Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist responsible for bringing the concept of “Flow” into our awareness shares his viewpoint on this question:
A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity…one must first embark on the formidable journey of self-discovery in order to create a vision with authentic soul.
Those of you who read this blog will know that this resonates with what I’ve been saying as well.
If you can connect with your own deepest concerns, your values, and what keeps you energized, you will communicate that energy to others. They, in turn, will be more likely to connect with what you’re saying and offering, and to be similarly energized by their connection to your energy.
If you aren’t connected to these elements of yourself, you will lack that passion for what you’re saying and no connection will be established.
Which would you rather have? What do you do to promote and maintain that connection to yourself first?
Filed under: Creating Change, Positive Quotes, Positive Strategies
I am going out on a limb here and express my thoughts on this.
I know that they can be torn apart by those who may be better thinkers than I, or better educated in the ways of things ……but here goes….
In my opinion, leaders are all around us. We can find a leader in our neighbor or our sister, our father or our minister. We will encounter many leaders in our lives. It is up to us as individuals when we encounter such people to decide if they are the leaders that we want to follow, if what they are leading in is something that we want to follow, and as such make them the leaders that they are or will become. The leaders who lead down a path that is already laid out can easily bring those who are afraid of the unknown to their path. There is ease in passing a lie that things as they are can continue forever. As such, it is quite comforting to accept lies and that ‘known path’. This makes it quite easy to stick with everything that we are comfortable with, everything that we are taught through life and what is reinforced as the ‘truth’.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
I absolutely agree that leaders are all around us…and they may be the last to see themselves that way
What seems so critical to me is to choose our leaders based on our own values and whether they inspire to move forward in ways that really Matter.
How true that too often we are tempted to take the easy or familiar or “popular” path instead of really Looking at where we want to go and whether this will take us there in the long run.
Your willingness to express your thoughts here is a nice example of really saying what you mean and having the courage to share it with others — this is what gives us the courage to share as well. Thanks!