Is It Truly Visionary Leadership, or Are We Just Waking Up?

Leadership and vision are things I’ve been dealing with all of my life on different levels: from student government and asking questions that irritated those around me and questioned the status quo, to literally growing up and becoming an entrepreneur and eye surgeon before selling my practice. Vision and leadership are themes in my life in a very personal and experiential way.

Our world has been operating so backwards for the past few thousand years or so that those who are first starting to wake up (including myself) are often dubbed as “visionary.” Pretty much everything I talk about and what media pronounces “thought leaders,” bestselling authors and others share is simply ancient wisdom spoken in terms of today’s language. It’s just a new cycle of old information.

Yet, to us it is a revelation; hence, it seems new to today’s world. If you are brave enough to look inside, you might notice that on some level you already know this. Of course, everything is relative. I’m just happy to see this conversation beginning to make its way onto public platforms.

We need courageous, enlightened, inspired leaders who can turn on their own inner authentic light so they can:

* See the light in others
* See new possibilities for innovation
* Let their light, and hence their Life, shine!

It takes courage to break free from old programming and inner tapes that dim our light. It’s like the dark cave allegory by Socrates: the inhabitants were in fear of their shadows (as many people today are scared of their own inner “shadows”) in their ignorance. One brave soul makes up his or her mind to break into the sunlight only to realize freedom was just a few steps away.

She or he realizes that the illusion of the shadows on the cave walls was the equivalent of the boogeyman under the bed. Yet, the one who had set himself free was rejected when he went back inside to tell the others that their shadow illusion was to be transformed by coming out into the light. As I said, there’s nothing new under the sun.

The good news is, now that our environment has shifted so far so fast, we are being shaken out of our caves! The earth is rumbling under our feet metaphorically, and if we don’t run out of the cave we may just be crushed by it. In order to be the type of “in the light” inspirational leader that is needed in today’s world, one will need to leave the cave and inspire others to do the same.

Also, when we can see our self in the light, we can better see others where they currently are in the dark and help them to transform their illusion. Are you up for the challenge? How does this play out in business and life? A self-aware collaborative leader can jumpstart more rapid change and:

* See themselves more clearly — with compassion and self-acceptance — and grow more easily.
* See others where they are and help and inspire them to do the same.
* Reconnect with their inner genius more easily to innovate and see new possibility.
* Have higher quality spacious relationships that confidently allow others to get out of their box (cave).
* Create culture change and teams that embrace change with more ease, wisdom and grace, leading to a more sustainable adaptability, and likely more profitable, bottom line.

Leading with the “Brain in Mind” can help support this process when you experientially know how to integrate the science — and I’m not simply giving a neuroanatomy lecture here. When we care more about people than just crunching numbers, ironically we will likely have bigger numbers to crunch! This is a part of the paradox we need to learn and apply.

Stimulating growth in people will likely create new ideas, inventions, and innovations we have not even thought of yet! Not only that, engaging the hearts and minds of people through love instead of fear will likely allow these new ideas to actually manifest in form and give society a whole new paradigm for prosperity.

It’s a paradigm that works for the whole rather than a few destroying the collective… and, of course, themselves in the process. FEAR — Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality — has blinded us. It’s time to rewrite our story to see clearer. We are all connected. Are you expanding your vision and waking up? Are you taking your life and your leadership to the next evolutionary level?