Karen Wilhelm Buckley
Wisdom, mindful presence, clarity and skill for our world
Over the years, hundreds of women were my teachers. They taught me that every wisewoman has something she wants to say. She’s got a voice because she cares. When she listens to the wisdom of her heart, something really matters to her whether in the backyard with the kids, in a company as part of the senior management team, or holding political office – she is ready to speak up.
It’s that time of year. Crazy. Chaotic. . . how can we possibly find time for a much-needed pause? When we are racing around, trying to give generously, be perfect hosts, finish year-end projects and business financials, it’s hard to remember to connect—with ourselves. To feel just how good things are.
What if I told you that taking time to pause and celebrate the solstice can set you up to thrive at home and at work?
Why do children climb on chairs? And why do adults sit on them? Guest blogger Jennifer Kenny challenges our preconceived notions about the value of developing feminine wisdom in leadership and business.
“The prevailing thinking would tell us that children climb on chairs because they have not been trained to sit on them. However if you look carefully at how children interact with chairs you will notice that they climb on them, write on them, sit on them, play on them, ignore them and sit on the floor. It is only when they begin to distinguish chairs from other items that they begin to sit on them. A child sees a chair and they have no preconceived notion as to what a chair should be used for, so they climb on it, experiment with it, sit on it, they knock it over, they write on it, they ignore it, basically, they do whatever takes their fancy when it comes to engaging with the chair.
The interesting opportunity for us, is to look at how people engage with feminine wisdom. If they don’t know what it is, if the distinction of feminine wisdom, and the sub distinctions of feminine wisdom, don’t exist for them, then they simply, climb on it, sit on it, knock it over, write on it and ignore it, they use it for whatever purpose they think is appropriate – if they even see it in the first place. Remember children also sit on the floor quite happily and comfortably.
We are in a unique position, at this moment in history, to be able to distinguish and identify the facets of feminine wisdom and to bring forth those facets into the world in a way that they will be distinguished and in distinguishing them people will understand them, they will understand the value of them, they will understand how to engage with them, they will understand how to be able to pay for applied feminine wisdom and how to leverage feminine wisdom.
Karen Buckley has done truly foundational work in distinguishing the facets of feminine wisdom and working to bring those distinctions to a broader audience. She has distinguished nine facets of feminine wisdom and in so doing she has created the opportunity for all of us to enable humanity (masculine and feminine) understand what problems feminine wisdom can solve, what value feminine wisdom brings, why it is unique to the feminine (not just to women but to the feminine) and why that value can in turn add value for those around us and for those in our community.
Over the next few months you will see Karen articulate those distinctions in her blog and she will be publishing a book about those distinctions. She will also be looking to engage a broader audience in identifying understanding, valuing and appreciating, applied feminine wisdom and we will be working to create frameworks for bringing feminine wisdom to the world, in the same way masculine wisdom has been brought to the world.
The task ahead of us at the moment is to understand these distinctions ourselves, understand how each of us embodies one or more of the facets of feminine wisdom and help the rest of the world understand how to engage with feminine wisdom, what value it brings and how feminine wisdom can be instrumental in solving some of the enormous problems facing humanity today.
Onward!!
Sincerely, Jennifer”
Editor’s note! Jennifer, I have the biggest smile ever with your fine acknowledgment above. I too am very excited to share the distinctions we are all building every day as we become the wise feminine leaders that we are meant to be.
Jennifer Kenny is Interim CIO of SRI International. Jennifer has an extensive background in management consulting, change initiation and the design of business processes and systems strategies for Fortune 500 companies, including starting her own consulting firm BizThink in 2007.
Because I love working with women to discover these distinctions for themselves I put together the Next Octave Leadership Webinar that starts this summer where we’ll talk about the source of personal power and increased effectiveness.
