A Challenge for Leaders

If you're a leader in an organisation, is it possible for your people to operate in full integrity with their soul's voice? And what would happen if they did?

It's an interesting question. I've worked with senior leaders and executive teams in large organisations here in Australia and globally for many years now. Most of the leaders I work with genuinely want to perform well, they genuinely want their people and their organisations to perform well, and they genuinely want to do it in a way that's good for those people, as well as for the organisation.

And yet somehow there seems to be a gap here when it comes to really having the confidence to even imagine this question of what it would mean for everyone at work to be fully connected with their soul’s voice.

By my soul's voice, I mean the deepest sense of who I am as a human being. If I'm operating in integrity with my soul's voice, I have total values alignment with what I do. I am not compromising every day between the actions that I need to take and my true north.

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It can almost seem like a pipe dream. It sounds like one of those pie-in-the-sky ideas that's all very great to talk about in theory, but it's not how things operate in the “real world”.

Here’s the thing, though. When an individual is disconnected from their soul's voice a few things happen:

  • They tend to think short term. This is because, without having the courage of conviction that comes from that soul’s voice connection, they're prioritising avoiding near-future risks rather than being able to think long term and prioritise moving towards what really matters.

  • Because their connection to their true north has become occluded and clouded, they tend to be unable to filter. They take on too much and become very overloaded and burnt out, unable to distinguish between what is truly important and what is merely urgent.

  • They feel a deep unhappiness that comes from operating in a way that is not in alignment with who they truly are. They feel a yearning to reconnect with their soul's voice.

And so in your organisation, do you want people who feel deeply unhappy, who are overloaded, and who are prioritising averting whatever’s right in front of them rather than pursuing more strategic goals?

I don't think so. I think in your organisation you want people who:

  • Are lit up from within with a genuine passion and purpose

  • Can distinguish between something that's popping up right now that doesn't matter and something that really does

  • Can focus on the things that matter rather than being distracted by all the bright things that might occur in the meantime.

And yet we fear, I think, that if people were to connect in that deep way with their soul's voice at work that they might leave.

We fear that being connected with your soul's voice is somehow incompatible with work.

And that's the idea I really want to challenge you with. Because if that's what you believe, that you need to have your people disconnected from their soul's voice in order for your organisation to progress, something's gone very seriously wrong there.  

I really want to encourage you to reflect on how different your organisation might be if you allowed, encouraged and accepted no less than pure integrity from the people that you have working with you and for you.

If you're a leader in an organisation and would like to talk about how you can make this happen for your people, let's talk.

Madeleine Shaw