A New Paradigm for Leaders

I have been training leaders my whole life and creating leadership programs for hundreds of thousands of people, and so I know a bit about what leaders need to thrive. Leadership is an interesting subject, and has powerful ramifications, and is complex in its understanding.

People think about leadership in lots of different ways.

The old model of leadership – the old paradigm – is that leadership is about a title, or about the authority you have been given, or about who is actually the leader of the team or the meeting.

It’s been thought in the past that if you had the title, then you must be a leader. There is a new leadership paradigm now – it is a different way of considering what leadership is, and it involves all of us, not just the person who has the title and not just the person who happens to be chairing the meeting.

The new paradigm of leadership has to do with our what our interpretation is of responsibility and commitment. It used to be thought that our commitment and our responsibility was determined by our circumstances, so in fact, if someone was asked to commit, they would first look to see what their circumstances were in order to have the answer – did they have enough money to commit to that, did they have the right team to be able to commit to delivering a result – in other words, their circumstances determined what they could commit to.

"In the New World, we don't need a title to lead"

"Act on the world, rather than allowing the world to act on us".

In the new paradigm of leadership, we are now waking up to our own personal power, and we are realizing that commitment comes first – we ask ourselves what we are committed to create or produce or impact BEFORE we look at the circumstances that surround us. Then if we are really committed, we work on creating whatever circumstances we need to get the job done.

We are not acting like victims in the new paradigm of leadership, we are acting as if we can cause things to happen and as if we have impact in the world. We are acting on the world, rather than allowing the world to act on us.

In the new paradigm of leadership, we don’t need a title to lead – we just need a voice, and the perspective that we have the capacity to make a difference. That is a real leader – one who causes things to happen, no matter their title; one who realizes they have power to effect change and impact circumstances, and the willingness to make requests and offers and promises until the desired result is achieved. People will follow that kind of leader, not because they ‘have’ to but because they are inspired to.

Real leaders know that about people. They create communities where people feel they belong, and where they are affirmed for the difference they make; where they can speak and be appreciated for their ideas, rather than treated like sheep who have to follow along because ‘the leader’ said so.

Real leaders know their job is to wake up, and to wake others up to the fact that we all have the job to make this world a better place for all; not just for ourselves or our petty whims; but for the good of all – and that we need to operate in a way that our communities and our commitments can be sustainable, not just until we get what we want for ourselves. It won’t work anymore, to operate any other way.

They know they have a higher calling; they know they want to make a difference, and they become guided by that purpose rather than their petty wants and personal will.

"Human beings innately want two big things – to belong, and to make a difference".

"Real leaders in the New Paradigm of Leadrship are Enlightened Leaders"

In this New Paradigm of Leadership, it becomes important to create sustainability; leaders of this nature want things to work for all, and to be part of a bigger ecosystem. These leaders operate in a Win/Win world, not Win/Lose.

We are in a special time in history, where our actions make a difference to the sustainability of our communities and of our very planet. Once we realize we can make a difference, we can not forget that. Just like riding a bicycle – once you know how to ride a bike, you always know. Once we are enlightened, we are always enlightened, and then the real choice is are we going to be responsible and committed to operate from that place of enlightenment or not – even in the face of discomfort or non-agreement.

The STAND we take becomes the thing that makes us an Enlightened Leader – not the TITLE we have. Leaders in the New Paradigm take the Stand for making a difference in life and making this a better world for all.

The 4 Stages of Consciousness

• Stage One:
  We are at the effect of our circumstances; we allow the world to act on us; we are victims.

• Stage Two:
  We realize we have power and we can create our own circumstances – we act into the world with our own voice and power; however, we act mostly for our own good – what we want, what we need, and pay little attention to the whole.

• Stage Three:
  We get to a place where we create many results, but end up feeling “is that all there is?” – we have things and personal power, but we discover a longing to make a difference, to contribute to a bigger purpose, to serve a higher cause or community.

• Stage Four:
  We get to a place where we find that there is a calling inside and we become ‘used’ by the Universe for a higher purpose; when we are on the ‘right path’, things go well, and if get off that path, we find life doesn’t flow as well; the Universe guides us in our actions from a higher place.

Champions get results not reasons