Enlightened Leadership

Ralph defines enlightenment as discovering “the light within.” And as he and Bill discuss, when we allow our own lights to shine and take time to find the light within all those we work with – to tap into their passion – we foster true team engagement and become a much more powerful leader. Listen and enlighten your leadership.

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*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors

Bill Berthel: Welcome to the Get Emergent podcast. Our podcast is focused on individual, team, and organizational development and performance. We focus on topics such as leadership, human development, and raising the consciousness and awareness of leaders. We aim to provide creative concepts, new ideas, and pragmatic tips and practices for leaders in all walks of life.

I’m Bill Berthel.

Ralph Simone: And I’m Ralph Simone.

Bill Berthel: So Ralph, today we want to talk about the topic of enlightened leadership. Why enlightened leadership for our listeners?

Ralph Simone: Part of it is because I’ve been rereading all the books in my library. My wife has put a moratorium on new purchases, and one of the ones I reread was the Spiritual Path of the Ninja Warrior.

And they talk about enlightenment like as, as a place that you need to get to. And I think in my mind, in our mind, enlightenment literally means the light within. So I think enlightened leadership is leadership that discovers the light within themselves as well as that light in all of their people, because it’s their passion, and when we can tap into people’s passion. To their light. The light within there is no stopping us. There would be no issue around utilization, engagement, culture, because the enlightened leader fully understands that enlightenment is not a destination. It is a way of being. And when we can help uncover that light within all of the people that work for us.

Their commitment, their motivation, their engagement will be off the charts. So that’s why I think we should talk about the Enlightened Leader.

Bill Berthel: So this is about recognizing our own authentic light within, but as leaders, the unique relationship/responsibility we have in guiding others and helping others see theirs as well.

Ralph Simone: Absolutely. And not only see theirs, but to be willing to authentically shine their light. In any and all circumstances. I was thinking about all of the times, even still where I might censor myself. Hmm. Where I don’t share what is on my mind. Something that I think could be helpful because of the masks I’m wearing.

Right. I either wanna look good or I wanna be smart, or I wanna look under control or I wanna be accepted. And so I censor myself and so I, it’s like a dimmer switch and, and in effect I dim my light a little bit. And I think what happens is we have organizations full of people that are operating on dim lights, and I think the enlightened leader shines his or her light and creates the conditions where others shine theirs. You know, if you think about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Let’s create the opportunity where we bring diverse lights to the table. That we provide an opportunity for them to shine and all are included in that, just think about how bright that picture would look.

Bill Berthel: Well, I love that. I love the dimmer analogy