Conscious Leadership in the Workplace by Chamberlain Rosalie;

Author:Chamberlain, Rosalie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Image 5.1. The ancient Taoist symbol for yin and yang, commonly interpreted to depict how the two are halves of a whole, mutually-arising, and interdependent. Notice that we see only two contrasting opposites in this image—no greyscale or spectrum at all.

Separating Force

Duality is a huge separating force. It separates us from others and from our authentic self. Duality is not a friend to different perspectives because the attachment to one way versus another way is too powerful. This can be very limiting to you and to the people you lead. In today’s global society and competitive work environment, being open to the world of talent, perspectives and cultural differences can have a powerful impact on success.

Robert has a participative leadership style that encourages collaboration and mutual respect. His style involves making decisions once there is an exchange of ideas, a vetting of different possibilities. In his company, employees know they are able to have a voice at the table and contribute. Their idea may not be the final choice, but they will have had the opportunity to discuss their opinions and the team will work together to create options for the best choice. The choice may be the final decision of the leader. In his organization, he checks the plausibility of proposals. He knows he can trust his team to do the necessary work to bring those proposals to the table. The mutual trust is critical to having effective and collaborative teams. Once the suggestions are on the table and he assesses the plausibility of the suggestions, he can then decide what is the best course because he has decentralized the decision making power as low as he possibly can by asking his experts to prepare their “arguments” based on their expertise and research. It is a multi-team effort.

Duality contributes to prejudice, bias and the “isms” we see and experience. In duality, the individual feels the need to make their position superior to others. When this happens, we categorize with dualistic lenses. Whether this dualistic point of view comes from messages we have been taught or a need to pump up our own esteem or ensure we do not lose our standing, it does not matter. The behavior is exclusionary. It is important to have awareness of our dualistic thinking so that we have an opportunity to assess and choose alternate behavior, thus taking a step toward growth and inclusion.

Fear of differing perspectives is an interesting phenomenon. When you are in fear and duality, you really do not want to hear, and I mean really hear, another’s perspective. There could be a misconception that taking in another perspective to understand where someone is coming from will invalidate your own perspective. Either your perspective, or mine. This is a dualistic way of thinking. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your unhealthy ego (see more in Chapter 6) is getting in your way.

Dualistic thinking encourages us to get territorial about our points of view. However, our work environments demand that we be more collaborative than ever before.

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