From Inconsequential to Important…Leading So People Will Lead

I am thinking of how critical it is to personal well being to feel important to others and how destructive it is to feel inconsequential. Every life matters. People are precious. As we evolve towards the new leadership paradigm of ‘leading so people will lead’, it is essential to identify systems and patterns of behavior in which people end up feeling inconsequential. Now imagine shifting the consciousness of the organization and the people in it to one of nourishing a culture of leadership. If everyone learns to accept that they are engaged in leadership, no matter what their job or task, and starts to perceive others around them as engaged in leadership, it is possible for more and more people to feel important to the enterprise or community. Perception shifts from ‘I can’t do it’ to ‘I can do it’ and from ‘they can’t do it’ to ‘they can do it’.

People that we work with in our organizational consulting sometimes refer to what we do as magic. A key to the magic is shifting the perception about leadership, and thus shifting the perception that everyone involved is important.

If this is of interest to you, a first step is to challenge yourself with accepting that leadership is a verb, an action. A next step is to engage others around you in a conversation about ‘if leadership is a verb, what does that mean for us?’.

Our focus in all of our work is on nourishing a culture of leadership. I believe that leadership work is some of the most important work on our planet at this time. Shifting our collective perspective at this time about leadership is a valuable commodity for our organizations.