Deepak Chopra’s thoughts on responsibility and leadership

Hi! Welcome Back.  Today we come to the end of Deepak Chopra’s acronym for leader with the letter r.  I wanted to break Chopra’s acronym down because I felt that he had some very profound ideas to express in each letter of his acronym.  Today’s meaning attached to the letter r mentions the leader’s soul and although I haven’t heard that mentioned a lot went studying the topic of leadership in the past I have come to believe that it is a very important trait in anybody we think of as being a leader.  The soul is to my understanding the essence of a person so it stands to reason that for somebody to become a leader they must on some level share a bit of their soul with their followers.

If you’ve come to my blog site recently and haven’t seen the other thoughts Chopra attaches to the word leader here they are:

L = Look and listen.  Do this with your senses, as an unbiased observer who has not judged anything in advance.  Do it with your heart, obeying your truest feelings.  Finally, do it with your soul, responding to the vision and deep purpose it provides.

E = Emotional bonding.  Leading from the soul means going beyond the melodrama of living in crisis mode.  It requires recognizing and clearing away toxic emotions so you can clearly understand your own specific needs, and those of others.

A = Awareness.  This means being aware of the questions that underlie every challenge: Who am I?  What do I want?  What does the situation demand?  A leader must continually ask these questions of herself, and inspire her team to ask them for themselves.

D = Doing.  A leader must be action-oriented.  In whatever he does, he must serve as a role model, holding himself responsible for the promises he has made.  This requires persistence and tenacity, but also the ability to view any situation with flexibility and humor.

E = Empowerment.  The soul’s power comes from self-awareness that is responsive to feedback but independent of the good or bad opinion of others.  Empowerment isn’t selfish.  It raises the status of leader and team together.

Now let’s conclude Deepak Chopra’s discussion of leadership with his thoughts on R = Responsibility. 

Leading from the soul means taking responsibility for more than the group’s needs.  It means having concern for everyone’s personal growth.  This responsibility begins with your own evolution.  In eight areas of your life you have the power to be guided by your soul: thoughts, emotions, perception, personal relationships, social role, environment, speech and the body.  In all of these areas your behavior affects the people you lead.  If you evolve, so will they.

That’s it for today.  I hope if you’re following me on this blog that you’ll write me a short comment about what you think of it and offer any suggestions for future topics as they relate to organizational and staff development.  Until next time thanks for reading and all my best!  Jer.

Empowerment: Another Leadership Trait from Deepak Chopra

Hi! Welcome back.  I’ve been writing these past few weeks about leadership and I’ve been reviewing what various people believe constitutes want leadership is.  You can see what I’ve written in the past by checking out my blog archive to the right.  Most recently I’ve been writing about Deepak Chopra’s acronym on the word leader.  Today’s letter is E and these excerpts come from Chopra’s excellent book the Soul of Leadership.

E = Empowerment. 

Empowerment is the fruit of successful action.  Doing and having power go together, since without the power to sustain your vision through difficulties and resistance, your vision will wither away.  This isn’t ego empowerment, which is driven by the demands of “I, me, and mine”; you are empowering others at the same time as you empower yourself.

The belief that power isn’t compatible with spirituality is misguided.  At the source, there is a field of infinite possibilities.  Packaged with every possibility is the path to achievement.  Your soul unfolds both at the same time.  Your power is validated by what you can manifest as reality.

When thousands of people were asked what they most wanted from a leader, four desires topped the list: trust, compassion, stability and hope.  The tools for building trust are honesty, candor and competence.  Compassion makes people feel cared for.  When you know what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes there is no choice but respect.  The tools for building compassion are empathy, respect and gratitude.  The tools for building stability are reliability, support, and peace.  Hope is intangible because it rests upon belief.  As a leader you must keep the horizon full of promise.  When we lose hope, we become directionless.  Therefore a leader must provide clear direction, a definite step-by-step plan.  Eventually people will find their own direction, but until then you as leader must provide it.  Providing guidance means holding out the values that need to be restored, such as self-confidence, competence and worthiness.  Through your showing that you see these values in others, they will begin to see them in themselves.  When you show others a concrete way to move forward, you give them a reason to have faith.  The tools for building hope are direction, guidance and faith.

