I have never bought into the idea that the bottom line for business is only profit. A business, whether owned by a solo-preneur, partnership, or corporation, is an energy exchange. A business only focused on the bottom line limits opportunities and ultimately stifles growth by imbalancing the exchange. In addition, a business that is not creating abundance is not yet in the balance and flow of its energy. Energy is abundant and expansive and likes to flow. Working from an energetic perspective can help you utilize energy in the most useful and expansive ways possible.
A few years ago, I heard a beautiful story about abundance and the mind set of a leader. It comes from an African Folk tale. There was a woman who carried two buckets on a stick across her shoulders down to the river every day to gather water for her vegetables. Day after day one of the buckets leaked along the path. By the time she got to the vegetable garden, one of the buckets was empty. The empty bucket was always sad because it believed it was not doing its job of carrying water to the vegetables. It finally got the courage to speak to the woman. The bucket told the woman it could not understand why she kept carrying it when it was not doing its job. Surprised, the woman paused and looked at the bucket. She told the bucket to look at the path from the river to the vegetable garden. The bucket did and saw flowers all along the path. The bucket still did not understand. The woman then told the bucket if it did not leak, the flowers along the path would not be watered. Looking at the beautiful flowers made the difficult trip of carrying heavy water back and forth easier and more enjoyable.
Living and leading from a spiritual approach makes you a co-creator with your inner wisdom, higher power or however you relate to forces in the universe that connect all of us and are greater than each of us. This spirit was breathed into us when we came into this world and is abundant and loving. Each of us has a gift, talent or strength. In the bucket story, the woman, a wise strengths based leader, utilized the gifts of the leaky bucket and did not toss it away.
Choosing to live and do business from spirit is a choice to allow unique strengths to be utilized in yourself and others. You learn to live your values about spirit which often involve expressions of consciousness such as love, creativity, success, responsibility, connection and joy. The driving force to manifest comes from a desire to spread these qualities in whatever way keeps them expanding. This is totally congruent with business and an exchange of commerce.
In a High Performance Leadership Model, you are looking to express the best in yourself and the best in your team, staff or group. Fear, greed and competition are normal to experience in leadership, but are not the driving force for the spirit based leader. Service, cultural benefit, team work and profit are the focus. The leader who honors his or her own spirit and values communicates that energy and looks for and honors it in others. Win –Win.
While many people believe leadership skills are innate to some degree this is true. We all have the ability to lead if we do so in an area of our strengths and learn to develop our natural leadership style. It often involves a letting go of preconceived notions about leadership and understanding the difference between leadership and management.
As I study leadership, I like to invoke the wisdoms of great leaders over the ages.
Consider Van Gogh, a major influence in the art world. Where did his leadership come from?
“I dream my painting, then I paint my dream.” Van Gogh
- Leadership is about vision.
In the science world, Isaac Newton was quoted as saying:
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” Isaac Newton
- Leadership is about supporting people in the development of their unique talents and gifts.
In the military world, General Colin Powell has said,
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
- Leadership creates and inspires people to see the vision.
In politics, one the forefathers of our country, John Quincy Adams, proposed,
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- Leadership facilitates thinking in the people they are leading.
In literature, Scottish author John Buchan is quoted:
“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.”
- Leadership places more emphasis on finding the right people rather than training people once they take on a position.
Jack Welch, former leader in the growth of GE:
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
- Leaders are in service to employees and customers alike.
Andrew Carnegie:
“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.”
- Leadership inspires and fosters cultures.
Gold Meier, former Prime Minister of Israel:
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
Baseball Manager Gene Mauch:
”You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself.”
- Leadership is a journey into personal growth.
“Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.” Rosabeth Moss Kantor
- Leadership looks for and inspires change.
“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Eleanor Roosevelt
- Leadership is about hope.
High Performance Leadership is a co-creative experience that is a benefit to all involved. It feeds excellence, synchronicity, enchanted ideas, connections, fun, coincidence, creativity and abundance. It is an infinite source of energy. If you haven’t thought about bringing your spirit into your leadership and workplace, consider trying it.
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