“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you do hold well.”
– Josh Billings

Two people have been living in you all your life.
One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating;
the other is the hidden spiritual being,
whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to.

Sogyal Rinpoche

The following is a “picture” of leadership in action. These words carry an image of what the development of your leadership can look like.

It’s a picture of a leader who has no blind, unenergized followers, but who is so much about unleashing the full potential of an organization that they draw out the leadership potential of everyone who is contributing to the goals of transformation and participating in achieving measurable results. This is the picture of a leader that can create the calm, powerful force that makes people actively seek leadership while simultaneously shining their own light.

Leadership is a high-level art and science that can be cultivated and mastered over time. Leaders can be anyone who simply remains vigilant. They are people who embrace their imperfections, growing wise by learning from and building on previous actions and results. To them, problems are opportunities to be seized. Despite pressure, they have learned to remain focused and clear. Their calm confidence sets the tone for everyone around them. Before they push others to new levels of performance, leaders are already pushing themselves. They do not settle for anything but the right information to guide and shape sound decisions. They are not restless, but they will not rest until they see results.

Leaders are authentic and credible. They mind their manners in every encounter with every person. That makes them fair and respectful. People do not feel used by them, but tapped and challenged and supported. Leaders are not only about the goal but also about the people heading toward it. Without the calm, powerful force unique to authentic leaders, dynamic energy cannot be leased to power the enterprise forward in sustainable results.

Phil Johnson, MBL University

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream and not make dreams your master,
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And, which is more, you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling