on one hand my observation is that work has never been less a source of nobility or high minded ideals and on the other there is a resurgence of deep commitment to values and ideals that are aspiration and perspiration. I see a growing tide of passion and intent to bring a whole person to work with a concomitant interest in desiring to see effort result in betterment of the condition of our world- both globally and locally.

There are trends that are contributing to this surge of right minded caring for us all. The urgent condition of global degradation, diminishing value of living in a manner that is unsustainable, baby boomers who are reinvesting in social activism, generations coming into the work world whose expectations are not to be indentured to corporations that demand soul deadness to work in them, feminine-oriented nurturing and connecting adding a spark of kindness and concern for others from men and women who embody these behaviors all contribute to the radical transformation of work as a way to survive into work as a way to bring your most noble aspirations.

In the pages and entries to follow, my desire and intent is to catalyze in you the intent to accelerate your commitment to be noble in small ways in every day life. The word needs nobility. Not nobility that is the “royals” version- more the noble way that is embodied in leaders like HH the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Helen Caldicott and the thousands that are bringing a higher ethic and morality to a globe in need of goodness.

Ideas of the week- lead from your experience; it is what you know. Someone needs exactly what you already have experienced. Every thing you have ever known, learned, felt, wondered about is part of your body of value that you bring into every conversation. You have the right stuff right now for someone. In AA, there is a notion that your experience, strength and hope is needed by others less far along the path as you. I assert that this is true in all situations in life- you are ready right now to lead from your strengths which are what you know, what you are good at even if it is a natural talent- not something that you have had to suffer to bring forth- you are ready to make that ability benefit others.