Heart-full Leadership

Posted on February 09, 2023 by Alicia Crain, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

Heart-full Leadership is…

Intentional
Mindful
Aligned with one’s personal values
Self-aware and -accepted, particularly of one’s own darkness and lightness
Sweating the small stuff
Fiercely Compassionate – starting with self
Creative
Clear
Calm
Curious
Courageous
Confident
Connected to self, Earth/nature, others
Consistent with all one encounters
Grounded and centered
Confronting reality with loving kindness
Interculturally competent
Antiracist, anti-imperialist, anti-ableist, anti-misogynistic…in other words, inclusive by design

Knowing that words can hurt just as much as sticks and stones and demonstrating this understanding through one’s behavior in all contexts.

Not something one takes on and off. One is or is not a heartful leader in life, always or never, and is always striving to be the best version of oneself, in a fiercely compassionate manner.

Knowing there is always more to learn about others and the world and more to discover about oneself and ones purpose on Earth.

A spiritual wellness practice for mindbodyspirit that sends ripples of transformation throughout your life, the communities in which you live, worship, work, play, and, ultimately, throughout the multiverses as we who are committed to an expansive, generative future fill it up with LOVE.

Requires radical honesty with oneself, one’s beloveds, and one’s communities.

FUN and JOYOUS and FULL of PLAY and PLEASURE, for the sake of play and pleasure, and RIDDLED with REST, for the future of humanity and the planet.

The ability to laugh at oneself and the folly of being a human alive at this point in history and all the effort at trying to be the best we can be when everyone else seems to be giving up on integrity, honoring social contracts, and not being an self-centered jackass.

Requires community to maintain and deepen – we do not heal ourselves, our communities, or change culture on our own, we can only do so in community. Margaret Mead was right.

Stepping into Heartful Leadership says to the world: for the love of all, stop human doing so much and return to life as a human being!!!!!!

The downward spiral treadmill of busyness, hustling, comparing, and general mob mentality that tells us to “do do do do do do do do!!” is killing us.

Literally.

All of us.

And it is a choice. We have made the choice to work ourselves to death and to postpone pleasure and joy. In service of…? Accumulating stuff? Just getting by?

What if we made a choice to put joy and pleasure and loving ourselves first and doing things to justify our existence, like working as an employee, second? Even third or fourth? Could we get to…last?

Because, when we reflect on our purpose, our individual reasons for being alive, were any of us born to be employees?

I sure wasn’t. But I sure was living like I was, dedicating what seemed like every waking – and sleeping – moment to performing or thinking/worrying about tasks in service of keeping others bound to their tasks (salaries) as high-performing employees, not to help them live full, free lives as complete human beings with feelings that matter. We were creating human doings numb to maltreatment and overwork. And when I realized that, I made a choice first to love myself more. To stop numbing my feelings and doing what others required me to do to keep me under their thumb. And by making those choices, and quieting their voices, I was then able to listen to my heart. Which then felt free to tell me I was on the wrong track. It called me to make the choice to use my time and energy to demonstrate my love for my beloveds, for humankind, rather than trying to squeeze caring for them into a schedule meant to squeeze them out. By returning to my heart, by finding Heart-full Leadership, I returned to choice. Honestly, I found I had always had choice, but had given it away. By taking it back, I returned to myself: a human being with needs and feelings that matter who can now love and care for others as they need to be loved and cared for, not just as I want to love and care for them. Because their needs and feelings matter as much as mine, because we are human. Simple as that.

Return to your heart; return home to yourself.
Return to your heart; return home to yourself. Simple as that.

Return to your heart and you will find all you’ve been looking for, all that has been waiting for you, beating strong right there in your chest, keeping you alive, hoping for a chance to be heard.

Shhhhhhh…listen.

Listen to your heart. What messages are waiting for you?