Discovering the Courage to Lead: elevating leadership practice, inside-out

Discovering the Courage to Lead

Leading from the inside, out

“A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light onto some part of the world and onto the people who dwell there. A leader shapes the ethos in which others must live, an ethos as light filled as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A good leader is intensely aware of the interplay of inner shadow and light, lest the act of leadership do more harm than good. Leaders need not only the technical skills to manage the external world, but also the spiritual skills to journey inward toward the source of both shadow and light.” Parker Palmer

We invite you to disconnect from the day to day to join us for this 3-day, in person Circle of Trust® retreat at Sanctuary for Humans and Horses in Franklin, TN. We will explore the essential question, “who is the you that engages in leadership work?” In doing so we hope to open new avenues, perspectives, and insights that aim to elevate your leadership practice and help you to illuminate the part of the world in which you lead. 

No team can outperform the limitations of its leader. Typically, those limitations are not technical in nature; not about the external world. Instead the limitations for you and me as leaders are rooted in a reluctance about, or an unawareness of the wisdom of the inner teacher; often leaving leadership work short of what’s possible for leaders and needed by those that follow. Leadership authenticity is a deep longing for many. 

“Leadership is not something we simply do. It comes from a deeper reality within us; it comes from our values, principles, life experiences, and essence. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression of who we are.” Kevin Cashman

How will we discover our own inner wisdom and bring it to bear in leadership practice? How can we level the playing field to explore inner life issues, without seeming to come at them from a standpoint of a particular tradition or belief system? One way this is done is in what is referred to as a Circle of Trust. Here is Parker Palmer, founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, on the topic. “In a Circle of Trust we are invited to slow down, listen and reflect in a quiet and focused space. At the same time, we engage in dialogue with others in the circle – a dialog about things that matter. As this sorting and sifting goes on, and we are able to clarify and affirm our truth in the presence of others, that truth is more likely to overflow into our work and our lives.”   This “overflowing” promises to deepen leadership practice and enrich the impact we have on those we lead.

This retreat will include an opportunity for a Clearness Committee. Born in the Quaker tradition, the Clearness Committee is a unique process of individual and communal spiritual discernment; a collective holding of safe space to support inner journey and evoke what the soul has to say. It is a disciplined and respectful process that helps us hear our own guidance while drawing on the presence and support of other people.

The Clearness Committee, including a “Focus Person” and committee members can help you to:

• learn the value of asking open, honest questions,
• experience how to better access your own inner voice, and
• see the benefits when we commit to not fixing, advising, saving or correcting one another

This process will be introduced during the retreat and those who wish to experience being a focus person can inform the facilitators.

More detail on clearness Committee can be found here: https://couragerenewal.org/library/clearness-committee-in-greater-detail/

More information on the Center for Courage & Renewal can be found here: 

https://couragerenewal.org/

We all lead and we all follow. This retreat is for anyone interested in the journey to the “source of shadow and light” as a means of elevating leadership practice and the impact their leadership has in the world.