Becoming of Great Leaders

To become a leader of tomorrow it is necessary to do the requisite inner work. It is only by creating a harmonious inner system, that you will be able to draw out the wisdom, courage and compassion required of the true leaders in the 21st Century. Through my Depth Leadership Coaching, I will assist you to unlock your true potential and become such a leader.  

We are currently in what has been dubbed the VUCA age – an age of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.  It is not really an age - rather a point in history. The chaos we are experiencing is the process that occurs when a civilisation and its systems are dying. Out of the chaos of the dying paradigm a new order or civilisation emerges.  The new paradigm is of a higher level of consciousness so as leaders we need to make the quantum leap in order to access and align to our higher-level thinking. It is only this that will enable us to evolve our organisations/society to become dynamic and agile enough. If we continue along the same trajectory we will not survive.

Albert Einstein informed us some time ago that we cannot solve our problems with the same level of [thinking] from which they were created. Our problems have all been created at the level of the separate sense-of self. This separate-sense-of-self is the adapted self or ego that is initially shaped and programmed by our early and cultural environment. As a consequence of the human-condition (how we adapt to survive in the world and the nature of our divided brain with its right and left hemispheres), and the Enlightenment Movement, what we have considered progress has actually led us away from what makes us truly content and at peace. We have become more machine-like which is the antithesis to life.

Our Western version of capitalism and democracy was founded on a mistaken philosophical belief that there has to be antagonism between society and the individual. The drive of our society has been competition rather than cooperation. As we stand at the pinnacle of this system we see that the individual has been all but consumed by it and our society is disintegrating. History shows that the most successful civilisations operated with a balance between both competition and cooperation and a balance between the left and right brain hemispheres. It was when the perceived need for more and more control took over, driven by the left-brain hemisphere, that the civilisation moved into moral and cultural decline and finally ended.

Yet as something dies something new emerges. This transition, though, can take decades or even centuries of human destitution and suffering. How long our transition takes is up to us. Using teal organisations, as described by Fredeic Laloux, as a blue-print of the emerging paradigm we can see three key areas that are quite different in perspective and approach for leading successful organisations/society: -

• Self-management.  The teal system works on the basis of respectful peer-to-peer relationships.  People have autonomy in their domain and are accountable for coordinating with others.  Self-management leads to a dynamic and creative systems and each person is able to bring their full Being or Self into what they are doing. 

• Wholeness.  Teal organisations provide the context for each person working within the system to fully express their inner wholeness and potential.  This is the ultimate ‘social capital’ and brings with it previously suppressed energy, creativity and even joy.  

• Evolutionary purpose.  Teal organisations are agile because they have flowing systems and practices.  The system is pulsating with life and enables the systems and each person to evolve on an ongoing basis.  When functions are fixed there is no life in them and therefore no evolutionary or life purpose.

How to ensure that you and your organisation make the quantum leap into the new paradigm.

Depth Leadership Coaching enables you to attend to and evolve your own internal system. Only then will you be able to transform your external environment and systems.   By engaging in Depth Leadership Coaching you will be able to increase your capacity for systemic awareness, your awareness of the systems around you, and the dynamic forces at play.  You will be able to increase your ability for systemic thinking and creative problem-solving. You will be able to take systemic action and carry out intentional interventions that lead to value-creating outcomes.

The aim of engaging in Depth Leadership coaching is to establish a Self-led and harmonious internal system and includes the following two stages: -

• A process of Self-Realisation. Initiating and expanding our level of self-awareness – gaining insight into our internal system. Discovering what is influencing our sense-of-self (ego) and how we experience our-self, others and the world.  

• A process of Self-Actualisation. Reaching a critical mass of Self in our internal system enabling us to attend to the needs of all the different parts of us. This brings about healthy completion of any experiences we were unable to process as a child. Unburdening our own internal system from the past enables us to create a new future.