Karen Wilhelm Buckley
Wisdom, mindful presence, clarity and skill for our world
The realization is beginning to take hold that what regenerates the planet also generates profit and long-term health for business. While this is no small task, rapidly evolving the impacts and innovating contributions of business is essential to put us on the path to a thriving, not dying, biosphere. Wise leaders are rethinking, reshaping, and reinventing business. The fashion industry, both apparel and footwear, is one place where innovative leadership is both needed and possible.
Unconscious mindsets shape the narrative of our lives. Conscious leadership starts from the inside out: the mindsets we reinforce drive the way we behave and give rise to the results we experience. Whether innovating policy, designing solutions to the climate crisis, building resilient communities, or living a beautiful life, more empowered and resourceful ways of thinking, relating, living, and leading are part of becoming a conscious leader.
After the birth of our first child, my perception changed. Suddenly I saw the world differently and became aware of a subtle, yet pervasive, bias limiting the way I saw the feminine, and women. I’m fascinated with how perception shifts. Perception shapes the way we see the world and relate to our experiences. For over three decades I’ve observed shifts in leaders and their teams. Moving through these four stages powerfully changes lives and approaches to business.
Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision, and a skill to develop.
Courage is often outside of our conscious awareness. The awareness of courage, when you or others are courageous, is a crucial skill for skillfully responding, intentionally appreciating others, and consciously leading.
A narrow definition of courage means we miss the ways our daily lives invite different kinds of courage—the courage to put aside hesitation and lean into a challenge, the courage to stand your ground, the courage to reach out when survival brain commands us to retreat, the courage to respond with care instead of a bitter retort.
A world that is uncertain makes connecting with others and giving as much as we receive even more important. A recent Forbes article reminds us that “being generous benefits both the recipient and the giver, strengthening social connections, a sense of meaning and purpose, and a feeling of control.”
The holidays are a perfect time to give back. Researchers have discovered that “whenever we give to charity, our brains react in the same way they would if we were eating some chocolate.” (!) This feeling is sometimes referred to as the "warm glow".
The equation is consistent and logical. These three roles narrow our thinking, shut off listening, limit collaboration, destroy empathy, and drive inauthentic communication. They close our hearts to love. Research shows that caught in the drama we don’t or can’t use our personal power to creatively address critical issues or launch inspiring initiatives. With conscious awareness we step out of our blind spots and into more confidence, innovative thinking, and the possibility of making the difference we really want to make.
Collectively, and personally, we are at a remarkable threshold. The old normal is 18 months behind us, and the new normal is still around the corner. We’ve woken up to the preciousness of life. Where does the courage come from to shape our future? To change what needs to change and once again believe that the world can be made better by our actions.
Do you want to be more courageous, but not from forced aggression or relentless tenacity? When we kindle the courage of our hearts we are naturally propelled into positive and sustainable actions.
Join me, along with Dianne Morrison (Effective Action Consulting) and Suki Munsell, Ph.D. (body transformation expert, Dynamic Vitality) in our upcoming program.
Bringing a virtual meeting with a new client to a close I asked, are there any remaining questions? A member of the team, silent and mainly looking down until then, slowly raised his head and said softly, “What I want to know is, how do we keep the faith?”
Mindfulness plays a key role in helping us keep the faith that our families, our jobs, our companies, our planet will be alright? Using these 3 practices we can stay strong, flexible, buoyant and productive and help each other do the same.
How precious breath has become. The wildfires in California fill the air with particles of ash from burning buildings, trees, and toxic dumps. Shallow breaths feel protective but exacerbate rising tension and anxiety. Now we cherish the breath that fills our lungs and quiets our nerves.
Moments of silence open us to a more expansive calm, to connection and shared purpose, to the unusual insight of the provocative idea. It may seem paradoxical but starting a meeting with a pause…..
With guest author Laura Derocher
Imagine a women’s leadership retreat about love, originally scheduled for the glorious island of Molokai, Hawaii. Now imagine that retreat morphing into an online Zoom gathering due to shelter-at-home guidelines during a global pandemic. You might expect that gathering to lose luster, be dreary and boring, its juiciness dampened by technology and distance. Not so. We felt deeply connected, as we explored the six lessons that inspired us to lead with love.
Fear and divisiveness fill the airwaves, threats seem imminent from all sides, and the world as we’ve known it is changing…It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, to disconnect, to struggle with the coldness of despair.
How can we change our experience? The answer lies with us. While many things are outside of our control, our inner landscape is ours to cultivate. Even when times are tough, we can change the channel, turn our inner dial towards love to remember what really matters.
Today, even with my years of intense training and practice, I regularly get trapped in less productive mindsets. When I hold onto fixed, often unexamined beliefs about myself and the world, they interfere with accomplishing and expressing what really matters to me.
I see the leaders and teams I work with do the same. Frustrated by their results, they don’t understand what holds them back. They struggle to understand how their inner frameworks direct the way they behave.
When the world has changed, and life asks something more from us, it’s time to update mindsets whose usefulness has expired and consciously strengthen mindsets that support our active participation in the emerging future.
Some days, it’s difficult to name the disturbances without focusing blame in a single direction, denying the extent of the problems, or feeling overwhelmed. It’s hard to know what we are responsible for. What we can actually change.
I really don’t like being disturbed. Nobody does. But I’ve discovered that embracing rather than turning away from what disturbs us is a skill, a muscle we can build. It’s a conversation we can initiate and a personal practice that builds resilience, a readiness to accept the next wave of change with more equanimity. The quicker we recover, the more capable we are of acting in meaningful ways.
A fundamental axiom of change is that we are constantly faced with the unknown. Sometimes we need to do the best we can while we don’t know what to do.
When we invite dialogue, we expand the frame of what and where we pay attention. We can apprehend what we do know and put our attention on what we don’t yet know. Approaching the not knowing directly through good conversations, we can shift from reactive to proactive, gain critical insight, and exchange feeling alone for working together to act with care, compassion, and courage.
In this time of physical distancing it’s easy to disconnect, isolate, hunker down, and wait for this to be over. While that is a viable choice, we could also use this time to lay the groundwork for a more fulfilling future.
It may seem like a contrary idea, but this is a great time to discover what we haven’t seen, heard, or experienced in the vast world of love and connection.
Our lives are different, and we may very well be facing an evolving new normal. The crisis is affecting our daily lives, instilling anxiety and uncertainty as personal and company plans are upended.
What if we choose love instead of fear? The way we work and live changes.
As leaders respond to the impact of immense disruptions, steady those around them, and look for new opportunities for service, the skills that always mattered like listening, empathy, and love become even more critical.
Many of us suffer from the disabling effects of a harsh inner critic. It’s disempowering when we incessantly hear about our insufficiencies, especially when that voice is inside our heads.
In the past month, several clients mentioned the rise of a noisy inner critic because their lives aren’t as busy as they once were. Without the simple pleasures of getting a cup of coffee with a colleague or the distraction of popping into someone’s office for a chat, they are left alone with their own thoughts.