Warmest regards, Karen
I must admit. Many of my clients are my “favorite” – they inspire me to no end. I learn from them every day we work together. Over the past 3 years I’ve been privileged to work with Deb Hubsmith the founder and Director of the Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership as she tripled the size of her budget, staff, and the range of her work. Please join me in congratulating Deb, and The Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership, for receiving the Game Changer Award from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
Deb is passionate and strategic, smart and visionary, intuitive and precise on details, scrappy and wise. With an interactive leadership style Deb builds consensus up front and all along the way, shares power and information to avert a crisis before it happens. She is comfortable with ambiguity, watching issues unfold, ready to respond when the time is right. She keeps her focus on what matters, while scanning with broad spectrum vision. She pays attention to the texture of the workplace as she develops and inspires her nationally based staff. A communicator – her verbal agility and capacity to read subtle cues mean that she moves teams and causes through obstacles that seem insurmountable. A wise feminine leader!
Why is “safe routes” a critical issue? Think thriving self-reliant kids riding bikes and walking to school instead of being dependent on their parents to drive. Think liveable communities, less pollution, decreased obesity, and the kind of future we want to pass on to our children.
Deb Hubsmith, Director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, first started her game changing efforts 15 years ago by working to improve bicycle and pedestrian routes to schools in Marin County, California. As awareness of childhood obesity grew, she took her local successes, passion and pioneering spirit to the national level and worked with Congress to create the federal Safe Routes to School program which is now established within the Departments of Transportation of all 50 states. More than 5 million children and 12,000 schools are already benefiting from more pedestrian and bicycle pathways as well as education programs.
Through her tireless efforts, Deb and The Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership ignited a national movement to make streets safer for kids to walk and bicycle to school and in daily life. Deb, her staff, and their more than 500 organizational partners, continue to show how Safe Routes to School can be a catalyst for bringing about system-wide built environment changes that increase physical activity and safety, building a healthier future for children and everyone.
Throughout developing a strategic plan that included input from almost a thousand stakeholders, evolving staffing structures, learning new leadership skills, strengthening teams, and strategic responses to complex changes, Deb is one of those clients motivated to make changes in herself and her organization. She turns on a dime when shown a better way to do something and is always ready to learn along with her talented Staff Director Team.
Thank you Deb for your fine work and dedication. It’s an honor to work with you.
Karen
Postscript - sadly Deb Hubsmith passed away in 2015 of acute myeloid leukemia. Her legacy lives on.
Learn more about the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and Deb Hubsmith’s legacy at http://www.saferoutespartnership.org
http://www.communicore.biz & http://www.thewisdomconnection.com
“The capabilities that made leaders successful in the past are unlikely to lead to success in the future. Leaders need to embrace new behaviors – but to do this they must first understand how the world has changed and how old ways can lead to business and personal obsolescence!” Annie McKee, Founder of Teleosleadership; Co-Author “Primal Leadership, “Resonant Leadership”
Upcoming Radio Interview on The AWE Factor – Advancing Women Everywhere: Leading the New Economy
April 24, 2012, 7:00am PT/10:00am ET Hosted by Carole Sacino
In this interview I share some just developed insights that really make a difference.
Like many of us, you may sense that the world is changing and that you, your team or organization has a bigger role to play.
A woman leader who becomes a Next Octave Leader values and utilizes the gifts and natural authority of feminine wisdom and power. With increased self-assurance she leverages her unique strengths and talents to be powerfully effective.
In this show I’ll share the top 7 ways a woman’s vision and values are critical in business. Through stories of women around the world, you will learn 4 steps to stabilize your WiseCore in any situation and succeed throughout the uncertainties of change.
What holds women back? Research shows doubt, lack of confidence. How do we get past these internal glass ceilings?
I’ll tell you about other women who incorporate feminine wisdom, even in tough work environments, to develop a leadership, organization and life full of courage, focus, and confidence.
Blessings,
Karen
How did you cultivate your wisdom today? One of my long term clients, Mark Finser, as President & CEO, grew the RSF Social Finance assets to over $120M by 2007 with a focus on putting money to work for a sustainable future. Each decision, whether it was operational or programmatic, staff or board related, was informed by his daily meditation practice and the wise counsel of mentors. Mark cultivates a rare ability to look at things from several different points of view to inform his decisions. The results of his approach show in the depth of his relationships and the scope of his results.
Mark is a wise leader. Wisdom is a multi-faceted knowledge, blending life and work experience with mental clarity, emotional sensing, and intuitive insight. The leaders I’ve been privileged to work with, those who make the biggest difference in their industry or cause, access this blend of knowledge to make smart, sensible, and astute small and large decisions that benefit the immediate and larger world.
