Posted on December 8, 2008 - by Vic Desotelle

About A More Advanced Form Of Leadership

My good friend Maria Kostelas from Flutes of the World is an exceptional thinker, innovator, musician, and writer. She shared some thoughts with me today. Read up …

Maria says …

“Thought leaders do not wait in silence. Nor do they wait for others’ minds to be opened, or for safe places to speak into. Today’s thought leaders are the openers of minds so that they too may participate in the leading of the group. They are modern day prophets who dare say “we,” knowing their words spring from a place of unity.”

She suggests this book …

“The Art of Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader” by Jan Phillips.  Have you heard of it?  She’s a good writer and quite an eloquent, (w)holistic-synthesizer, offering content that addresses individual needs in relation to corporate and global community, economic conditions, and… possibilities.

A quote from Jan Phillips:

“… And this is the great challenge for any emergent thought leader-to know that one’s ideas will be criticized and resisted, and yet to dare to speak, knowing that these thoughts are the only building blocks we have to a new and safer world. …”

“… Transformation originates in people who see a better way or a fairer world, people who reveal themselves, disclose their dreams, and unfold their hopes in the presence of others. And this very unfolding, this revelation of raw, unharnessed desire, this deep longing to be a force for good in the world is what inspires others to feel their own longings, to remember their own purpose, and to act, perhaps for the first time, in accordance with their inner spirit.”

Other points that Maria makes …

The poet Audre Lorde reminds us:

“… We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for the final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us… The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation and that always seems fraught with danger. We fear the very visibility without which we also cannot truly live…and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which is also the source of our greatest strength.”

Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain and The Lucifer Principle, writes:

“Imagine what it would be like if at every staff meeting you were expected to put the care of the multitudes we mistakenly call “consumers” first. Imagine what it would be like to go to work each morning in a company that saw your passions as your greatest engines, your curiosities as your fuel, and your idealism as the pistons of your labors and of your soul. Imagine what it would be like if your superiors told you that the ultimate challenge was to tune your empathic abilities so you could sense the needs of your firm’s customers even before those customers quite knew what they hankered after.”

This is not just about your boss. That’s not what the new leadership is exactly. No, this stuff includes you too. And if you are a leader of others: Can you relate to this?! No?? Best you start.