Boy! I don’t know about you but that last paragraph has many pearls of truth and wisdom in it.  Empowerment is a word we hear a lot about these days but it seems that few leaders that I have been associated with in my career could or would use it in their practice of leadership, why?  Were they so insecure about their positions and skills that they didn’t wish to share the problem solving or decision making process with others, for fear of losing their status or authority?  Were they so wrapped up in who ultimately would get the credit for the work that they didn’t want to share the responsibility? 

In my experience I think that is what happens to many people in leadership positions, they have the title of leader but don’t know how to develop themselves as a leader and are afraid if they relinquish control of a process or project that they are giving away their status as leader.  What do you think?  Do you agree with my comments?  Have you had leaders that have empowered you?  If you are a leader do you use empowerment to strengthen and lead your charges?  I hope you’ll comment and thanks for reading my blog.  Until next time all my best!  Jer.

Doing: A Leadership Trait from Deepak Chopra

Hi! Welcome back.  We’re making our way through Deepak Chopra’s acronym for a leader we’ve look at the letters L, E, and A so far and today we’ll talk about what the letter D stands for which Chopra describes as Doing.  Below are Deepak Chopra’s thoughts on doing as a function of leadership.  These excerpts are taken from his book the Soul of Leadership.

D = Doing. 

Doing is a skill.  It is based on five steps that make the difference between success and failure.  Whenever you are in a position to lead:

1.       Be action-oriented.  The atmosphere around you must be dynamic.  Everyone in the group should feel energized by the call to action.

2.       Act as a role model.  Be willing to do the same things you ask others to do.  That way you will recruit others to act.  A leader doesn’t have to perform the jobs he assigns; if you can, however, that’s a great advantage.  A leader serves as a role model in giving of himself completely.

3.       Commit yourself to good, honest feedback.  Show that you want to hear the truth, and when you give feedback to others, be candid but positive.  Emphasize their contributions first and foremost.

4.       Be persistent.  There will always be setbacks and obstacles.  The course of any significant project never ran smoothly.  When others are secretly worrying about failure, your unflagging persistence is a strong asset.

5.       Take time to celebrate.  Every time there’s a significant achievement, create an atmosphere of celebration around it.  Work and nothing but work will eventually deplete people’s enthusiasm.  By celebrating milestones along the way to final success, you give everyone a taste of that success in advance.

Doing, do you recall what the Chinese philosopher Confucius said about starting a journey?  As I recall he said that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.  In my own life when I was a younger man I aspire to get a college education, but my parents had never gone to college and although I lived in a “college town” I had no idea what it would take to get my degree.  I had enrolled in college immediately right out of high school but after doing well the first semester I began to lose interest and yearn for the open road. 

I travel out West for a couple of years first with a good friend Mike Buza to California and then the next year by myself to Arizona.  After returning from Arizona I attended and graduated from Western Wisconsin Technical Institute, now called Western Wisconsin Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  I then transferred to a private college outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin but dropped out again and went back home to work as an accounting clerk.  After working several years I was denied promotion and I knew that the only way I was going to reach my dreams was to return and complete my bachelors degree. 

I remember a Vice President of the saving and loan I was working for told me the last day I was employed that I should in his words “eat the elephant one bite at a time”, it other words do something every day to reach my goals.

Can you remember a goal that you strived for and accomplished but thought at the time that it was a mountain too high to climb?  How did you get to the summit of your goal?  What did you do each and every day to make that dream a reality?  Why not drop my a comment and share it with me?  I look forward to our time together until next time all my best!  Jer.

