Leadership is too often about ego dynamics and an attachment to your story, resulting in much of the dysfunction we see in our world.
True authentic leadership is a powerful story about leading with your soul, which is much easier to say than do.
Leading with soul is to be guided by higher levels of values and consciousness, unattached to the wants, desires, and fears of the ego.
Your true self is neither your story nor your ego. Dr. Richard Barrett, in his recent book, A New Psychology of Human Well Being, says you are a soul inhabiting a human body which has an ego. He proposes a holistic and unifying philosophy that bridges mind, body and spirit as well as eastern and western philosophy.
Leadership with soul is one of intention. Here you are fully conscious and are free to come from a place of love, connection, and contribution. Leading with ego is less than fully conscious, and can thus easily fall prey to fear, which can be divisive in order to provide protection from vulnerable feelings. After all, the ego must deal with the perceived threats to it’s lower level desires and needs of survival, belonging and self-esteem. Meanwhile, the soul has no fears, and is thus free to connect and be of service in a more powerful manner.
Letting go of your ego and staying fully conscious of your spirit is the purest form of authenticity in leadership and in life. It is not something we do naturally, or particularly well, at least not without support and practice.
Try some of these practices that can help you let go of your story and your ego in favor of aligning with the true spirit of you: mindfulness, prayer, compassion, meditation, curiosity, wonder, song, chant, poetry, art, dance, improvisation, gardening, writing, scrupting, painting, or other creative pursuits of flow.
Our world would be a much greater place if we all practiced leading with soul.
