Great leaders are powerful builders of enterprise.  They have a knack for creating a clear vision, believing in its fulfillment with every cell in their body, and inspiring others through heart-centered communication to share their vision and act toward its creation.  They can hold the vision in light, under all circumstances – especially during times of darkness, when it seems the world is against its fulfillment.

That was one of my abilities as a business leader, yet as I move on to my second act in the world of leadership development, I’m gathering a more refined level of awareness of the obstacles that get in the way of fulfilling your vision.

I’ve come to believe that the only obstacle to fulfilling your vision is you – self limiting beliefs linked to emotional reaction patterns throwing you off center.  The antidote is to see that these obstacles are merely unskillful thoughts we buy into, and know that once inner clarity is achieved, external clarity arises through new choices in the context of expanded possibility.

Below is a 4 step model to help you make more empowered decisions, and overcome obstacles between you and your vision.

1.  Cultivation of CLARITY

Clarity is 1) a calm mind, 2) an open heart, and 3) a fearless soul.  From this foundation you can solve any problem and achieve any goal.  And it begins with a mind that isn’t reactive to the barrage of diluting, diffusing, distracting energy throughout the day.  Invest in alone time, ideally in the morning and evening, and practice stilling your mind.  If it feels right, focus on your breath to ground yourself in the present.  From stillness of mind, clarity arises.

2.  Arising of INSIGHT

Have you ever had a flash of insight – where you suddenly realized a solution to a problem that had baffled you, or the resources to make something happen that you didn’t think existed?  With the cultivation of clarity, you’ll be in deeper

connection to your authentic core.  Those flashes of insight become foundations of wisdom, and you’ll release stress while garnering increased power in execution.

3.  Discipline of FOCUS

While we work and live in a crackberry culture, we subjugate ourselves to the tyranny of the urgent, constantly under siege by an incessant stream of bits and bytes compelling us to the next distracting fix.  In addition there are so many agendas competing for our attention – our supervisors, colleagues, reports, family, friends.  When you cultivate clarity and insight, focus can be attained with greater ease.  You’ll still need to exercise discernment and discipline to focus on what matters most, but from clarity and insight, focus will be more natural.

4.  Devotion to RIGHT ACTION

Diffused focus is a common obstacle preventing so many from experiencing the joy in achievement.  Yet, clarity can replace confusion, insight can replace analysis, and focus can replace complexity.  Then right action – the next best step – becomes clear not only in moving toward fulfilling your vision, but also in the context of serving the whole – the triple bottom line – people, planet as well as profit.

So as you move through daily life toward your vision, and obstacles arise, instead of resisting and fortifying the obstacle (what you resist persists), garner gratitude for the gift of the obstacle, since it is your teacher – the mirror to your inner world.  To then transcend it through the cultivation of wisdom and right action – that is the real game of business.

My reflection time in the past was heavily mired in how to do more, achieve more, and be more – all within the societal paradigm of what I thought success meant – money, virtue and prestige.  I use to fancy myself a master strategist, always thinking ten moves ahead, scenario planning – weighing probable outcomes and only then making each carefully considered chess move.

The decisions I made at times were clever guides to money, prestige and virtue, and fitting with the image and the story I was living, but they usually lacked meaning, and rarely provided any fulfillment outside of short a term ego hit.  I can now see, in most cases, they were totally disconnected from personally evolving toward my Highest.

So I shifted to a new framework for making more empowered decisions and overcoming obstacles that I share in my upcoming post The Four Inner Habits of Successful Leaders.  I also gave myself two gifts.  One was permission to let go of the need to look good – to let go of my persona and really be myself.  Very freeing.  The second was a daily practice of solitude.  Disciplined, habitual time alone to step outside my story, cultivate true clarity, and deeply consider my impact on myself, my family, my stakeholders and my community.  These have been, beyond doubt, two vital habits for cultivating greater presence, power and possibility.  I invite you to consider both.

I wish you and your families a happy, healthy 2012 – filled with presence, power and possibility,

In service,

The Nature of Business

Since I’ve been working in the coaching industry, doing my own personal development work, and observing the Wall Street melt down and the resulting global recession, I see so much fear and scarcity thinking throughout business – people mired in a competitive, adversarial model of being, caught up in craving and wanting – yet never satisfied.  This paradigm is not just on Wall Street – I see it on Main Street with my clients as well, and I was certainly an extreme version of this earlier in my career.

On top of that, most leaders I work with struggle within a hyper-paced, intensely challenging business environment – increased complexity, compressed product life cycles, markets more competitive – all within the context of  increasing pressure to execute.

A New Leadership Paradigm

I believe a new type of leader is necessary – a more conscious, self aware, holistic leader.  A leader who is inspired to do the inner work required to steward a highly functioning team toward optimal performance – and not get caught up in ego and self-grasping.

So I created and now coach Conscious Leadership Development with my clients.  We look at the whole person vs. attempting to just create skills and behaviors aligned for a particular role.  It’s about discovering values and purpose – the core – and navigating from that core – from the inside out – in a way that’s aligned to overall organizational goals.  Conscious Leadership Development is human development.  It’s a discovery and cultivation of an authentic self  – the foundation of real power, performance and fulfillment.  I’ve found both on my own journey, and in working with my clients, that it’s from this centered base that the executive will experience both a new growth trajectory, and the ability to take actions that were previously unavailable.

