The paradox of leaderSHIP
Expansion is human nature. To go beyond ourselves and find what is on the other side, human history is filled with stories of romance, tragedy, conquest, and exploration - all in search of what is just out of reach. With our limited physical capacities, humans have turned to tools to enhance our quality of life and expand our possibilities. The greatest of these tools has been the ship. The nautical ship has crossed seas to connect continents, the spaceship has defied gravity to connect our world with our solar system, stewardship has connected purpose beyond ourselves, relationship has connected our soul to another, and leadership has connected who we are in the present to who we are becoming.
Yet, to understand what leadership is, we must also understand what leadership is not. Lao Tzu reminds us of this nonduality in the Dao De Jing:
Under heaven, all can see beauty as beauty because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good because there is evil.
Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short contrast each other,
High and low rest upon each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other,
Front and back follow one another.
Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit,
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.
Leadership is not a self-proclamation or the bending of others, it is not a title or a self-serving one-upmanship amongst peers, and, for those building a business in which you are transitioning from being a solopreneur towards the stewardship of caring for the livelihood of others, buying leads does not equal leadership.
The paradox of leadership is how little it has to do with position or power. The word leader is derived from the Old English lædan, which is a form of lithan meaning something similar to go, travel, or sail. And -ship, as a suffix, derives from the Middle English -schipe, meaning “state, condition of being”. Therefore, one could surmise that leadership is a state of being committed to the journey of self-actualization. It is this state of being and commitment to travel the distance within to find one’s realized potential that attracts others, not the other way around. This is why leadership takes on many forms. Why it is not a one-size-fits-all and why some in positions of power look like cardboard cutouts; carbon copies of the real thing. Leadership is a state of being, not a state of doing.
For the greater part of my professional career, I have studied the psychology of success and motivation and have had the honor of working with business owners, public officials, professional musicians, and everyday individuals, all searching for what is on the other side of success, meaning, wealth, and fulfillment. It takes on many forms, is defined differently by each person, and yet the common denominator for those seeking a life of intention is a journey of ten thousand conscious steps.