Love Letter from the Universe to Leaders Everywhere - How to Lead Souls, not Just Human Beings (#2)
As mentioned in the first letter to leaders everywhere, located here, as a leader you are not just leading human beings. You are leading souls. Your soul is not only the part of you that lives forever, but is the essence of who you are and what you were created to express. It’s the part of you that gives life to you and the desires so near and dear to your heart. It is a living, breathing, communicating and available part of you, meaning you can call upon and collaborate with it to make decisions, and create and achieve new goals. And, it leads you on the way to your goals and dreams.
When your people feel and express dissatisfaction, it is because they are not aligned with their dreams or are just too far away from them. It’s the soul of everyone that wants to create the most and find fulfillment in those creations.
It is often not accessed enough, and people often aren’t aware of that part of themselves. People were never supposed to be separated from their soul purpose, but beliefs, circumstances, fears, choices, and everyday concerns get in the way. Daily life inhibits their ability to do more and express more.
It’s the part of you that, if heard, can get ALL of you on the planet to a better world, better conditions, less havoc and at the same time, constrained freedoms which produce unexpected results.
Constrained freedom? What?
Constrained freedom means selecting the right boundaries and guidelines to put around the freedoms you offer. This helps people stay focused on the needs of the business in pursuit of their dreams. A few strategically placed constraints generate tremendous creativity because people have to think differently to accomplish their goals.
"Jack White @ Firefly Music Festival" by ConcertTour, Mark Runyon, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
A great example of this is what Jack White did with the White Stripes and their 2001 White Blood Cells album. He and his wife set 5 simple rules and banged out 18 songs in 10 days. The 5 rules gave them more focus on their highest and best creativity.
As Jack notes, there is liberation in some limitation of yourself.
More strategies for leading “souls:”
Be both minimal and strategic with your constraints. Make sure they leave room for dreams in the process of meeting business goals.
Allow people, with guidance, to contribute to the organization “off the grid,” and find their own ways of doing that. This means let them explore ways they can make a difference that don’t sit perfectly in the business case, strategic plan, or other business metric. You will be surprised what they come up with on their own. Fairly consider the ideas before objecting with resource constraint issues.
Mindfully hold the space for people to show up at their best. They won’t show you their best, or shine bright, or expose their dreams to you if they don’t feel safe to do so. You do this by deferring judgment and demonstrating curiosity and commitment to “off the wall” ideas. Celebrate candor and the ability to speak freely. Choose to respond rather than react to ideas that don’t sit well with you and remain curious.
Help people get in touch with their soul purpose. The best conditions for people to do that include high energy environments (optimism, hope, positivity, a place to dream), psychologically safe environments (with deep respect for others’ dreams) and enough “yeses” to what they want along the way to maintain trust to all the “no’s” you must give at times.
Offer wisdom from your own journey’s experience to fulfilling your own dreams. Ask your soul what to share.
Are you in? The world and your team need you!
For coaching and support in how to lead your “souls” to greatness, contact executive coach Annette Brackin at annette@journeytoresults.com.