I am flying on Aer Lingus from Ireland’s Shannon Airport to Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve just completed a remarkable leadership workshop: “Contextual Leadership,” at Burren College of Art, on the magical and majestic west coast of Ireland in Ballyvaughan.
The workshop was led by master poet David Whyte and Martin Hayes, a well-known Irish fiddler. We had three days of exploring leadership as a creative force with poets, musicians, artists, and widely recognized corporate leaders from around the globe.
As a participant — and as a leader in my own right — it became increasingly clear that leadership is always a creative act. Leadership must be brought forth. It cannot be remembered, recalled, or recollected. It comes not just from the head, but also from the heart and from the gut.
Art, Music – and Leadership?
Leadership is not formulaic. Leadership is not prearranged. Leadership isn’t fixed or set. Like art or music, leadership is an inspired act that requires a disassociation from the strategic and tactical mind. Leadership must be evoked; generated in the moment. And this is where most entrepreneurs fail. They have strong strategic abilities for generating a business — they are excellent tacticians, figuring out ways to get there, but they lack the creative expression needed for inspiring leadership.
Successful musicians enter a place where they become one with the music rather than just simply playing the notes. World-class poets become one with the words they speak; they don’t just say the words. Great artists and great musicians become one with the essence of that with which they are engaged. But unlike great artists who express an image they envision, most entrepreneurs paint by the numbers, stay within the lines, use only the colors requested, and never really “create.”
What Sets Leaders Apart?
Leaders drop into a seemingly mystical place of passion as the vision of an imagined future immerses them. It’s not a default future, which is a future that would have happened anyway. Not a predictable future — a future that is an extension of the past. Rather, it’s a future that will make a true and lasting difference; a future that will impact people’s lives. In essence, leaders become the future they speak.
Great leaders can tap into that creative and inspired place — a place that enables them to express a future that paints a picture that astounds. Leaders speak of the future in such a way that others feel something profound at an experiential level, generating a strong bond to this future. Leaders create an environment in their speaking and in their being that enlivens, inspires, and promotes commitment.
A leader’s speaking creates a listening in others that opens the gate of possibility for a powerful future for the enterprise, for themselves and for the people they serve. Dancers become the dance. Musicians become the music. Leaders become the future.
Determination
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck.
The fortunate is he whose earnest purpose never swerves
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
