Leadership Advice: Listen For the Future – Zen Leadership
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leadership advice: listen for the future

 

This may seem like an odd concept to the make-it-happen mindset of most leaders. It sure was for me. I took great pride and experienced great satisfaction in ticking things off my list, reaching a goal, and striving for the next one. That’s not to say that these qualities are bad. They come in quite handy when driving for an end result. But there are times when the desired “result” is not yet clear. I don’t wake up every day with a clear vision of what the day will look like or have a need to make something happen. This is when I am most willing to slow down enough to listen. “In listening for the future, we suspend trying to make anything happen, and trust,” states Ginny Whitelaw in The Zen Leader. This is what opens the door to inspiration.

Ask leaders where they get their best ideas, and you’ll probably hear the winning answer heard ’round the world… “in the shower.” Now, nobody gets in the shower to get a good idea or make something happen. But when the water hits our skin and we relax, our minds also open up. We enter a connected state. “It’s what happens when we quit trying to make something happen,” continues Ginny. “What I’ve noticed is that if I’m quiet enough to truly listen for what wants to happen, it’s always there, always playing.”

“In listening for the future, we are also listening to ourselves, because we and the future are not two different things. We are listening for our interests, passions, perhaps a sense of calling or the joy that comes with expressing our gifts. We are listening for what holds us back from the future we aspire to, what is too stuck, too small or too afraid to move forward. As our self awareness grows, the future we wish to attract naturally becomes a more realistic match to who we are.”

This still may seem like a far-out concept, but you’ve more than likely already experienced this many times in your life. Have you ever had a thought suddenly pop into your head out of the blue? Once I was driving to work on a packed expressway when that little voice told me to get out of that lane. I listened – and not 10 seconds later a truck carrying a full load of steel pipe started fishtailing and began losing its load, right there in the lane I’d been in. This was a powerful lesson for me about listening to that inner voice. Another one of my favorite authors, Julia Cameron, refers to this experience as “synchronicity.” Some believe it to be the voice of God. Call it what you will, we can all benefit from hearing it and responding when we do.

It can be a difficult path to simply trust when you are in leadership role. We are accustomed to making decisions that are based in solid fact. We like predicable outcomes based in knowledge and experience that follow a clear and defined path. Yet, brilliant ideas don’t generate this way. Brilliance comes from those “aha” moments when we are opened up, trusting that the right thing will happen, the right solution will appear, a creative flash of inspiration will occur.

“To flip from driving results to attracting the future, we have to flip into this connected state, which also flips our relationship to time,” writes Ginny. I invite you to experience this yourself by doing this powerful timeline exercise from The Zen Leader. It will help you see the connection between yourself and the future, as not a distant thing that’s “out there”, but as a part of you already.

I have also found that sitting meditation, done once a day for 15-20 minutes, has improved my awareness, thus my connectedness. If you are interested in beginning your own practice of meditation, there are many wonderful books to help you on this path, but here’s a little “quick start” guide that can give you the basics.

Listening for the future is a skill that defines our greatest leaders. They know when it’s time to push and when its time to slow down, listen and trust. Through constant listening, we connect with the larger forces at work and can use them to great effect. Think about your own experiences and the impact your inner voice or intuitive listening has had in shaping where you are today. Any you care to share?

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