Facts, figures, budgets, outcomes…so far, so normal in the business meetings and leadership training sessions I typically sit in on.  Heads are full of data, obstacles and concrete mountains to climb, speedily, in the quest for running companies successfully in an ever more competitive and ‘squeezed’ environment.  Bodies become, as Pete Hamill of Embodied Leadership writes, simply vehicles to move our brains around from one meeting to the next.

And yet today something different happened.  And it happens every time I address a group and start to talk about the possibilities of being more human as a leader.  Human connections, authenticity, bringing your heart and values to your leadership of others so that they can see who you really are, and that gives them permission to be who they really are, and for the trust to grow between the two of you, and for you to really lead.

A hush descends upon the room – every time.  Every set of eyes looks up from their iPads and their faces are alert.  You can hear a pin drop.  For a few moments, time stands still.  And I am aware that something human and authentic in me is communicating with something human and authentic in them.  Presence has entered the room.  It feels as if I am involved in the vital work of encouraging others to get a glimpse of the possibility in themselves.  Almost like one ‘higher self’ speaking to a roomful of other ‘higher selves’ who all sit up to take notice of and recognise themselves, possibly for the first time.  We all go back to our usual work afterwards, but I hope that some seed of that glimpse of possibility remains with them, and that is grows.

This is sacred work, important work to help leaders to grow to be more connected to other human beings; to bring their whole selves fully to their leadership, not just their heads.  Every time this happens I am reminded of the specialness of doing work that connects us, and of how much I grow too in this process.

And I want to do no other work.