The final paragraph is what inspired me to share it here in our Center Circle blog. Center Circle is very much a non-linear self-lead leadership program because what we do encourages staying in tune and in touch with what's going on inside you; staying centered. From there is where you operate in authenticity and integrity. If you stay centered, i.e. have a regular practice of re-centering, you have a far better chance of becoming a great leader, even if all you're leading is your own life.
"A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project on other people his or her shadow or his or her light. A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being-conditions that can either be as illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what's going on inside him or her self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.
The problem is that people rise to leadership in our society by a tendency towards extroversion, which means a tendency to ignore what is going on inside themselves. Leaders rise to power in our society by operating very competently and effectively in the external world, sometimes at the cost of internal awareness.
I've looked at some training programs for leaders. I'm discouraged by how often they focus on the development of skills to manipulate the external world rather than the skills necessary to go inward and make the inner journey."
--Parker PalmerParker Palmer wrote a wonderful book exposing his personal experience and path to understanding leadership; Let Your Life Speak. It's a great read.
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