I know there's a lot going on in the world right now and however it is affecting or moving you I hope that you are leaning into healthy and strategic practices to strengthen your hearts, minds, and bodies.
-There is what paid-for media (from all sides and motives) vies for us to make decisions and align sentiments based on, and then there is what is cosmically right.
-Know that whatever sentiments you/we/I have as individuals, our collective power comes from individuals building the space to explore making sense of the world around us and that we are in.
-AND HOPEFULLY this think-tank of deeply personal self-transformation that we embark on is just one of many ways you can begin to build a strong foundation to affect positive, meaningful, and lasting contributions as the timeline of humankind unfolds.
Every day that we wake up and decide to stand up again is an answer to a call to leadership, whether you know it or feel it.
When you get up and go about your day, look around you. Look who’s around you. Look who’s counting on you.
You don’t need to be some glamorized tech billionaire or executive-level appointee with a laundry-list of accolades to feel the burden, the weight, and the calling of leadership.
In fact, those tangible qualities are NOT what define leadership. Earned leadership is the gift/burden that comes from referent power — for whatever reason, people around you SEE YOUR VALUE, they find safety, direction, aspiration, and hope through your presence.
Referent power is when your people choose YOU. Sometimes you don’t want it. But you have the character for it. Sorry that’s just the way it works.
AUTHORITY comes from Legitimate or Appointed Power. This is what we oftentimes deal with in our professional and daily lives. Sometimes the person with authority is also the person we’d imbue with referent power. Sometimes it’s not. That’s the beauty of appointed power in some ways. Even if people don’t want you — you have the power and the responsibility anyway, regardless of sentiment.
Big difference. And one that confuses people sometimes.
Here’s what I’m getting at: Whether or not you have appointed power is not an excuse to diminish the responsibility of referent power that you might have in your life.
IN FACT, focusing on how SMALL you are in the scope of appointed power is a crime against your very spirit and potential to do lasting and meaningful work for those WHO WOULD BESTOW REFERENT POWER ON YOU if you just leaned into the best and God-given talents that you have.
So today, focus less on the mess that the world and our country has been in (for decades) due to the folly of Appointed Power, and begin to incubate the power of Referent Power. Begin with what’s in your control, with the people that are currently looking to you.
Guide them. Empower them. Embolden them.
And as that sphere of impact grows over time, other spheres of impact will eventually begin running into one another and pretty soon…ripples become waves.
