When did we give up trying to change the world? When did our dreams of making more people’s lives better go to sleep within us? When did we stop believing that we could “beat The System”? When did we allow the jerks and tyrants to run the world simply because we offered no alternative?
These questions are as old as time and as young as the last time any one of us turned the other cheek to let ourselves or one of our employees get away with toxic behavior because they “got the job done;” smashed our head on the glass ceiling and refused to pay the glass-cutter (or paid and regretted it); missed our kids’ championship game to attend one too many project review meetings; or just let inertia carry us through another year of the status quo when our heart wasn’t in it or fear drove us away from our dreams.
Leadership isn’t just about making money or managing legions, it’s about getting up each day determined to cause positive change and living in integrity to do so. Good leaders are people who stand in their own power and set the intention for themselves, their employees, their bosses, their clients and others they influence to make the world a better place. They create organizations and conditions that cause the world to change. Great leaders are willing to move beyond their own limitations, to transform themselves in advance of – and alongside – the world they impact. They define success for themselves and invite the world to show up in new and positive ways. Inevitably it does.
Why now?
Why not? Our world needs us, and I don’t just mean the people and places we see in the news (though of course, they do too.) Every office. Every store. Every .com. Every .org. Every school. Every government. Every platoon. Every meeting. Every team. Every _____ needs good leaders who can stand in their power, and just as importantly, everyone is a potential leader able to stand in their power. When we give up the “requirements” that externally bestowed wealth and the authority to coerce others into action make us leaders, opportunities to lead and impact the world appear at every gathering and email exchange. The world swamps good leaders with opportunity to stand in their power and be the cause of change and transformation in the world around them. What are we waiting for?
Reclaiming Our Power To Lead
I have come to believe that good leadership isn’t always what the Bschools and corporate trainings say it is. I’ve sat through – and run, sadly – too many strategic planning, budget and project meetings with highly trained leadership experts who play off the Bschool notebook and I’ve watched them completely squander their power. I’ve squandered my own power using these methods. Nothing changes and everyone just becomes more cynical.
Narrow definitions of success are part of the problem. My measure of success now is broader than profits or low employee turnover, starting with the triple bottom line (people, planet, profits) and ending with the higher purpose achieved. I hold this high standard because it’s clear that achieving only narrow success metrics is dangerous, leaving the organization and its leader’s vulnerable, and wasting too much opportunity.
Too many of the leaders and organizations that wield great financial and influential power in service of the too-narrow goals give away their power on a regular basis. They accept the golden handcuffs and stick themselves to the quarterly profit tar baby. They adapt to dysfunctional cultures and foster them into the future. And all too often of late, they suffer the public disgrace of greed revealed and the quiet despair of opportunity lost. The world complains – in the news, on the blogs, around the BBQ – but we tolerate it. Why do we – as leaders able to stand in our own power – put up with it? Why don’t we make the few, small, highly powerful choices that unleash waves of change in our economy and world for the better? Why don’t we reverse the tide?
Because we’ve given up. We’ve drunk the cool-aid. We’re too attached. We’re afraid. We replace intention with expectation. We’ve forgotten how to imagine it better. We’ve given away our power.
Time to take back the promise of leadership. Time to own our wounded hero and free ourselves from the fear. Time to reclaim the power that lies within each of us in the jobs we hold today and aspire to tomorrow, not the false power-mask bestowed by the boss, the board or the shareholders, who can just as easily take it away. Frankly, when we succeed, many of them will be happy, because down deep they want a better world too.
Time to lead. Time to change the world through the work we do in it, not in our “spare time” when we’re exhausted and spent.
Join me. Reclaim your leadership potential. If you’ve claimed it, share it far and wide. Stand in your power and cause the world to change for the better, simply because you’re in it. It’s easier than it sounds, and it’s never too late.
A Pragmatic Footnote
The status quo is real. Change for the better is not guaranteed, or even always desired by those who say they crave it. Compromise and dilemma abound. Not every leader is ready to stand in their power and not every organization is meant to survive even when they do.
And that’s ok.
We who are ready; we who remember how to imagine; we who are not afraid to free ourselves of fear; we who are in our power; we will lead the way.
Dana Theus
Arlington, VA
April 25, 2011
If this got a reaction out of you – good! I invite you to bear witness in comments below. Share your reactions – positive and negative – and tell us your story.
