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Leadership from the Soul

Written by: Monique Flaherty

Article Overview: What does it mean to lead from soul? Why would one want to lead from soul? What difference could and does this make?

Leadership from the Soul

"Your vision will become clear when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks within, awakens." ~ Carl Jung "Our journey is a search, often arduous, for our spiritual center. Once we find our own light within, we can share it with others, offering our own gifts from the heart." ~Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal from Leading with Soul; An Uncommon Journey of Spirit

What does it mean to lead from soul? Why would one want to lead from soul? What difference could and does this make?

I have learned so much about this topic since launching Diamond Horse Coaching! Actually the whole process of stepping into this work has been a lifetime's journey enriched and supported by my work with hundreds of clients who have demonstrated their courage and risked to lead from their souls. Here's how I see the journey to "Leadership from the Soul" at its most basic level:

1. Each of us is called to live life to its fullest. The call is that nudging sense of incompleteness, yearning, longing, desire for something.

2. We start by looking outside ourselves to fill the void. Eventually, when we pay attention, we find that nothing fills us from outside in. This can feel very uncomfortable.

This is the soul's way of bringing us home.

3. We begin to look inside. What's here? Who am I? What is life all about? What the heck am I doing with my life? Where's the fulfillment I seek? What's the contribution I want to make in the world? These are questions we continue to ask well into the journey.

4. These questions lead us to working through limiting beliefs, identities, ideas we have about ourselves. They lead us to therapy, perhaps; to coaching, perhaps; to supportive community, relationships; to spiritual studies and practices such as meditation, journaling, inquiry, practicing being in the moment, yoga, etc.

5. We begin to see ourselves from the inside out. We begin to experience the power of the now, the present moment, the gift and perspective life as a spiritual being offers us relative to who we think we are. We begin to tap into our being-ness and relish the mystery that is life; we find we enjoy living the mystery and being in not knowing.

6. We begin living from the inside out - leading our lives from our values- what is truly important to us - rather than by doing what society or other external forces may dictate to us. We pay attention to our hearts and learn how to lead our lives from our souls- the essence, core and guiding values of who we are.

7. Our external lives begin to shift in ways we never thought possible. We risk setting boundaries, quitting our jobs, being vulnerable in relationship, speaking what's true in our experience, following a dream, experiencing our worth, believing in life. Perhaps, for the first time ever.

8. As we continue, we extend our truest selves into the world and the world responds giving us gifts and richness in the simplest and most profound ways. Synchronicities abound - connections, ideas, thoughts, hunches become trustworthy and gifts on the path. Living becomes fresh, vibrant; we find we can welcome challenges as paths to growth. While our lifetime patterns and stuck-ness are often less paralyzing and devastating the spiritual path is not without challenge, upset and difficulty. We still experience tough places and we can experience a sense of the deeper flow that life is.

9. The path continues to unfold, revealing itself moment by moment in mysterious and remarkable ways that are very personal and precious. There is less effort and struggle to figure out what to do to make a contribution. We come to experience ourselves being a contribution to life: who we are is the contribution. The doing and action come from our be-ing. This is Leadership from the Soul:

Leading in the moment;

Leading from the heart as it informs the mind;

Leading from the soul as it informs the personality

This is what I've experienced so far in my own life. There have been very difficult decisions to make, challenging risks to take, yet, through it all, Life itself in its courageous, inexhaustible penetrating way, persists in expressing itself through this life I lead.

You are a vehicle for this expression. You can choose to surrender to the flow and lead from your soul regardless of whether you are a leader of or an employee in an organization, have a family, spouse, are an entrepreneur, are unemployed or are in a transition in your life. You can choose at any moment to take this life's journey inward and to begin to lead from your soul.

I invite you to ponder the following: Try reading it out loud to your self, slowly.

This is it.

I have one life to live.

This moment is all there is.

I am perfect, whole, complete - right now.

My life is unfolding exactly as it is meant to.

I have choices.

My ego is in service to my soul.

My mind is in service to my heart.

Inquiry:

What call are you hearing?

How are you answering?

Where are you in the journey of Leadership from the Soul?

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Article Tags: leadership, Monique Flaherty, Soul, SoulWorks Coaching, Spiritual journey



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