Leadership Savvy May 2002

"Remember that the method is awareness-of-process.
Reflect.
Be still.
What do you deeply feel?"

Tao cannot be defined, because it applies to everything. You cannot define something in terms of itself. If you can define a principle, it is not Tao.
To know what is happening, push less, open out and be aware. See without staring. Listen quietly rather than listening hard. Use intuition and reflection rather than trying to figure things out.
Learn to trust what is happening. If there is silence, let it grow; something will emerge. If there is a storm, let it rage; it will resolve into calm.
By staying present and aware of what is happening, the leader can do less yet achieve more.
Good leadership consists of motivating people to their highest levels by offering them opportunities, not obligations. That is how things happen naturally. Life is an opportunity and not an obligation.
The wise leader has learned how painful it is to fake knowledge. Being wise and not wanting the pain, the leader does not indulge in pretending. Anyway, it is a relief to be able to say: “I don’t know.”
The leader’s stillness overcomes the group’s agitation. The leader’s consciousness is the primary tool of this work.
It is if they were newly in love, not with one person, but with all creation, and their energies are as abundant as all creation.
People who surrender all their blocks and conflicts experience a free flow of vital energy.
Group members genuinely appreciate a leader who facilitates their lives rather than promoting some personal agenda. Because the leader is open, any issue can be raised. Because the leader has no position to defend and shows no favoritism, no one feels slighted; no one wishes to quarrel.
Knowing how things work gives the leader more real power and ability than all the degrees or titles the world can offer.
Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. The wise leader knows that yielding overcomes resistances, and gentleness melts rigid defenses.
As you rely less and less on knowing just what to do, your work will become more direct and more powerful. You will discover that the quality of your consciousness is more potent than any technique or theory or interpretation.
As much as possible, allow the group process to emerge naturally. Resist any temptation to instigate issues or elicit emotions which have not appeared on their own.
The wise leader knows that the true nature of events cannot be captured in words. So why pretend?
Imagine that the life force is like water in the river and the sea. The sea, greater than the river, lies below, open and receptive. The busy, rushing river enters the sea, is absorbed, and is transformed.
Generally speaking, the leader’s consciousness sheds more light on what is happening than any number of interventions or explanations.
Learn to recognize beginnings. At birth, events are relatively easy to manage.
Do you want to be a positive influence in the world? First, get your own life in order.
Becoming more conscious leads toward God and a sense of the unity of all creation.
The well-run group is not a battlefield of egos. Of course, there will be conflict, but these energies become creative forces.
The wise leader knows what is happening in a group by being aware of what is happening here and now. This is more potent than wandering off in to various theories or making complex interpretations of the situation at hand.
At birth, a person is flexible and flowing. At death, a person becomes rigid and blocked. Whatever is flexible and flowing will tend to grow. Whatever is rigid and blocked will atrophy and die.
That is the way of nature: to relax what is tense, to fill what is empty, to reduce what is overflowing.
I can look at a person and see both principle and process in them. I can see how they work. I can see them actually working. That is the basis of my ability as a group leader.
The group will rebel and resist if the leader relies on strict controls in an effort to make things come out a certain way
The wise leader knows that the reward for doing the work arises naturally out of the work.

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Again, it was an honor for me to work with you all in the nurturing beauty of Fetzer!