The Direction of Intention

28.

Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I work with organizations, in schools, and with incredible people everywhere. I travel a lot. I coach, I teach, I facilitate, I collaborate. And one day while working with a corporate diversity team, I had this thought: it is really all the same thing.

What is great leadership?

Empowered people empowering people.

What is great management?

Empowered people empowering people.

What is great teamwork?

Empowered people empowering people.

What is the true work of diversity and inclusion?

Empowered people empowering people.

What is great teaching?

Empowered people empowering people.

What is a great community?

Empowered people empowering people.

I could go on. I’m not being glib. I believe in the power of narrative and am certain that the stories-we-tell-ourselves-about-ourselves are not passive things, they are more powerful than we realize. We “tell” ourselves into existence. We see, not what is there, but what we story (what we expect to be there) and at the center of every story is an intention. I hear too many media stories of diminishment. I hear too many adversarial stories – us against them – told primarily because fear is an easy sell. People are easy to manipulate when they feel unsafe.

The us-against-them story stands in stark contrast to my experiences. The vast majority of people I encountered are generous and kind. Their initial impulse is to help. I’ve yet to meet a person who doesn’t have a great gift to give and a great desire to give it (sometimes you have to scratch the surface a bit but the original impulse is always potent and just beneath the mask).

This is the story I see when people feel powerful: people who desire to fulfill their potential by helping others fulfill their potential.

This is the story I see when people feel fearful or diminished: disempowered people discouraging the power in others.

What is the story you want to tell?

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