Sunday Contemplation #38 Wisdom Leadership

The Why Behind Service

Photo by Loren Joseph on Unsplash

In case you are wondering why we need wisdom leadership…just ponder this picture for a few moments.

• This Week’s Quote

• A G’day

• This Sunday’s Contemplation

• A Guided Meditation

• Grateful For

• This Week’s Community Chat

• Upcoming Activities

This Week’s Quote

“There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him… This spark of the soul is so noble and so exalted that it is uncreated and uncreatable. It is the place where God is always working.”

Meister Eckhart (Christian Mystic, 13th–14th c., Germany)

A G’day

Good Morning Everyone: I hope this week has been a good good one for you. I wish each of you peace within, and wish for all of us, peace without.

In my posts I avoid overtly political references, because although I think politics is important in each of our societies, I look to the foundational values from which politics arises. There lies the rub, and therein lies the support or corruption of those foundational values in the body politic.

This approach is not an attempt to avoid looking at day to day action, but rather to look at what those actions portray. Our values only come to life in the way we actually live each moment. Our actions testify to our foundational values. How we act needs to be about our values, not political allegiance.

I heard one of the individuals in leadership in the current United States White House refer to those who disagree with him as NPC’s - Non Playing Characters. A digital game reference to beings who are merely simulations devoid of genuine thoughts and feelings. There is probably no clearer illustration that intellectual brilliance bears no direct relationship with wisdom, common sense or moral leadership.

It was this reference that moved me to share this week’s contemplation on Wisdom Leadership.

I share it with you for your consideration, and I wish you the very very best.

Blessings to all of you this week.

This Sunday’s Contemplation

Wisdom Leadership. The Why Behind Service.

The idea of service leadership or servant leadership is not a new one. Though not novel, it is, in my view, centrally important, and honoured more in the failure than in the application.

In the business world a couple of my favourites who write clearly about this are Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last, and Otto Scharmer, Leading From The Future. The idea is simple and profound. The most successful leadership approach is for the leader to be the servant of those they lead. This leadership approach rests on a clear set of values in relation to the essential value of humans, and therefore how to treat beings of such value. Not complicated, just difficult.

Of course the idea has much much deeper historical roots. Look at the teachings about leadership of the Tao Te Ching, Confucius, Plato, Jesus or Gandhi. Each in their own way point to the importance of the values of dignity, humility, forgiveness, courage, sacrifice and service, at the centre of good leadership.

In more recent times we look at the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Vaclav Havel, Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela. Each a servant leader.

In my view, wisdom emerges from a clear and deeply rooted understanding of the nature and value of each human being, and is amplified by the capacity to make real that understanding in the way we treat each other and Nature.

Therefore I think it is more apt to describe the highest qualities of leadership as wisdom leadership.

Each of the people mentioned above, and many others you will know of, forged their humility and service in the fire of wisdom hard gained. The values were not just articulated, but lived, sometimes at the cost of their lives.

Not The Few…The Many

These qualities of leadership are so easy to recognise and for most of us, they touch us to the core. That core that says…”of course that is what leadership should be”.

The fatal myth is twofold:

• That is just for a few saintlike people to lead like this.

• My sphere of influence is way to small for this to apply to me.

These are tragic myths and far too convenient an abdication of our responsibility and our humanity.

There is no environment where humility, forgiveness, courage, trust, sacrifice and service cannot be lived. It is not the size and structure of the environment that determines the leadership, it is the depth at which these values land and how we live them.

Some of the wisest leaders I have encountered in my life were at work in the most unnoticed environments. I put my Mum at the front of that line. I put my 12th grade teacher Mrs Ringer in there. I put Tiny, who used to put our ankle bandages and oil on before we played a football game when I was 15. I can tell you stories of courage and service about each of them, and many more.

The other myth is that this kind of approach just doesn’t work in most businesses, or the ‘real” world. It is just not practical enough, the cut and thrust of profit, sales, competition, politics or bureaucracy do not support this kind of leadership. I call BS!

The pathway to being a wise leader has only four signposts:

• Consider yourself a leader, because you are.

• Be wise, act wise. (know who you are, treat others like you would want to be treated. Didn’t you hear that one from your mum,dad or grandparents?)

• The opportunity to be such a leader is a moment away…the very next moment. (No spreadsheet or project software required).

• The failure of others to be such leaders is no excuse for you or I not to be one.

The form and location of your leadership will be as unique and varied as humanity itself. But let’s not kid ourselves that it isn’t needed, or that is just too hard. We need to wear this badge of what others might call naivety, with pride and humility; and go about living it.

Why Do This? Why Should You And I Be A Wise Leader?

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words. As I was looking for today’s picture for this post I came across the one above. To find your answer to the question…why do this?…sit for one minute and look at those kids.

That’s why!

Do any one of those kids look like an NPC to you?

Thank you for reading this. See you next week I hope.

I wish you peace.

A Guided Meditation

I have received quite a bit of feedback that a guided meditation connected to the topic of these contemplations has been appreciated. When appropriate I will provide one each week. This week’s guided meditation is called Wisdom Calls From The Heart.

Grateful For

I include this section because I found that when I read or hear about what others are grateful for, I tend to think more about what I am grateful for. Feel free to share what you are grateful for in the comments. I think it is a beautiful service to others.

I am grateful to Tiny…the guy I mentioned in my article who put on our ankle strapping and oiled us up for our Aussie Rules football game each Saturday. I was 14 or 15 years old. Tiny always, always, always took care to get the strapping right, and to make us feel that we were very very important. Tiny is long dead now. He was not a healthy man, he was old and did it all out of love and service. Thank you Tiny.

This Week’s Community Chat

The theme in the chat this week is:

Who is an example of a wise leader you met in the last week?

Thank you.

Upcoming Activities

Please stay tuned.

Should you want to message me directly, please feel free to do so.