There is no term that communicates quite so much irrevocable dismissal by managers in the business world than labeling an action or activity, “touchy-feely.” It is the most prevalent way of discarding information about people. The term suggests all those really icky “hygiene” demands of employees, dealing with the stuff of relationships in the workplace [...]

It’s possible that the main job of a leader is to become free of yourself. Because if you cannot do that then you are destined to play out over and over only the ways of being that you already know. These ways may certainly be a gift in one sense, a strength that comes from [...]

Here me read this post. [audio:LivingIntoBeing.mp3] Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you’re perfectly free. ~Rumi~ This is the last of five posts on finding freedom from roles and life-scripts that interfere with effective leadership and [...]

Here me read this post. [audio:DiscerningUntruth.mp3] “Let us then imagine archetypes as the deepest patterns of psychic functioning, the roots of the soul governing the perspectives we have of ourselves and the world.” “But one thing is absolutely essential to the notion of archetypes: their emotional possessive effect, their bedazzlement of consciousness….” –James Hillman: Re-Visioning [...]

“It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you, it’s what you know that just ain’t so.” — attributed to Satchel Paige “At bottom, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It’s precisely that simple, and it’s also that difficult.” — Warren Bennis: On Becoming A Leader Hear me share this post. [audio:CostoftheScript.mp3] In [...]

Hear me read this post. [audio:LeadingisNotActing.mp3] “…the first thing that one must learn in every little thing in life is the way of unlearning…” ~Hazrat Inayat Khan~ “We cannot steal the fire. We must enter it.” ~ Sufi aphorism In my previous post I outlined the importance of “unlearning” for leaders — how playing a [...]

Hear me read this post. [audio:JourneyofUnlearning 1.mp3] I have begun to think that leadership in great part is a continuing journey of unlearning. In an earlier post I described how leaders can fall prey to inaccurate self-assumptions. For example, I have the opinion of myself that “I’m not much of a risk-taker.” Or “I’ve never [...]