Lead With Your Whole Self

In the pursuit of excellence, leaders must balance strategic agendas, team engagement, budgets, and KPIs with purpose and fulfillment. But true leadership starts with leading yourself, your whole self, body and mind, soul and social. Welcome to Leading with Your Whole Self. In this award-winning podcast, Dr. W. Vernon Murray explores the art of balanced holistic leadership for leaders. Leadership isn't just about leading marketing campaigns or strategic initiatives. It's a symphony of the physical, intellectual, spiritual, and social aspects of life. Prepare to be inspired and informed, entertained and educated. Now here's your host, Dr. W. Vernon Murray, with today's episode of Leading with Your Whole Self: Body and Mind, Soul and Social.

I've been rethinking how we, especially those of us who are leaders, managers, or business owners, how we navigate the conundrums of leadership. I mean, you know, those problems for which it seems there are no solutions, those questions that seem unanswerable, those deficiencies for which we just can't seem to find what I often refer to as the sufficiency. You know, if you are at any level of leadership, you have these conundrums every day and sometimes several times a day, right? And look, you don't have to be in leadership in a traditional sense, right? Leading a bunch of 5th graders if you are a teacher, or your own kids as a parent, or a church congregation if you are clergy, it really doesn't matter. These conundrums, those problems that feel like there's no solution for, those questions that seem unanswerable, they are part of your daily grind, right? So I've been rethinking how I access those solutions and answers. Or another way I look at it is, how do I access the sufficiency for my deficiency? Whatever that deficiency may be at the moment. Hear me out, right? I'm going to share an insight that's been evolving for me, a paradigm I call the universal stream of positive outcomes. It's a perspective that's shaped not just how I approach challenges, but also how I navigate leadership, strategy, and even personal growth. So here's the essence of this paradigm. The universe, or what I call the universal stream, is a dynamic space, a milieu if you will, of questions and answers, of problems and solutions, of deficiencies and sufficiencies. It's this constant interplay, a duality. Nos and yeses, disease and ease, yin and yang. There's nothing I face, no question, no problem, that hasn't already existed in this universal milieu. And because it exists in the stream, the answer, the solution, the sufficiency is already there too. Think about that for a moment. My, your leadership challenges, your strategic dilemmas, your organizational pain points, as well as the solutions and answers and sufficiencies to these challenges and dilemmas. They're not new under the sun. They're part of this universal fabric, pre-existing, coexisting, just waiting for us to access them. It's not about creating solutions from scratch. So it comes down to aligning yourself, your questions and problems, with the tandem that already exists in the stream: the answer and the solution. This paradigm isn't just my personal insight; it's something reflected in timeless wisdom across cultures. Take the Bible, for instance. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, "What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun." That speaks directly to this idea. The struggles we face today aren't new. They've happened before, and the universe has the solutions. So let's explore how this paradigm shows up in universal wisdom.

You are listening to or watching Your Whole Self: Body and Mind, Soul and Social, a podcast about leadership. Remember to subscribe, like, and share our podcast, and be sure to join hundreds of other leaders in our SALT Leadership Community. In this fast-growing community, Dr. Murray and his team at Accelerate Strategy Leadership Inc. share tons of leadership and strategy resources so you can lead your organization strategically and lead your whole self. Join our leadership community at strategicleadershipresources.bodymindsoulsocial.com. Membership is no cost to you, compliments of our host, Dr. W. Vernon Murray, and his team at Accelerate Strategy Leadership Inc. Now let's get back to Dr. Walter V. Murray on leading with your whole self, body and mind, soul and social.

Let's explore how this paradigm shows up in universal wisdom. I find great wisdom wherever wisdom is, so I often dive into non-traditional wisdom, at least non-traditional to our Western culture. So in Buddhism, there's the principle of the middle way. It teaches us that dualities—problems and solutions, questions and answers—are interconnected. The path to clarity lies in understanding that one extreme always holds the seed of its opposite. It's all part of the same universal balance. In Hinduism, Advaita Vedanta goes even deeper, teaching that all dualities are illusions. Problems and solutions are not separate; they are two sides of the same coin, unified within the larger universal reality. And here's an African proverb that captures this beautifully: "The one who asks questions never gets lost." In other words, every question, every problem, already carries within it the path to its answer or solution. It's up to us to seek and align with what's already present in the stream. Problems and solutions are interwoven into the fabric of existence.

So this universal stream of duality, is that what you would call it? Right. And in this stream of duality is where, as leaders, business owners, and managers, is this where we go to access answers and solutions to our leadership questions and problems? That's kind of what I'm hearing. Absolutely.

