Are You A Reluctant Leader?
Oct 21, 2024As I watch the world unravel, I can only but wonder about the state of leadership in our world. It seems that our current leaders are literally setting our world on fire. Stuck in outdated dynamics.
That begs the question. So where are the new leaders? The ones who are meant to take us beyond this.
These new potential leaders exist but they aren’t showing up.
That is because they don't see themselves as leaders. They wait patiently for the cavalry made up of other people to come save us. Not realising that they are the cavalry we are waiting for.
The Strange Paradox
Let's try this. Take a moment to think about your leadership.
I don't mean managing others here. I am talking about leading the way to something different. Showing up in your fullness. Allowing yourself to shine brightly in your brilliance. Being seen to stand up for what matters to you and catalysing real change.
What is your relationship to that kind of leadership?
There is this strange paradox that I see over and over again in my clients. They want to do their purpose and have a positive impact. And at the same time they have a strange relationship with their own leadership.
They want to make a difference. But they don't really want to be seen.
They want to change things. But they cling to flying under the radar and not rocking the boat.
They want to make things better. But they have not defined what their leadership is really about and what is actually important to them.
Ultimately, they feel the call to lead. But they get stuck instead in trying to appear perfect, pleasing and appeasing the world around them. Or when they finally try to lead, they are not sure how to navigate the resistance they meet. And so end up retreating back.
Sound familiar?
The Misfit Syndrome
The thing is that we need you to lead.
If Einstein is right in saying that we can’t solve a problem by using the same level of thinking that we used to create it. Then, for a new level of thinking to emerge in the world right now, we need leaders who will inspire new possibilities.
To change the way things are, we need leaders, who will challenge the status quo.
To create something new, we need leaders who will think differently.
To build a more sustainable, caring and flourishing world, we need leaders who will model to us what that actually looks like.
So what stops us?
What I witness in our calls in The School, is that it comes down to this. We are transfixed by the places where we don't fit into the traditional models of leadership - where we are not the same as the leaders we see out there. So we hang on for dear life to the false sense of security of trying to be a bland version of ourselves.
Too loaded with hurtful past experiences of rejection, judgement and criticism, we give in to the fear of putting ourselves out there. And even it we do try, it comes out more as rebellion and attack than the evolutionary leadership we are meant to be bringing now. So that we are not impactful in the way we would like to be.
A New Kind Of Leader
I didn't see myself as a leader. But I was one.
Just not the kind of leader I knew. I saw things very differently to others. I was this strange combination of a visionary compassionate humanitarian heart centred challenger of the status quo evolutionary leader.
Some people got magnetised by that and would follow me around everywhere. And others would get really annoyed by it, reject and attack me. I wasn't that comfortable with either sides of the spectrum. So over time I learnt not to show myself. I became a brilliant chameleon. And eventually, I forgot that I was here to lead and what my voice wanted to say.
Yes I would complain about existing leaders. But not own that me leading in a different way to something new was the answer. At 12 years old I told my grandmother that I would not be working for her in the family hotel as expected. As I was not impressed by the kind of leader she was.
Only years later did I realise she couldn’t be the leader I needed, because she didn’t know how. The qualities she was lacking and I was demanding of her, were the ones I was meant to model to her. And I hadn’t stepped up. So how could she know anything different?
If Not You, Then Who?
The parts of you that you are most afraid to show us are the ones we most need now.
Later I learnt that my leadership was not to tick the box of the perfect leader, be a rebel, convince or be right. But simply to touch the world with my unique presence - my own particular flavour of love. To serve evolution by contributing my unique potential in a conscious, loving and intentional way. And coincidentally that was also my purpose.
The very seeds of my leadership lay in the roots of my 'misfit-ness'. I just had to learn that they could be qualities that could inspire and help others.
I have always been a reluctant leader. As long as I tried to fit into the old paradigms of leadership, I resisted the call. But now I remember that if I don’t show up for my part, no-one else can. That some things are simply only mine to be and model.
Are you also a reluctant leader? What is your resistance to bringing your medicine to the world? What is the cost of you not showing up now?
Until Next Time,
Louise
WE ARE ALL BEING CALLED TO ADVENTURE.
We truly believe that we can do this. That, if enough of us commit to being purpose-led changemakers and to evolving the world by being uniquely ourselves, we can create a new world - where we all flourish together deeply valuing prosperity, people and planet.
What it takes is for us to remember who we are really here to be, do what we are here to do and make that difference only we can make. By igniting our potential, actualising our purpose and up-levelling our impact through our lives, work and leadership.
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Louise Le Gat, Founder Of The Purpose-Led Company
