We have four basic premises.
- Everyone is engaged in leadership, because each of us has an impact- positive or negative, small or large- on those we touch. That is, what we say or do “leads” others to impressions, perceptions, feelings, actions that are a direct result of how we are who we are. Sometimes so small as a cheery “good morning” can lead those who hear it to feel uplifted.
- Everyone is imperfect, and makes mistakes. Therefore, to pretend to be “strong and confident” (a commonly used leadership value), is inauthentic, the symptom of a defensive ego.
- A good leader knows that he or she can never know everything, and is therefore always making decisions in a state of being “mistaken,” in a state of imperfect or incomplete knowledge. Operating with this self-knowledge, the leader is always expanding to include and appreciate more ways of knowing, being, and feeling, in a never-ending process of improvement.
- Leadership is commonly associated with heroism, and heroism with struggle. Instead, it should be associated with self-expansion and good and good-feeling stress (what Hans Selye calls “eu-stress”). These elements align leadership with bliss: bliss enters when we allow ourselves to be dynamic works in progress.
