This week’s Q&A is an expansion of some insights I shared on my Facebook page about leadership and specifically, the death of Hugo Chavez who was a polarizing figure, to say the least. We look at people like Mr. Chavez, the pope, presidents, Queen Elizabeth and wonder what is wrong with them. Why can’t they be more honest, open, incorruptible, supportive, and doing the ‘right’ thing? What is it about power that makes it such a corrupting influence? And why do all leaders seem to fall into the same trap?
Then I started thinking about the concept of leadership and people in power, whether it is in politics, government, social, work or religious environments, and how they are often dishonest, corrupt, self-serving and dictatorial. What is the connection between power and the negative results we experience from its use and abuse? I found an answer in how we define the word ‘lead’, which actually means ‘to guide’ and comes from a 9th century word which meant ‘travel’. So a leader started out as a travel guide. Interesting. How many of today’s leaders would you trust as your travel guide?
In the simplest terms, a leader is someone who guides or shows us the way. As a travel guide, a leader would be our assistant, which implies that we’re on the same path, heading in the same direction, sharing a similar philosophy and they’re helping us get somewhere we want to go, to arrive at our destination. What a novel concept. How many of today’s leaders actually do that, without inserting their personal or private power agendas into the process? Now all leaders are not bad but something happens when a well-meaning person steps into a powerful position, and we give them our power. Their leader-ship shifts into ruler-ship. And when that happens they move from being a travel guide into becoming someone who tells us what to do, sets self serving policies, engages in backroom deals and instead of leading (in the true sense of the world), expects us to blindly follow their agenda. Our leader how now become our ruler.
How does this shift happen? When we think that a leader can do for us what we think we cannot do for ourselves. In the context of 3D energy, there is a power shift, where we give our power away to someone who tells us that they will use our power to help us become more powerful. When we think about it that way, it doesn’t make sense. But we do it all of the time. And we’re seeing the results in every area of the world today, from corporations to governments to churches.
When we follow a guide, we’re traveling together and they are serving our needs. We expect our travel guide to help us with our travel plans and ensure that we have the best experience. Can you imagine hiring a travel guide who plans the vacation they want to take, expects you to go along and pay for it, carry all of their baggage, and sit in coach while they travel first class? That travel guide wouldn’t have much business but this is how our leaders operate.
The resignation of the pope, hospitalization of Queen Elizabeth, the death of Hugo Chavez, resignation of Cuba’s president, the sequester of the US government are all signs of the demise of the 3D concept of leadership — rulership by a few that is made possible by our desire to be taken care of through the surrender of our power. As they step aside or are pushed aside because the new energies do not support this type of power concentration, we are also being pushed into taking our power back, becoming more powerful, using our own power to create all of things we want in our life, things we may not believe we are not capable of creating. We are, but only when we accept the responsibility for our power and use it with wisdom and discernment. The things we expect our leaders to do for us are things we can and should do for ourselves. We have too many examples, throughout history, of the misuse of power. That won’t change until we stop giving our power away to those who will abuse it and victimize us in the process.
We are now angry that our leaders are taking us on a wild ride that we don’t want to be on, to a destination that we don’t want to travel to. Then we get angry at the leader but they’re just doing what we have allowed them to do, shift from being travel guides to being rulers. We let them use our power and expect them to take care of us. The choice we are faced with now is, do we follow the leader or do we powerfully travel along a shared path with those whose will guide us into more expansive ways of using our own power? A leader may lead you astray; a guide will accompany you on your own journey. Do you want to be guided or led? If you choose to be guided, you will attract leaders who act as true travel guides, respecting your power and assisting you in your evolution. If you choose to led, you will attract rulers who will be more than happy to take your power but don’t expect them to take care of you.
These are lessons in empowerment, from which we have to decide whether we are going to be asleep or awake, empowered or victimized, actively creating our life or passively accepting a path that someone else creates for us, according to their agenda and needs. Every student must eventually become their own teacher and today’s leaders are very polarizing but they are also our empowerment teachers. We are evolving from 3D to infinity and ‘leading’ or ‘being led’ is a 3D paradigm. Guidance, support, acknowledgement, respect, kindness, compassion and integrity are part of the infinity paradigms, beyond 3D. While they sound good, we have to be willing to embrace our power to access them, to acknowledge responsibility for our well-being and learn to lead ourselves while allowing ourselves to be guided by those who share our path.
Copyright (c) 2013 by Jennifer Hoffman. All rights reserved. You may quote, link to, translate or share this article on free sites only, as long as you include the author’s name and a working link back to this website. All other uses are strictly prohibited.
www.enlighteninglife.com / link to original article
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3/07/2013
Jennifer Hoffman – Q&A : What’s Wrong With Our Leaders? – 7 March 2013
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