Awareness, Leadership Traits from Deepak Chopra

Hi! Welcome back.  I’m continuing my review of Deepak Chopra’s acronym for a leader, so far we’ve look at the letter L and E today it’s the letter A which stands for Awareness.  Below is Deepak Chopra’s thoughts on awareness and what it means in regards to leadership.  These excerpts are taken from his book the Soul of Leadership.

A = Awareness. 

Awareness is the birthplace of possibility.  Everything you want to do, everything you want to be, starts here.  To be a successful visionary, you must be as aware as possible.  At every moment, many paths lead forward.  Awareness tells you which is the right one to take.

As a leader, your own awareness affects everyone around you.  Those whom you lead and serve depend on your grasp of the situation.  You must reach inside for the right response.  You alone can raise the group’s awareness from lower needs to higher needs.  To do that, you first must fulfill each need in yourself.

Awareness is a synonym for consciousness.  There is no limit to what you can change, because consciousness brings light to every aspect of life.  But if your c is constricted, everything else will be too.  On the other hand, if you are in a state of expanded awareness, everything else will expand.  The most ancient wisdom traditions say, “know that one thing by which all else is known.”  That one thing is consciousness itself.  Nothing has a greater power of transformation.

Awareness is innate—you don’t have to seek it outside yourself.  But expanded awareness must be cultivated.  Below is Deepak Chopra’s Awareness Program:

·         Stop struggling

·         Keep listening to your inner voice

·         Mediate in order to reach the core of your awareness

·         Test your boundaries

·         Remain centered

·         Look beyond your personal beliefs

·         Gather information from every source

·         Learn to have clear intentions

·         Value inner peace

At first glance this one trait seems obvious right?  How can one be a leader without being aware of what’s going on around them or what’s possible?  Sadly, many times people in leadership positions “can’t see the forest from the trees”.  Can you think back on a time when you missed the obvious signs or clues to a situation?  We all can that’s why we are human.  All of us struggle with some situation or predicament at some point in our lives; at present my predicament is trying to get a marketing brochure together for my new business.  Think about what problems you maybe going through at the moment could Chopra’s awareness program work for you?  Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think about this blogspot, until next time all my best!  Jer 

Emotional Bonding Leadership from Deepak Chopra

Hi! Welcome Back.  I’m continuing my review of Deepak Chopra’s acronym for a leader, last time we looked at the letter L which Mr. Chopra says stands for Look and listen today it’s the letter E which stands for emotional bonding.  Below is Chopra’s take on emotional bonding between a leader and their followers, excerpts taken from his book the Soul of Leadership.

E = Emotional bonding. 

Leaders bring out the best in others, but successful visionaries go even further: they form lasting emotional bonds.  They are the kind of leaders we hold in our hearts.  When people are emotionally bonded to you, they want to have contact with you.  They want to be of service and share in your vision.  Deep motivation then develops.  True, lasting loyalties are formed.

To create such bonds, you must be willing to build real relationships.  Share yourself.  Take a personal interest in others, and notice their strengths.  At the most basic level, you must display healthy emotional energy yourself.  Avoid the three toxic A’s: authoritarianism, anger and aloofness.

In every situation, make it a habit to ask yourself the key questions of emotional intelligence:

·         How do I feel?

·         How do they feel?

·         What are the hidden stumbling blocks between us?

A leader who can answer these questions will be in a position to create lasting emotional bonds.

Reinforcing the strengths of others:  Again and again it has been shown that the best leaders focus on the strengths of their followers.  They build a team by assessing who does what well.  They encourage each person to develop his or her best qualities.  But that’s just the beginning.  People want to be praised for their strengths, specifically and personally.

One of the takeaways that I get from this post one is that leaders become emotionally connected in some way with their followers.  I don’t know about you but think back over your career (if you are a fossil like I) and ask yourself who were the best leaders I knew or worked with?  Hopefully you’ve had a few, in my experience I had two but unfortunately I only worked with them for a short time less than five years in a thirty year career.  However for whatever reason I think back on these two men Jim Bidlingmaier at Madison Gas & Electric Company and Bob Nash at College Cooperative Southeast with fondness even though I haven’t seen these fellas in years, why?

