What a "Lode".....

A few days back I was surfing some random blogs when I came across an interesting post written by a guy about women and leadership. This piqued my interest so I gave it a quick read. I had just read a few other notes in the WEL-Systems blog ring about duality and paradox and so in that frame of mind I read a line that went something like this......"the unspoken truth about women and empowerment is that men are expected to fill in the void left behind as women step forward and men aren't willing to do that". Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find his blog to make sure these are his exact words-but it is the essence of what he had to say as he tried to sort out for himself where he stood on the issue.

I found myself wondering what it would be like if leadership didn't require "followers". And who says someone has to trail behind simply because someone else has stepped in their own life? He laid it out as a real "either/or" situation but couldn't it just as easily be both?! Imagine how life would be if we weren't worrying about where we were in the race and simply used our leadership skills to lead our own lives, making the most of our own potential .... and in the process of not continually looking over our shoulder or amassing piles of "subordinates" we could made room for each other to simply take ownership/leadership of our lives? What would the world look like?

Imagine this on a global scale...would the US be fighting its bloody war and dragging us all along for the ride or would it be tending to its own people such as the residents of New Orleans that continue to live in appalling conditions 2 years after Katrina? Aren't they residents of one of the world's wealthiest countries? How about the numbers of working poor in our countries? I mean the list is nearly endless.

The point is, there needn't be a vacuum to fill simply because we choose to exercise leadership - unless we need that leadership to recognized and acknowledged by someone else in order to believe it to be true. That's our old way of considering leadership and to borrow a Dr. Phil-ism "How's that workin' fer ya?"! Leadership is an "inside" job ..... its a state of mind, a state of "being" and as soon as we embrace that as a possibility, a veritable tidal wave of possibility rushes in.

Leadership like this leaves room for everyone. If I am taking full responsibility for creating my life, making the most of my talents, taking on opportunities to learn and grow - then I can stand comfortably within my own circle of influence and it doesn't need to impede yours. In fact, I may notice yours and be inspired or seek out your support but I will never need to fear that there isn't enough power to go around ... my power is mine, your is yours and once in a while, we'll over lap and create something bigger and when we are done - we'll move on.

Imagine this within a marriage, a friendship, a business relationship, nation-wide, ... internationally....what would our world look like? And it all begins within you and within me. Hmmm....now that's something to consider, don't you think?

I have never attended any of Louise's Women and Leadership experience's but I sense this may be a part of those conversations - and there is likely more.

For the men out there, who fear that they may have to be subservient to women who are taking back their "power" I simply have to say that those women never truly gave it away. They can't give you their power and you can't own it and the reverse is true as well. No one can take anyone's power if you believe it to be the essence of who they are. Power is personal and its up to each of us as individual humans to exercise it or not. Like leadership, power deserves to be redefined as something we are, an inherent state of being - not as something done to each other.

To continue to think of leadership and power as an either/or situation is getting us absolutely nowhere except deeper into the muck .... and that's why I think its a "lode"! Under the surface there is lots of potential waiting to be discovered by exploring what we presume about voids and who fills them, by examining the meaning we have historically attached to these concepts to see if it continues to be valid, by considering that this is a conversation (spoken or unspoken) that is beginning among men who, perhaps for the first time in generations, are trying to determine who they can become as the women around them wake up and step into their own personal power.

This one is worth mining in my opinion!