Bob, Chief Legal Counsel for a large Federal agency woke at 4am to meditate every day. I first heard his story on a break during a Senior Management Retreat I was running in 1989 and it’s stuck with me.
You knew something was different when you were around Bob. The first time I heard him speak I was standing at the front of the conference room leading the senior management team through their first exercise of their leadership retreat. Each person in the circle introduced themselves. Midway through the circle of introductions, my attention was drawn away by a secretary entering the room with more coffee.
As Bob began to speak, the resonance in his voice pulled my attention back. The calm centered timber in his voice relaxed everyone in the room while simultaneously waking them up. He spoke without nervousness or push, without hesitation or trying. His inner knowing infused his being and radiated into his natural expression of leadership.
The results were obvious. Throughout the retreat Bob added perspective to limited thinking, came up with the suggestions that blended differing priorities and found new avenues through complex thorny issues.
It was a privilege to work with him over several years and help develop strategies for bringing wise leadership to the fore throughout the agency and the law firm he later joined.
Both Mark and Bob engaged in practices to cultivate their wisdom and made it a point to take a big picture perspective before coming to conclusions. In our hyper-focused work with big accountabilities on our desks, it takes something to do this, but the results are obvious.
What do you do to fill out the dimensionality of your knowledge? How do you cultivate your wisdom? What works for you?
Karen
Wise leaders, like Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican head of the U.N. Climate Agency, encourage change by gathering and disseminating information on what is working. A recent Huffington Post article highlighted her work with high-profile executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Virgin Group. “Underscoring the focus on businesses, the U.N. climate agency last month launched an online database showcasing examples of companies making efforts to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change.”
These companies include and influence key decision makers in many different companies. In recognition of the decreasing chance that the political process in the US or abroad or the U.N. climate talks will actually make a significant difference, she is reaching out to corporations as the global citizens shaping the policies and practices of every country.
Global responsibility is all of ours – and especially those who wield the vast resources of corporations today. What is your company doing well? How can you recognize, publicize, and build on it?
Who do you see as a wise leader in your world? What do they do or not do so you consider them wise?
As a woman leader, what does it take to launch, develop, and advance in your career or business and contribute in a big way to your organization’s success? What if wise feminine leadership is the key?
Do you spend your days:
Producing results and performing on constricting & sometimes impossible time lines
Delivering the results you are accountable for after a day of meetings
Convincing the higher ups of the merits of a change that isn’t provable on the spreadsheet
Navigating the shifting sands of changing leadership and tighter budgets
Managing a difficult boss or discontented employee
Navigating brutal office politics to avoid devastating personal impact
Seeking integrity in work/life balance
Yearning for personal feelings of fulfillment
What if your feminine wisdom is the missing element to all this and more? Why? Because it is the source of your natural authority – of knowing that you are “right” inside. Not right vs someone else being wrong. Just right – ok as you are – a sufficient starting point for what you want to do in the world.
What happens without it? In the last year I’ve spoken at the Linkage Women in Leadership Conference, Women’s International Networking Conference, and the Global Women’s Summit and a majority of managers and leaders reported that without their feminine wisdom they:
doubt themselves
feel shaky
get confused
try to be “more” which takes a lot of effort
feel tired, exhausted, burnt out
narrow focus and tighten shoulders
lack power in their voice
We all know this inner essential self. I’ve never met a woman who doesn’t know this grounded powerful place inside where they feel the depth of their inner knowing. It’s delicious!
How about you? How do you find and seat yourself in your feminine wisdom? How do you settle into and express yourself from that potent WiseCore that lives inside of you?
We are enjoying beautiful fall weather in northern California with long windy hikes. I hope that you find many times that nourish wisdom and joy in your day.
Karen
P.S. The Next Octave Women’s Leadership Program applications are now available. Isn’t it time to nurture your feminine wisdom in a supportive circle of other women peers?
When female wisdom remains untapped, women, men, families and organizations suffer. As leaders we are then unable to translate our best ideas into action. We contribute our competency, but not our authentic contribution. I call this the competency trap.
There are 3 steps to take to begin the change.
