Leadership is not position
or formal power. It is our personal impact on others and
our contribution to creating a better world. There are a
million contexts for effective leadership -- from corporate
guidance to raising a child, from political change to
writing a poem. What we do in each moment co-creates the
kind of world in which we live. Each of us has the
obligation to look,
to see what can be done to make our shared life a little
richer, stronger, and closer to the dream of what we can be
-- separately, and as one community -- and then to act. And
that act, first and foremost, is the act of leading
ourselves.
It is "self" that is the
constantly evolving instrument of change.
The key to
effective leadership is the practice of self-knowledge and
continuous learning about how best to bring truth and care
to relationships -- with ourself and with others.
We
discover that we are much more talented and blessed than we
have imagined, and that a primary job of leadership is
releasing potentials -- within ourself and within others.
~~~~~~
A
leader is anyone who wants to use inner potentials to make
a conscious and positive difference in the world.
Dan
Oestreich
Oestreich Associates •
17525 NE 40th Street, E-122 •
Redmond WA 98052 USA
"At bottom, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming
yourself. It's precisely that simple, and it's also that
difficult."
-- Warren Bennis
"It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you
know that just ain't so."
-- Satchel Paige
"If you want to know the truth, you must make your whole
life the truth."
-- Abel