True thought leadership requires original thinking. It is a
practice that can be learned, or rather rediscovered, reclaimed,
with a certain amount of attention and surrender.
As with any creative endeavor, originality in thinking, in
being, requires a heightened state of alertness, a bridging of
the poles, a show of fearlessness and willingness to forfeit the
known for the unknown, the learned for the experienced.
It requires a trust deeper than the sea, for what it asks for is
a letting go, an unmooring from the safe harbor of certainty for
a journey into the mists of mystery and possibility.
When I was in elementary school, I learned to attach importance
to things based on one's willingness to die for them. The whole
idea of heroes usually involved a sacrifice of someone's life.
Being willing to die for your country was the essence of
patriotism.
And as a young Catholic child, the chance to be a martyr for my
faith was something I could only hope and pray for. We have
learned to associate courage with risk, and with the question
"what are you willing to die for?"
But what if we ask "What are you willing to live for?"
If we determine for ourselves exactly what we choose to give our
lives to, where we will direct our energy, what crises we'll
work to ameliorate or prevent, then we set ourselves on a
trajectory that takes a mountainous courage to sustain. We need
to refuel constantly to stay the course, to avoid obstacles, to
overcome resistance from ourselves and others.
As thought leaders, it is our business to be asking questions—of
ourselves as well as others—that help us all redefine what we
are living for and why.
The generation that is stepping up to leadership is a generation
looking for curriculum and challenges that have an impact, that
engage the whole of their fertile imaginations in bridging the
gaps we have failed to bridge thus far in our shaping of a
culture.
What we're in need of is thought leadership that leads people in
two directions: first, into their own deep recesses where they
can access their feelings, their desires, their most basic human
instincts, and identify what it is they are truly called to.
This is a leadership of creativity and imagination that frees
people from their social conditioning, familial expectations,
religious and cultural programming long enough to enable their
unique originality to surface.
It is a process of self-definition, a washing away of all that
is not authentic, a clarifying of one's essence.
The questions are personal: What activities bring you joy and
peace? To what do you aspire? What do you perceive as obstacles
to your success? What inspires you?
If you could imagine yourself capable of fixing one broken
thing, or creating one thing that doesn't yet exist, what would
it be? When you were a child, what did you want to be when you
grew up? What did you imagine that profession would give you?
What would have to happen for you to have that now?
The next step is to move toward fulfillment. Any deep inquiry
into the self will lead to a heightened sense of our
interconnectedness and interdependence on each other. Who we
are, in essence, is revealed to us through our interactions.
What we value is revealed to us through our relationships with
others. What gifts we have, what talents and abilities we
possess, only become real when they are enacted in community.
The very meaning of our lives only becomes apparent to us in our
service to others.
Given this, our next questions are directed outwardly. They
pertain to the ways we manifest the gifts we discovered in our
self-inquiry. They are questions that help us determine what to
make of our talents.
As an individual, how can I do what I love while being of use to
others? As an organizational leader, how can I create a forum
that calls forth the ingenuity of individuals and assists them
in applying that toward communal solutions? As a business
leader, how can I deliver profits to the shareholders while
rewarding fairly all those who made those profits possible? As
an educator, how can I make learning relevant and engage the
students in real-life problem-solving?
In a radio interview the other day, the host asked me, "How do
you help people know what they want?" (I once thought that was a
silly question, but have since realized that most of us need
help clarifying our deepest desires).
Since our education was more a matter of *what to think* than
*how to think*, many of us never learned the process of inner
inquiry.
By default, we end up being perfect consumers, going into debt
for what advertisers tell us we need and want when what we'd
really like is to work less and have a little cabin on a
mountain lake—which would be absolutely do-able if we weren't
paying for all those other things we really didn't want.
So a crucial part of original thinking is the clear-cutting of
all thoughts that are not our own, and the answering of our own
deep questions.
If you aspire to lead, then you will need to do this for
yourself first, then find ways to help others engage in the same
process. The more self-awareness each individual has, the
greater the potential of the group to succeed.
When everyone comes to the table from a place of total freedom,
with an unadulterated willingness to serve, with full access to
their feelings and inner resources, and an awareness of the
group's mission and power to fulfill it, then that circle of
individuals will be capable of achieving whatever they can
imagine.
Excerpted and adapted from the forthcoming book The Art of
Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader, 9th Element
Press © 2006 Jan Phillips
|
