Earth Talk: Leading from Within - Ideas from Parker J. Palmer

Video Description

With Rick Jackson, Co-Founder and Senior Fellow – Centre for Courage & Renewal "New leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from finding new and more wily ways to manipulate the external world. It will come as we who lead find the courage to take an inward journey toward both our shadow and our light, a journey that, faithfully pursued, will take us beyond ourselves to become healers of a wounded world." Parker J. Palmer Today, leadership itself has been given a bad name. We live at a sad, frightening and maddening moment in history, made so in part by the lack of integrity, compassion, and wisdom among some leaders. Who wants to say, “I am a leader,” at a time when the word is too easily associated with prevaricators and people with delusions of adequacy? Yet every day we are all called to lead wherever we are planted: in the family, the workplace, the community. At the Center for Courage & Renewal we turn to an unusual yet reliable source to find the courage to lead: poetry and our inner lives. We turn to poetry, not PowerPoints, for sustenance, inspiration and guidance, finding real bread for the journey, not thin managerial soup. Poetry reminds us that yes, our hearts do get broken by the things we care about and the people we love. But poetry also reminds us that a broken heart is not the end of the story. Rather, it can be the pathway to growing a more compassionate and “whole” heart, one that can help heal a wounded world. In this Earth Talk, Rick Jackson explores Six Foundations for Trustworthy Leadership drawn from the writer, teacher and activist Parker J. Palmer: • Clarifying purpose and integrity through an ongoing inner journey • Applying deep listening and asking honest, open questions • Holding paradox and tensions in the face of complexity and uncertainty • Building trustworthy relationships in communities and organizations • Appreciating the value of “otherness” • Growing through seasons of personal and professional change An Opus Earth Production for Schumacher College. http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk http://www.couragerenewal.org