We all yearn for authenticity, creativity, courage, and meaningful work. We either strive to attain them in the workplace we lead or long to be employed by an organisation that lives and breathes these values.
On a mental level, we all know that authenticity, creativity, courage, and meaningful work are necessary in order to thrive and effect a transformative and sustainable change in a world characterised by increasing complexity and volatility.
On a behavioural level, however, we often face numerous leadership challenges that sabotage our efforts to create conditions that foster these values. Regardless of promising to ourselves to become the best leader to have ever lived, we often fall into a trap where our fears create a domino effect, turning all our intentions into wishful thinking.
We find ourselves overwhelmed by questions.
What if I fail? What if I do not know everything? What if I am not good enough? What if I do not meet expectations? What if people do not like and respect me?
All these “what ifs” instil in us fear and anxiety that, if not identified and dispelled in a timely manner, are sooner or later reflected in our reactive and anxious behaviours and start to work against all our intentions, ambitions, and dreams.
Instead of constructing a space where we would be able to thrive and make progress – on an individual and organisational level – we establish an anxiety-filled environment that hinders creativity, courage, and vision and negatively impacts our leadership performance.
Fear and shame are contagious, counterproductive emotional states that stifle progress and innovation in our teams, organisations, and lives. If we do not face them and heal the wounds that trigger them, they will spill over – we will also sow the seeds of anxiety in other people at work, demotivate our team, and create an anxious organisation, one that lacks the psychological safety required to achieve the creativity, innovation, and growth.
The first step toward breaking this vicious cycle is becoming aware that we are not the leaders we were meant to be and that it is high time we stopped the suffering and ascended to higher levels of leadership effectiveness and performance.
The journey from reactive to authentic leadership is marked by numerous challenges and setbacks. It is neither easy nor short. Not at all. It requires facing our greatest fears, healing old wounds, and questioning the beliefs that sabotage our attempts to improve the quality of our leadership and drive the transformative and sustainable change that we and our organisation desire.
... this is the only route and the single way to Great Leadership!
We all have these two parts inside us – lower self and higher self. … and we always have a choice – we can let our lower self react or make an intentional decision to grow as human beings, face our greatest fears, heal old wounds and make the shift to our higher self. Unless we do the latter, the lower self will take over, and fear and shame will run the show and negatively impact our leadership effectiveness and performance.
APPLICATION ON AN ORGANISATIONAL AND SOCIETAL LEVEL
Now that we understand the logic behind reactive and authentic leadership and can tell the difference between the inner and outer game of leadership, we can apply the insight on an organisational and societal level.
We can observe that when individuals leading organisations and societies do not face their fears and heal their wounds, we sooner or later find ourselves working for anxious organisations and living in anxious societies. It becomes a vicious cycle for each and all of us.
The only way to stop the suffering caused by individual and collective fear, shame and trauma is through each one of us facing our fears, healing our wounds, and moving to a higher level of consciousness that is no longer governed by fear but driven by a higher purpose, authenticity, courage, and vision.
Only in this state would we be capable of leaving our stamp on future generations.
It’s time for leadership reflection:
1. Where are you in terms of the journey from reactive to authentic leadership?
2. What are your beliefs and behaviours that sabotage you in becoming the leader you were meant to be?
3. Who would you be without these beliefs?
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