As a leader in any field, you really only have one aim: to see the potential in other people and help them realize it and fulfill it.
It is not your job to tell people what to do and especially not how to do it.
Your job is to make sure they fulfill their potential and to create the conditions for them to operate from that potential. You must trust that when people operate from their highest potential, their optimal self, they instinctually know what to do and know how to make decisions that are best for them to create great results.
The moment you recognize your need to manage, that can be a sign that this relationship does not function in the best way possible. As a leader, raising your awareness further develops your expertise in being the best leader you can be and, therefore, a leader in service to humanity.
One of the most important leadership tools is coaching! How can you use coaching as a leader in an impactful way?
- Create a deep bond
- Acknowledge and fulfill potential
Create a deep bond
Bond or bonding is connection. Shared responsibility and trust. On the other hand, when taken too far, bonding or overbearing is dependency.
You want to create a bond from an awake state that recognizes the shared nature of your team members. What I mean by an awake state is to follow the natural desire all of us have as human beings. We all have a natural tendency to follow connections and desire a few very simple things; joy, peace, and freedom. Why? Because it’s our true nature, and every time we think, speak and act in a way not aligned with our true nature, we lack fulfillment and experience fear, stress, and self-doubt. When you foster an environment that supports that true nature, you allow each person to fulfill and express their potential without limitations.
When we experience a deep connection with another human being, what we are experiencing is the recognition that “we are the same, we share the same nature.”
Even if we aren’t explicitly saying this ourselves, this is the underlying deeper experience. This deep connection begins to transcend the “me and other” point of view. It dissolves the subject-object perception. The more bond and connection your team will have, the more they will operate as one cohesive group that amplifies the individual talent 10-fold.
“If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.” — Ramana Maharshi
Acknowledge and fulfill potential
Leadership is meant to look like this…
The best leaders and teams do not operate from positional hierarchy, they dissolve the linear way many people perceive leadership. Instead, each individual fulfills a role that best suits their talents and potential — no one is more important than another, and no one is above or below anyone else.
Great leaders meet their team on the horizontal plane, not the vertical, and acknowledge or ignite the potential in each individual person.
Sports coaches spend their time on the court with their players, not in the executive suite. This builds depth and deep bonds in their relationships.
Nature is the best teacher for leadership, relationships, and optimal functioning. The Redwood tree is one of the most magnificent, large, and powerful presences in nature.
Photo by Gabriel Tovar on Unsplash
They can reach over 300 feet tall and over 20 feet in diameter!
But for these trees to grow at such a large scale, they slowly grow root systems that can extend over one hundred feet from the base, intertwining with the roots of other redwoods.
If you want each member of your team to grow to the most magnificent, large, and powerful leaders they can, the team must build an intertwined horizontal system of connections over a long period of time. There is no other way.
When you observe a forest or a natural ecosystem from above, you recognize that there isn’t one component more important than another. There is no leader, and no one is running the show. Yet everything grows to its best version of itself.
Great leaders create ecosystems where each individual has the conditions and resources necessary for them to succeed — position and hierarchy are insignificant and irrelevant. It’s the ecosystem and connections that run the show, not the individual.
With heart,
Gil·ad (eternal-joy)