I believe that both men encouraged me and allowed me to grow during my time with them.  I can still see the poster behind Bidlingmaier’s desk which read “All the Aardvarks are going west. I’m traveling East”, as a young Supervisor at the time the poster puzzled me but as I think about it now it meant that you should be your own person and come to your own opinions and decisions, don’t follow the crowd but follow your own intuition and “blaze your own trail”.  That was quite a statement for a management person to promote in the Gas & Utility business back in the mid 1980’s.

Bob Nash allowed me to see into his decision making process.  Bob was assigned to head up a new project which brought higher education to rural parts of Southeastern Indiana and he was “making the rules up as he went along” because there was no rules and he had to carve out how this organization should and would operate going forward.  He allowed me and I believe some of my colleagues at the time to enter into his thinking process and give input into how things should work going forward.  Needless to say after over thirty years of work experience I rarely saw that kind of support or candor in any other supervisor I had after them.

How about you?  What about Chopra’s thoughts on emotional bonding and staff development, do you agree with him?  Do you have examples of individuals that you’ve worked with or known from your past that you developed an emotional bond with?  What did these people do to solicit your support?  Please feel free to comment, thanks for reading and until next time all my best!  Jer.

Look and Listen: Leadership from Deepak Chopra

Hi! Welcome back.

I’ve been studying the topic of leadership lately and have been reviewing what some people think about the subject.  Last time I gave you Deepak Chopra’s acronym for leadership.  In reviewing the details of what each letter in leadership means from Chopra’s perspective I thought I would take each letter and his accompanying thoughts one at a time so that both you and I can read and contemplate there meaning to us. 

Today let’s look at the first letter in leader L, and read what Deepak Chopra wrote in his book The Soul of Leadership.  L = Look and listen. 

Great leaders have a vision, and the ability to manifest it.  Defining your own visions begins with looking and listening.  You look and listen to the situation around you, but you also look and listen inside.  This involves four steps:

·         Impartial observation—look and listen with your senses.

·         Analysis—Look and listen with your mind.

·         Feeling—look and listen with your heart.

·         Incubation—Look and listen with your soul.

If you want to be a successful visionary, here is where the journey begins, with two critical questions:

1.       What is my vision?

2.       How can I make it happen

As a leader, your vision exists to be shared with enthusiasm and inspiration.  The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek root en-thos or “in God”, reminding you that you must look in your soul.  Inspiration comes from the same Latin root as “to breathe and spirit”.  When you inspire others, you bring everyone into the spirit of your vision—you motivate them to breathe together in the same atmosphere.

Listening is vitally important when it comes to understanding the situation you are in, and what need is crying out to be fulfilled.  In almost every estimate of what makes a leader, the same quality is mentioned: she’s a good listener.  What makes for a good listener?

1.       Not interrupting.

2.       Showing that you empathize: not criticizing, arguing, or patronizing.

3.       Establishing a physical sense of closeness without invading personal space.

4.       Observing body language and letting yours show you are not distracted but attentive.

5.       Offering your own self-disclosures, but not too many or too soon.

6.       Understanding the context of the other person’s life.

7.       Listening from all four levels: body, mind, heart and soul.

I think this is a good place to begin don’t you when asking yourself what is leadership and what constitutes good leadership?  How can anyone be a leader without having some idea about what is going on?  And how can someone know what is going on without looking and listening to their environment?  I don’t wish to make this blogspot a political forum but perhaps we can look at those individuals who either hold the office of the President of the United States or wish to occupy it.  From a leadership perspective as Chopra has defined it here  do you think any of these individuals has a grasp of what’s going on in the country?  Do you think any of them are attuned to what the nation is feeling and experiencing since the real estate collapse of 2008?  Have any of the candidates or for that matter the President himself articulated their vision for the country and a set forth a plan to make it happen?