You hit the nail on the head, and you probably also captured the question our listeners are asking. How does this apply to me as a leader? Your summation is really the answer to that question. So here's the key. Aligning with the universal stream means understanding that the solutions and sufficiencies and efficiencies that seem to elude you already exist in the universal stream. They exist in duality, with the solutions coexisting with the problem that is wearing you out. You know that two sides of the same coin paradigm in the Hindu principle of Advaita Vedanta that I mentioned earlier? The thing is, how do I get in that stream to access these preexisting, coexisting solutions, right? Well, it's about stepping out of resistance and into flow. Ask yourself, am I framing my challenges in a way that opens me to the answers already present? For example, when faced with declining revenue, a leader aligned with the stream wouldn't just see the problem but would explore what conditions exist for a solution. Who or what in your network, team, or external environment holds the key to realignment?

This sounds like a perfect scenario to use your 4R framework. It's kind of a guide to break down the universal stream into the 4Rs. That's relationships, resources, roles, and rules.

Absolutely. And you can apply this 4R aligning or framing in every aspect of life, of your whole self. Absolutely. Whether you're looking for answers and solutions in the realm of body, mind, soul, or social, those answers already preexist and coexist in this universal stream of duality. And using a paradigm like my 4R framework will fast-track your access and alignment to the flow of solutions answers and sufficiencies. And take your leadership to the next level. It's also about embracing duality. A tough patch in your leadership isn't the absence of success. Just flip the coin. On the other side, you will find a solution wrapped in a learning opportunity. Resistance to this duality leads to frustration. Embracing it leads to growth. So, here's my invitation to you: What challenges are you facing today? Can you see them not as barriers but as bridges to their counterparts, their solutions? You know, that two-sided coin thing. In the Advaita Vedanta, the universal stream of positive outcomes is always moving, always carrying both the questions and the answers. Your role as a leader is to align yourself with that flow. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you see this paradigm showing up in your leadership? Share your insights with me in our SALT Leadership Community.

Remember, you can access our SALT Leadership Community at saltresources.strategicleadershipnews.com. And in case you are asking, S.A.L.T. is an acronym for Strategy Acceleration Leadership Toolkit. It's a platform with tons of resources on how to be the best leader and business owner you can be with body, mind, soul, and social.

Membership is free. So until next time, this is Dr. Walter V. Murray. Remember, leading with your whole self Body and mind, soul and social is the only way to lead.

To get to the dimes, you've got to go to the salt shaker. Okay, now I know, okay, you're probably thinking, look, what is this guy talking about, right? Dimes and salt shaker. Hang on, hang on, just give me a minute, just give me a minute. I'll break it down for you. The salt shaker is where you get the dimes, right? Let me first tell you about what dimes are. Dimes are 5 key things— paradigms, best practices, tools, resources— that you need so that you can effectively engage in strategic planning so you could sustain today's success into tomorrow or create success that is sustainable into tomorrow? 5 things. And what I found and what the data and the studies show is that these are probably the 5 most frequently occurring things that keep leaders and managers and business owners engaging, accelerating their strategic plan. To get to the dimes, you've got to go to the salt shaker.

The Dimes Salt Shaker Program is our corporate strategic leadership training and coaching program. It is designed for small to mid-sized companies that need to upskill their senior managers, executives, and team leaders with the 5 critical skills they need to help that company accelerate reaching its strategic goals and visions efficiently, profitably, and fast. Nothing drags or decelerates strategy implementation as much as when key leaders and managers are not on the same page with top leadership when it comes to strategic vision, strategic priorities, and strategy implementation. SALT is our acronym for Strategy Acceleration Leadership Training. This is where we bring together your leaders and managers of your organization together in a private group training boot camp. We call it the SALT Shaker. Typically, it runs over 3 to 5 weeks depending on the number of leaders and managers from your organization that are attending. This is a private group, so it only includes the leaders of your organization. This allows us to focus on strategic implementation challenges that are specific to your organization's strategic success. In this Salt Shaker, we cover the 5 strategic leadership elements of DIMES. These are decision-making strategically, innovating strategically, measuring strategy progress effectively, engaging strategically, and strategic synchronization. We put your leaders and managers through an intensive and immersive boot camp for 5 weeks to dramatically enhance their competencies in each of the 5 DIMES elements. We do rigorous assessments, case studies, one-on-one coaching, and an extensive follow-up for 90 days with your leadership and management team to ensure that they become experts at implementing DIMES. Business owners, CEOs, and senior leadership have reported significant improvement in the speed and efficiency with which their organization and their leaders and managers execute strategic priorities. Ultimately, businesses and even nonprofit organizations are able to accelerate strategy implementation effectively, profitably, and fast.

So until next time, this is Dr. Walter V. Murray. Remember, leading with your whole self—body and mind, soul and social—is the only way to lead.