What if the Heart Were a Leader's Greatest Ally?

I’ve been contemplating much lately about what it means to be a heart-centered leader. The term “heart-centered” in the spiritual community has become somewhat of a cliché as it is now being used ever so frequently in mainstream business and life. Yet, we do not see much evidence that leaders truly are leading from this heart-center.

So what is really going on here? Are we merely using this term to simply grandeur ourselves and look good? Or is there a deep desire to lead with the heart, but we just don’t know how?

As I once again returned to this subject from my heart perspective and began to map out what being a heart-centered leader means to me, this is what I discovered – being a leader who leads with my heart means that I am:

• Empowering myself by nurturing my mind, body, and spirit
• Nurturing the important relationships in my life
• Loving myself through my doubts and fears
• Celebrating myself through the small achievements and large victories
• Embracing my authenticity as I allow others in and inspire them with my own stories of overcoming adversity
• Being vulnerable as I allow others to see where I am in my journey no matter how “ugly”, and being open to receiving support
• Being in integrity with my values
• Making living an extraordinary life my success story – meaning sacrificing my family and values in the name of success is not an option

With this map in hand, I can now create my path of being a heart-centered leader in my own terms. It no longer is just a meaningless cliché for I have now given it power, power which came from developing a connection and relationship with my heart.

How will you create your road map to being a heart-centered leader? Here are some tips you can use to create this road map –

1. Take some time to be in your heart and ask it to guide you in this process
2. Journal and allow your thoughts about what it means to be a heart-centered leader to flow on to the paper
3. Envision yourself as leader – what would you be doing or saying? Who would you be encouraging and inspiring? Allow your body to feel the resonance of your vision as you sense your heart expand
4. Set an intention to embody that leader while placing your right hand over your heart and declare it to be so
5. Write down an action step that you will take, with a "by when" date, that matches that new vision of you leading from this heart-centered space
6. Share your action step with someone you trust and who would hold you accountable
7. After you've completed your action step - acknowledge and celebrate yourself.

This exercise can be applied in any area of leadership – be it in business, relationships, parenting, etc. Once you know what kind of leader you desire to be based on your heart-center, you can begin to be very specific and apply those traits to each area of your life. You will even be able to see where you have not been applying these traits and then choose to do so.

A heart-centered leader honors and celebrates herself. She acknowledges her strengths and she embraces those aspects of herself that others find undesirable. She believes she can transform the world without compromising the simple things in life. She sees herself as a queen who is benevolent and empowers those who seek to be queens like her. She sees a queen in every woman. She walks amongst her tribe. She is uplifting, honest, and authentic and allows her vulnerability to show through for that is how all can relate to her. She’s powerful and yet gentle. She rules with her heart.

www.wiseheartwithin.com