When we’ve watched Oprah, Wayne Dyer, Deepak, Eckart Tolle, and we’ve read Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek, Zig Ziglar, and others espousing the virtues of values, clarity of thought and emotion, being purpose-driven and a plethora of other highly valuable tools and wisdoms¬…
When we’ve searched for the answers to high-quality, visionary leadership, attended workshops, hired the leadership trainers, done therapy, strived for work/life balance…
When we’ve hired a personal fitness coach, tried being a vegetarian, taken up meditation and gardening…
When we’ve tried all these things we eventually come to a place where we know the answers, but …
Just knowing the answers doesn’t move the needle any more than thinking our way to a purpose-driven business. Yes, all these things—the books, the videos, the workshops, even vegetarianism—they all help us get closer to that magic place in which inspiring leadership becomes ingrained in who we are.
And yet knowing the answers is one thing. There is knowing intellectually, and there is feeling the knowing within every fiber of our being.
I’m pretty sure that Yo Yo Ma doesn’t have to think very much when he’s playing before a concert hall of some of the world’s most discriminating listeners of classical music. I’m pretty sure that B.B. King doesn’t have to think too hard to play “The Thrill is Gone” for the 10,000th time and still inspire audiences to joy.
Does Oprah have to struggle to ask insightful questions? Does Seth Godin grapple over every word of his blog he publishes 365 days of the year, year after year? Did Steve Jobs question his religious-like conviction to design quality? Or Tony Hsieh and his commitment to culture? Or Brené Brown’s vulnerability? Or Helen Caldicott’s passion for change? Or …
Maybe they all struggle in some ways, but the excellence that is their way of being and the ways in which they deliver their gifts to the world is ingrained into the fiber of who they are—they don’t think who they are, they just live it.
Inspiring leadership is a state of being in which our intellectual learning has transcended the mind and moved to the heart. It’s the place in which we value more what we feel for people than what we think of them. It’s the place in which we feel our way through our fears more so than reacting from the need to protect ourselves.
And … it’s the place in which the real magic happens.
Very well said Glenn. I have been listening to the wisdom of my elders for years now, and am deeply inspired by the message of moving from the mind into the heart. Thank you!