In my opinion, I don’t think so and that makes me leery about the future of the country at least in the short term.  I don’t see any of these qualities in either the President or his challengers am I wrong?  Can you list some examples where you think any of the people running for the Presidency of the United States are looking and listening to our nation’s problems and setting out a plan to combat them?  I’d love to see your comments on the presidential candidates leadership skills as they relate to the first letter of Chopra’s acronym of leadership—L, Look and Listen.  Thanks again for reading and until next time all my best!  Jer.

The Soul of Leadership: Deepak Chopra's thoughts on Leadership

Hi! Welcome back.  I’ve been studying the topic of leadership lately and trying to ascertain first what constitutes leadership by reading and listening to various authors who have either been in leadership positions or who have written about the subject.  In my two most recent blog posts I’ve taken a look at how Lee Iacocca and Billy Graham viewed the subject and today I want to introduce the thoughts of Deepak Chopra on this subject and in successive posts explore more fully what Mr. Chopra’s acronym for a leader means to him.

The information I’m presenting today was obtained from Mr. Chopra’s book entitled “The Soul of Leadership”.  Most leadership material, at least those I’ve read are written for the business community and having been a business student for most of my life I’ve arrived at the subject with that frame of reference.  I wanted to alter my perspective with this book because my current client isn’t a business but a church and I thought Mr. Chopra’s insights could be of benefit not only to me but others.

Now here’s an introduction on the subject of leadership by Deepak Chopra.  At the deepest level, a leader is the symbolic soul of the group.  His role is to fulfill the needs of others and when each need is met, to lead the group onto fulfilling ever higher needs, lifting the group’s potential at every step.  The inspired leader’s power base comes not from other people but from her very being, and the path she walks is guided by her soul.  Its hallmarks are creativity, intelligence, organizing power and love.

Chopra’s acronym for leaders:

L = Look and listen.  Do this with your senses, as an unbiased observer who has not judged anything in advance.  Do it with your heart, obeying your truest feelings.  Finally, do it with your soul, responding to the vision and deep purpose it provides.

E = Emotional bonding.  Leading from the soul means going beyond the melodrama of living in crisis mode.  It requires recognizing and clearing away toxic emotions so you can clearly understand your own specific needs, and those of others.

A = Awareness.  This means being aware of the questions that underlie every challenge: Who am I?  What do I want?  What does the situation demand?  A leader must continually ask these questions of herself, and inspire her team to ask them for themselves.

D = Doing.  A leader must be action-oriented.  In whatever he does, he must serve as a role model, holding himself responsible for the promises he has made.  This requires persistence and tenacity, but also the ability to view any situation with flexibility and humor.

E = Empowerment.  The soul’s power comes from self-awareness that is responsive to feedback but independent of the good or bad opinion of others.  Empowerment isn’t selfish.  It raises the status of the leader and team together.

R = Responsibility.  Responsible leadership includes choosing considered risks rather than reckless ones, walking the talk, having integrity, and living up to your inner values.  Seen from the level of the soul, a leader’s greatest responsibility is to lead the group on the path of higher consciousness.

S = Synchronicity.  This is a mysterious element from the underlying universal field of consciousness that all great leaders harness.  Synchronicity is the ability to create good luck and find invisible support that carries one beyond predicted outcomes to a higher plane.  In spiritual terms, synchronicity is the ultimate ability to connect any need with an answer from the soul.

Okay, with that brief introduction to leadership by Mr. Chopra what are your thoughts?  Have you heard of leadership described in terms of love and soul before?  I haven’t.  Do you believe that we can actually rid ourselves of “toxic emotions” in the course of being a leader?  I’d love to have your thoughts on this subject, please stop and write a comment and thanks for reading my blog; until next time all my best!  Jer