PRESENCE: THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

“Isn’t there a way to break the patterns of the past and tune into our highest future possibility—and to begin to operate from that place?” ~ C. Otto Scharmer

C. Otto Scharmer

In that quote, C. Otto Scharmer, author of Theory U (LINK) and Leading from the Emerging Future (LINK), co-author of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers) (LINK), grabs the essence of modern spiritual leadership. But he is not writing for clergy, for theologians, or even for the leaders of religious organizations. He is writing for the corporate world.

“The ability to shift from reacting against the past to leaning into and presencing an emerging future is probably the single most important leadership capacity today.” ~ C. Otto Scharmer

His words, however, are perfect for spiritual leaders on the edge of a transforming culture. He speaks of presencing – the ability to BE the essence of your best self in your leadership role. This enables you to both come from a strong degree of personal authority AND be open to the gifts and talents of those around you. At its highest level, presencing is the ability to access and actualize your Higher Self to bring it to bear within the framework of leadership. Presencing is a key element of my coaching practice that I do with my wife, Dorianne Cotter-Lockard, Ph.D. (LINK).

You are an effective spiritual leader to the degree that you are presencing the highest and best within yourself in your work. You will attract to you those who resonate with what you presence and how you presence it. This is true regardless of the type of organization or group that you lead. The ancient saying “As Above, So Below” applies to all leaders in all situations. If nothing else, the spiritual leader sets the tone and creates the parameters for the environment of a spiritual community. As Dr. Gary Simmons puts it – “to be who you came here to be.”

Presencing involves the capacity to go deep within and to allow Source to emerge and carry you forward. You “lead from an emerging future” rather than trying to extrapolate from an inadequate past.

“We collectively create results that nobody wants because decision-makers are increasingly disconnected from the people affected by their decisions. As a consequence, we are hitting the limits to leadership—that is, the limits to traditional top-down leadership that works through the mechanisms of institutional silos.” ~ C. Otto Scharmer

Effective spiritual leadership in today’s complex world must be a living invitation to people to step into their own greatness and to actualize their inherent wisdom and love. This begins within the spiritual leader. He does the inner work necessary to both embody the spiritual philosophy that is the core of what they represent, and to bring forth the best of themselves into the actualization of the leadership role.

This inner work includes Shadow revelation and healing so that hidden repressed aspects of the leader do not inhibit her expression. This work is difficult and must be done with a guide or guides who have walked that path successfully.

What we presence is a reflection of what we have embodied. You cannot fake it, it is directly tied to authenticity. The ultimate example of positive presence on the planet today is probably His Holiness, The Dali Lama. He truly presences his teaching and his leadership role. He can be light-hearted or very serious, and always, his sense of presence shows through. What we call 2^nd Tier leadership emerges from a consciousness of presencing.

There are, unfortunately, too many examples of leaders, both spiritual and secular, who do not presence their authentic selves, but are stuck in a more shallow level of beingness. You cannot hide where you are within for very long. The key to growth is to recognize that you are in such a place and to begin, right where you are, to deepen your personal inner work.

To be sure, leaders also need to expand your outer work, that is, get educated in the external skills, the competencies, which are important to the leadership role – things like community building, marketing, negotiating leases. These external skills are also important, but they will be approached from the level of beingness that the leader has attained within him or herself. When there is alignment within, when the leader is presencing her best self, there will be a passion for the external things that was not there before.

“Energy follows attention. Wherever you place your attention is where the energy of the system will go. ‘Energy follows attention’ means that we need to shift our attention from what we are trying to avoid to what we want to bring into reality.” ~ C. Otto Scharmer

Here again, Dr. Scharmer, a professor at M.I.T., an engineer, gives us a lesson in New Thought principles. How much time do you spend giving attention to your problems? We all know that the pathway to solutions lies in our ability to direct the mind’s attention faculties toward solution. Yet, too often, we fail to follow this basic dictum. Why?

Where we direct our attention is not free from the effects of conditioned patterns in the subconscious mind. If the leader has not done his inner work, including Shadow work, then those repressed aspects have been granted a seat at the table in the inner decision making process. This is why we make decisions that are against our self-interest or against the interest of the group.

Energy follows attention, and attention follows the existing subconscious patterns unless consciously and consistently directed otherwise. When we are influenced by the repressed subconscious patterns, our vision is narrowed, our capacity for compassion is reduced (or eliminated), our sense of fear expands, and our problems multiply.

“Leadership is about being better able to listen to the whole than anyone else can.” ~ C. Otto Scharmer

Being in a state of presencing expands our view of what is, of what is possible, and of where we are going. It is a more inclusive space – we listen more completely and we see more clearly. The “problems” that leaders face arise from within and are a projection of the adjustments to the inner consciousness that are needed to transmute the “problem” into a realized goal. As the saying goes, the problem is not the problem; your attitude about the problem is the problem.

Taken in the context of previous posts on this blog, I believe that the fully realized leader, who is operating from a state of presence, will see the transformations occurring in the larger culture and will naturally inspire his or her ministry toward a new way of being. We cling to the old when we have unfinished internal business. When we are fully realized, we easily release what no longer serves us as the snake sheds its skin. We are grateful for what served us, but we do not cling to it.

What are you presencing in your ministry?