Remarkably, leaders are looking to the spiritual truth of Oneness,
not only for personal salvation in most challenging of times but as the source
for a new, deeper, and higher perspective.
About four years ago, a friend told me: “People are scared
because the rate of change is accelerating. Old ways of thinking are outmoded.
They’re turning to spiritual concepts as an coping mechanism.”
On a trip to Australia, I was invited to give a presentation about
“authentic leadership.” There is no difference between what it means
to be an authentic leader and what it means to be a liberated human being. If
we aspire to be an authentic leader, we must always be willing to: stand alone,
live fearlessly, act heroically, want to be free and true more than anything else,
take unconditional responsibility for oneself, face everything and avoid nothing,
see things impersonally, and live for a higher purpose.
As I worked my way down the list, I could feel the atmosphere in
the room change from open-hearted receptivity to drowsiness, dullness, discomfort,
and fear.
Then, out of the blue, my host stood up and said, “Let’s
take a short break!” The longer I spoke about authentic leadership, the
more powerfully I felt the message was coming through—and yet, the greater
was the feeling of inertia, resistance, and disinterest.
When we gathered again after the break, the fear and inertia were
gone, as well as the tension that had been present when we all, if only for a
brief moment, had glimpsed what it meant to be an authentic leader.
The thought of being a leader may seem appealing, but the reality
of being an authentic leader scares the ego to death. Why? Because we care so
much about a higher purpose, a higher principle, a higher goal that we’re
willing to make important sacrifices for the sake of what we aspire to do. We
care so passionately about others also reaching that goal that we sacrifice our
own peace of mind, comfort, and security in order for them to succeed. We come
to realize that from now on, it’s up to us. Once we achieve authentic leadership,
there is no longer any point of return. We become one with destiny itself. PE
