I have become increasingly clear about where leadership is at and how emotional intelligence ties in to that. My life is changing right now in pretty significant ways.
I am now working with one client, full-time to support them in a major transformation effort. The net of that is that I am not really teaching leadership any more, but simply doing it.
I am also seeing that as I attempt to do leadership (the old physician heal thyself thing), just how flawed the current model of leadership I use--that we all use or try to adapt from--is.
As that shift is happening, I am becoming more clear that part of my purpose for the next year is to share that journey with others. That impacts this blog.
Lastly, my wife Sara and I have gone under contract to buy 11 acres of land in Oregon's wine country, a two-year dream we have been working on together to begin a new way of life and of living.
All of this is dramatically impacting my perception. I am becoming increasingly attuned to life, to my purpose, to what is important, to where I feel the need to move towards.
This past week I went to see Otto Scharmer--author of Theory U--and participate in his workshop Leading Profound Innovation. That was a remarkable experience, and I highly recommend his work and his workshops. I had some powerful insights there, and flew directly to the one client I am now working with for a year. Wow. Right out of the learning lab and in to the field.
Friday morning, before catching my plane, I had a chance to meet with my friend, Gary, to discuss what emotional intelligence is, how it relates to leadership, and how leadership is related to the problems of the day. That conversation pretty much filled up the large whiteboard in his office.
As all the above has been working on me, in me and through me, my thoughts and feelings about leadership, emotional intelligence and the problems we face today have been gelling. As I flew home from the workshop with Scharmer, from working with my client and from talking with Gary, I knew it was time to start writing my "manifesto".
My manifesto will simply be a document within which I state and share:
1. I think the current form of leadership is dying and why;
2. the framework I am using to become a leader relevant to these remarkable times;
3. the resources I've read and that I use to support each facet of the framework; and
4. an invitation to each reader to accept personal responsibility for the problems we collectively face
I don't know how long it will take me to finish the document. What I do know is that as I work on each part, I will share it with you here. I've written the introduction, which I will now post. I hope that if you find it useful that you will share it with others.
I hope that, over time, a community of leaders will form around using this framework, modifying it, adding to it, and, more importantly, supporting one another actively in making the shift. Whether that will happen, time will tell.
Right now, it is just step by step. My next steps are to embody the content of the manifesto in my own life and work, and to write it as I am moved to do so by shifts in my perspective, insight and experience. That is what you will be seeing here.
