As I sat down at my laptop today, I heard from an experienced teacher working on her own productivity and time management. She wrote about how her focus is essentially forward and she doesn’t have time to look back. Reflection and documenting reflection are almost non-existent in her practice.
Sadly, I can relate. As a young educator, I barely kept my head above water day in and day out. The learning curve was so steep. At the time, I worshipped the hamster wheel as intractable and unchangeable, there was a reckoning.
Inner Work
For a leader, the journey between inner and outer is infinite. What is inside us and how we lead are intertwined? As Parker Palmer says of teachers, “we teach who we are.” Similarly, “we lead who we are.”
I learned this most from the season I oft refer to as my ‘life breakdown.’ This life breakdown coincided with my step into school leadership. The messiness of that season did not escape my community or me. Yet, I could see that the pathway downward was temporary and soon I started to climb out.
The years of turmoil taught me to carefully hold my life in holistic and whole-hearted ways. I came to understand, the hard way, that I cannot pour from an empty cup. It was tender and humbling. Eventually, I initiated the long journey of nurturing myself and others.
Parker Palmer uses the metaphor of a mobiüs strip to describe this journey. The Mobiüs Strip is a 3-dimensional figure representing the endless intertwining of the inner and outer. If you trace your finger along the path of the strip, you will at times be on the outside and at times on the inside. The journey between inner and outer is unbroken.
This journey ties our reflection, contemplation, and consciousness to our calendar, initiatives, and teamwork.
Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell names this mysterious adventure the “hero’s journey” and it is one of transformation.
I love the notion of educators as heroes. I’ve long referred to them as such.
Indeed, our heroic work requires an immense amount of energy, particularly change work. The energy provides for meeting the needs of those in our charge, deciding which of the endless needs we cannot meet, holding tensions inherent in the work, and leading change. The energy must be expended to cultivate a sense of interconnectedness.
Debashis Chatterjee (2011), in his book Leading Consciously, A Pilgrimage Toward Self-Mastery, poses the question, “What then is the source of the hero’s power?”
Peak Performance
Chatterjee claims peak performance flows from “find[ing] the center of quietude from which all their actions flow flawlessly….A leader who has had a revelation of this state of consciousness finds the secret of his peak performance.”
Peak performance flows from “find[ing] the center of quietude from which all their actions flow flawlessly….A leader who has had a revelation of this state of consciousness finds the secret of his peak performance.”
Debashis Chatterjee
Leading change with consciousness attends to our own wellness, creation of ‘sanctuary,’ and sense of self-compassion. Our consciousness also provides for a center, an ethical plumbline, and a values-based compass. Truly, heroism is nothing but heightened awareness of our Self and we can find it inside.
It is from this consciousness that we can lead change.
Let’s cultivate this consciousness together as a dialogue with envisioning a new way forward and transformational work in education.
Would you like to learn a simple weekly practice that amplifies consciousness? It is a practice to review and preview your week that will accelerate your change process.
It takes less than 30min and I’ll teach you in person and LIVE. Email hello@learnforward.ca to schedule your call.
For the sake of the children,
Karine
If you liked this post, check out the rest of the series:
Leading Change with Playfulness