The Arete Guy's Leadership Insights Series

Insight #4: True leaders live only one life at a time!

It is impossible to have a discussion around leadership without exploring it in the context of our lives. The reality is that we simply do not have the capacity to maintain separate identities and purposes for our work and personal lives. If we try, we will lose the integrity and wholeness needed to lead our selves and others. So, it is essential that our leadership voice be supported by our personal purpose in life.

Our personal purpose can only be understood and developed through the pursuit of "meaning" -- a never-ending conversation we have with ourselves over a lifetime.

The 3 Cs:

clarity,
constancy,
courage

in these internal conversations will be critical to creating a meaningful life. Earning a living has never had quite the same sense of fulfillment as living a life. As we are able to make small steps in finding and developing our meanings, we are rewarded with a deep sense of participation that can overcome the powerlessness that one feels in life. We increasingly learn more about ourselves from each experience and the confidence we gain allows us to lean into our challenges.

As can be expected, the journey toward a meaningful life requires deliberate intentions that we act on every day. Without the stability of clear meanings in our lives, we can get so busy that we lose track of who we are. When courage needs to be summoned, we falter. We are under great pressure to protect ourselves from the relentless external pressures to succeed by reducing the expectations for our lives, creating a safety from certain losses that will occur when we put our meanings on the line. Instead of growing, we shrink from our true selves.

The reality is that meaning cannot be achieved without being actively sought - requiring thinking, reflection, and learning. As commonplace as these activities might appear, the reality is quite the opposite. We simply don't take the time to go off-line to purposely decode the meaning attached to our actions. To neglect this exploration into our inner world is to miss out on the core essence of what it means to be human.

Finding our meanings does three important things in creating a meaningful life:

Promotes Stability. Meaning creates stability around change - allowing us to move easily and more comfortably to the change we desire. Since change is the constant in our lives, meaning serves as the way to deal with it constructively by creating order.
Creates Identity. Meaning is critical to establishing our identities as both individuals and groups. An important element in creating secure identities for our selves is the fulfillment of our innate drive to make a difference. The secure and stable identity in turn gives us the confidence and courage to make choices, to be proactive rather than reactive. Through the creation of meaning we also honor our uniqueness, initiating an upward spiral of possibilities that compel us to move forward. Without a strong sense of who we are, there can be no free will. Without free will, there will be no leadership.
Builds connections. Meaning connects us to the outer world -- satisfying our higher-level needs to serve and to be a part of something larger than ourselves. Meaning does more than satisfy the need for relationships with others. It elevates the status of relationships as being the conduit for "meaning making."

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