Perhaps you recently read my aphorism for CEO’s. It is the first step in my process of serving leaders of small business and startups better. The job of the CEO in today’s times is changing. No longer is it command and control, but connect and collaborate. The CEO needs to hold the space and facilitate the emergence of well-being for everyone involved in the business. The most valuable skill any CEO can have today is informed by an understanding of the seen and unseen world and how they interact.
Where Did We Come From?
Over the last few hundred years we have been focused on the material world. It is the world where if you don’t work hard, you don’t get anything. This is only part of the truth. This partial truth is grounded in Newtonian thinking. It is now the time of holism and unitary thinking. We need to add the insights of quantum physics that teaches us that the quality of the answers is determined by the quality of the questions.
In the past the focus has been on material success. This is a focus on the external and visible world. Like Newton we can observe that the apple falls and that is reality. We took this insight and ran with it. Yes, this has helped us develop and grow, but because it was an uninformed push for technological progress in order to increase the material standard of living, it had detrimental consequences. This paradigm is no longer sustainable.
Where are We Now?
If you haven’t done some reading on quantum physics as a leader, you are falling behind. It is not a nice to have, it is essential to shaping your leadership and management skills. In the same way that you unconsciously operated under the Newtonian paradigm, changes are happening that will have an impact on science, technology, education, business and society. It is like always remaining a passenger in a car because it is comfortable, but never learning how to drive. You cannot remain a passenger, you need to learn how to drive.
The shift of quantum physics started during the first half of the 20th century. There were earlier discoveries, but the general consensus is that our current understanding and broad paradigm of quantum physics was pioneered, among others, by Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg.
There insights into quantum physics baffled and astonished fellow physicists and society in general. The main shift in thinking inspired by quantum physics is that on a sub-atomic level matter does not operate on the same rules as it does in the visible world. It led Einstein to call quantum entanglement “spooky action at a distance”.
For me quantum physics has strengthened the belief that what is unseen is as important, if not more important, than the seen. At quantum level the majority of reality is potential to be shaped by human observation. What we believe and intend with our whole being has impact on the visible.
Where are We Going?
Here is the challenge: I can ‘preach’ the value of quantum physics to leaders and CEO’s until the cows come home, but if you are not hungry to lead this world with value and meaning, nothing will change. The downside for those who do not want explore and learn is that they will become irrelevant very quickly.
This is true for leaders in any organisation. Even churches are suffering because of leadership that is still stuck in old paradigms. We need to heal our broken belief systems that govern our self-worth. Rule-bound leadership cannot be our primary modus operandi. From internal realignment for leaders to external influence a key skill that is non-negotiable is coaching. If you want to lead an organisation that frees people to live from their highest purpose and potential you need to earn to listen and ask quality questions.
You as a leader need to be grounded in a certainty that you are working to accomplish work much more important than yourself. This certainty needs to be informed by a higher understanding and experience of your spiritual destiny. Once you have learned how to sustain continual transformation because of your spiritual experience can you lead from a place of abundance, peace and certainty. You then go from survive to alive.