Navigating Leadership: Wisdom from the Rapids

I had the privilege of rafting down the Grand Canyon some years ago, which was an amazing, amazing experience. So humbling to be in, in this, this place where you can see millions of years of, of, of development in the rocks as you just go past. But when you, when, when we came to, uh, uh, rapids, we, we would get out and go and look at the rapid and because the flow of the water changes from day to day. You never know quite how it's going to be. So you try and plot a route through the rocks. You get back in your raft and off you go. You're in there, you really are at the mercy of the water. And as you start to go in there, there's no turning back. You can't sort of row backwards. You're in there. You get to a stage where you're just making really minor alterations or interferences, if you like, in your steering as you go through these things. And then you're working with the water. And that, in a sense, is a metaphor for me for leading from within. Because we can't fight the changes that are coming. We really can't. And so what we have to do is to create a space of peace within us. Where we access our inner wisdom. I put my hand on my heart. I mean, I could put it on my gut. You know, the heart and the gut are the things that inform us when our brain is full of rubbish. Our brains tend to be full of rubbish most of the time. And they, they, they, they're the ones is the one that gives all the admonitions and the, you're terrible and you're ugly and you're doing badly and yeah, yeah, yeah, all those tapes that play in your head. Whereas the heart, if it's, if you're at peace, you can hear, and it's a still voice that comes out that says, just a touch right there, just a little bit left there. And then you, you, you flow through the rocks. And you come out the other side. So that's why my organization is called Serenity in Leadership, because I think you have to be able to create a, a place of serenity in yourself where you can hear your inner guidance. And actually, as a leader, if you have a sense of serenity about you, people will gather towards you because it's such a scary place.

Right.

And so if a leader can say to their people, look, I don't know how this is all going to come out. All right. But be with me, stick with me, and we will work this out together.

I'll navigate you through the rough waters and find the path.

More so, I would say, we'll navigate the waters. So it's not like, 'Oh, I'm the leader. I've got full responsibility for this.' It's, I think that today's leadership is much more, it's not about consensus, but it is about listening to all the wisdom that you can gather. So often in an organization, you get the CEO who says, 'Ah, something's going really wrong. We've got to do this. We've got to change that.' And all the people on the shop floor are saying, 'Hey, Come talk to us. We know what's going wrong. We know how to put it right. And all the leaders are saying, oh, never mind that. We've got to do this. It's like, no, let's listen. Let's, let's, let's respect our people.

I love that. I love that. It's so true. If they would actually come down and meet people where they are to understand that they're the ones doing the work. And therefore they, they could help them in so much more powerful ways than they give them credit for.

Absolutely.

I love that. All right, so we understand that now, and we understand where leading from within comes from.