The goal of Conscious Leadership is to turn the traditional hierarchy of modern corporate America on it’s head, with visionaries acting as  supporters, encouragers, stewards – “Servant Leaders”.  I’ve realized the most effective leaders are the ones that serve, rather than command and control; the ones who seek to understand rather than seeking to be understood; and the ones who give rather than take.  Heightened consciousness creates an understanding that abundance and possibility lie in service, while fear and scarcity lie in wanting and taking.  And I’ve found that this service oriented consciousness drives performance, productivity and corporate well being better than anything else.

The conscious leader commits to a lifetime of developing self awareness, and commits resources to supporting the people in her company and their pursuit of human development – expanding self awareness.  The net result is increased performance and productivity – but also, a conscious company – purposeful in it’s pursuit of the “triple bottom line” – serving people, the planet and profit.

Why am I here?  What was I put on this earth to do?  So many people I come across have never actively sought the answer, yet desperately want to feel connected and on path.  When I sought answers,  it lead me to other ontological and metaphysical questions – Why does humanity exist? Where do we come from?   What is our purpose?  Do we have a creator, and if so, what was his purpose in creating us?

After many years of seeking, studying and soul searching,  my personal discovery was – yes we have a Creator, and our Creator’s purpose is simply to fulfill her desire to experience herself through the multiplicity of form  – humans, plants, animals, rocks – nature in general.  All exist to serve the creator’s experiential knowing.  And when we align ourselves with the desire to serve, we align ourselves with Universal law – we expand, we evolve, we grow – in wisdom, compassion, and peace – qualities that some people refer to as happiness.  And if we serve other’s needs, using our unique abilities, our purpose arises.

I was recently re-reading a few pages from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle yesterday – one of my favorite books of all time.  He was talking about purpose and had a clear and powerful explaination.

According to Tolle, our life’s journey has both an outer purpose and an inner purpose.  The outer purpose is clearly to aim for a destination, or a goal.  But if we become preoccupied with the goal, or the next steps we must take in order to reach our goal, we disconnect from our inner purpose, which is to be totally present to the step we are taking now – or  “the quality of our consciousness at this moment”.

So while the outer journey might contain a thousand steps,  the inner journey contain’s only one step – the step we are taking right now.  And as this realization deepens, we become increasingly aware of the depth, the beauty, the perfection in the present moment, and the light of “being” shines through, both revealing and fulfilling our purpose and journey at the same time.

Then the question arises – does it matter whether we achieve our outer purpose – whether we succeed or fail?

The answer is it only matters if we haven’t achieved our inner purpose.  If we have, the outer purpose is only a game, to by en-joy-ed.  It is possible to achieve the outer purpose, and not the inner purpose – “outer riches and inner poverty” – we all know people like that.  The key point is that every outer purpose is ultimately doomed to fail – since it is subject to the law of impermanence – constant change, and we all die at some point.  So to give up the notion that our outer purpose can make us “happy”, makes tremendous sense.  And to subjugate our outer purpose to the practice of achieving our inner purpose – Consciousness – is what I’ve experience as the only real path to fulfillment.

What does everybody, universally, throughout humanity desire most?

Happiness.

Psychological and spiritual thought leaders all point to one fact – that we cannot find happiness, without first cultivating inner peace.  Happiness, or joy, grows from inner peace. In my experience, our nature is peace, joy, freedom, love.  Yet our nature is mired in interference – a powerful force that pushes our egos into the driver seat, causing us to become unconsciously motivated by fear (with its subtler forms of anxiety and worry) and greed (with its subtler forms of “wanting” more).  This only creates suffering, which can occasionally be medicated by pleasure – shopping, drinking, eating, numbing out to TV – yet with no progress toward sustainable inner joy.

How do we release the interference and access inner peace and happiness?

There are many paths, and no one size fits all.  A progressive release of attachments to the finite material world constructed by our minds is critical.  A journey into authenticity, heart and humility is vital.  A prayer ritual is powerful.  Finding a teacher, and beginning a meditation practice cultivates all of the above.

In my journey, I’ve found that the access point to peace, and then joy, is Presence.  Presence is the Way to open the door to the ‘absolute’ unmanifested – from our ‘relative’ finite worlds, and receive the flow of life force.  How do we achieve Presence?  I suggest a five step daily practice.

1. Awareness on a moment to moment basis (become aware that we’re not present);
2. Choose to be present;
3. Breath – connecting mind body and spirit;
4. Feel the internal energy field that arises, regardless of whether it’s pleasant or uncomfortable; (which takes us out of useless mind activity); and
5. Practice becoming focused on -  becoming one with -  the task at hand

As the frequency of awareness increases, and the choice to “be” is made in the moment, presence is deepened, inner peace is expanded, and joy is available – to arise from the foundation of presence.

• Purpose exists in the realm of possibility and unfolds naturally when we are present and self aware.
• Purpose arises when we let go of our ego attachments and the need to look good.
• Purpose comes through when we let go of our wanting to fulfill ourselves from the outside – in.
• Purpose exists when we cultivate authenticity in all areas of our lives.
• Our purpose is Divine purpose.

And as the foundation of Self builds, our purpose comes alive as the needs of the world intersect with our unique abilities.

Photo by ecstaticist