My client and friend, Rob, shared this beautiful writing by John O’Donohue at an offsite workshop I facilitated. It is laced with so much wisdom and grace I had to reread it a dozen times to get the depth and essence of its beauty and richness.
With COVID-19 penetrating our lives in an unprecedented way we need individual leadership more than ever. Faith, not fear is needed. From this new challenge we need to focus on what we want to have happen by collaborating and inspiring one another. And not letting fear cause us to cower and focus on what we do not want to have happen. It has always been my humble opinion that all of us possess a Leader Within…the Gifts imprinted on us by our Maker. More, now than ever, I ask you to bring that Leader out for the sake of humanity.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful gift…
“For A Leader”
by John O’Donohue
May you have the grace and wisdom
To act kindly, learning
To distinguish between what is
Personal and what is not.
May you be hospitable to criticism.
May you never put yourself at the center of things.
May you act not from arrogance but out of service.
May you work on yourself,
Building up and refining the ways of your mind.
May those who work for you know
You see and respect them.
May you learn to cultivate the art of presence
In order to engage with those who meet you.
When someone fails or disappoints you,
May the graciousness with which you engage
Be their stairway to renewal and refinement.
May you treasure the gifts of the mind
Through reading and creative thinking
So that you continue as a servant of the frontier
Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old,
And may you never become a functionary.
May you know the wisdom of deep listening,
The healing of wholesome words,
The encouragement of the appreciative gaze,
The decorum of held dignity,
The springtime edge of the bleak question.
May you have a mind that loves frontiers
So that you can evoke the bright fields
That lie beyond the view of the regular eye.
May you have good friends
To mirror your blind spots.
May leadership be for you
A true adventure of growth.
Written by the Irish author, poet, and philosopher John O’Donohue in his book Bless the Space Between Us.
Einstein also had a way of simplifying everything. He said, “A human being is a part of a whole, a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself as something separated from the rest…this delusion is a kind of prison for us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
We are all connected. We are all in this together. Breathe, and know. Choose love and abundance over fear and scarcity. Call on your Leader within and choose.