Leadership Is Dissolving Into Loving

In the many years of leading as a daughter, friend, partner, mother, manager, business owner, teacher ...I find my self less apt to label who I am becoming. My losses have taught me much and my giving has taught me more. And so I was asked this semester at university to describe leadership in less than fifty words. I realized I was describing my dear mother, who passed gracefully in February.
The leader’s heartfelt task is to join wisdom with vision to provide effective, refined, response ability and to inspire participation. She creates this space of respect through inner work, listening and gathering divergent knowledge and a generous mixture of: humility, patience, awe, risk, and fortitude. She gently sows kinship and maintains integrity with ethics, humor and compassion. A leader resolves, sacrifices, sustains through failure, seizes opportunity and reveals strength of character in a multi-dimensional awareness.
I realize that I lead best when I listen! That is not always easy for me. I have been practicing the art of observation. In order to be a preparer and guide in a Montessori classroom, ( where my area of study is taking me) I am tapping into deeper levels of awareness. It is joyful to be in the classroom again.
What has shown up in the meantime are these moments of nature, connection, and of course family. My nest has not emptied, the eggs have just diversified. Families grow from the systems of people that matrix from your loving. You may hear, particularly, in my blogs, much about my three grown sons, who sustain me in my moments of lack or struggle and who always manage to bring me to center with their love of life and laughter. I look forward to more of this adventure and sharing and reflection.