Wholehearted Leadership and Collective Care

“We desperately need more leaders who are committed to courageous, wholehearted leadership and who are self-aware enough to lead from their hearts.”  ~ Brene Brown

According to Brown’s work, the foundation of wholehearted leadership is; courage, compassion and connection.  In her speeches, work, and her book Daring Greatly, Brene Brown has introduced and further developed the concept of wholehearted living and wholehearted leading. While there are many layers and facets to this work of wholehearted living and leading, some key concepts include self-awareness and the courage to look deeply in the mirror to understand our own vulnerabilities and constraints.

I’ve been ruminating on Brene’s quote “If we want to live a wholehearted life, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play, and about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self worth.” OOoof. This personally hits hard as I reflect on the untold years in leadership where I absolutely did the opposite of this. As a rule, many of us have measured our self-worth by how full our calendars are, how much we are doing, how many things we are a part of … and maybe consciously or subconsciously placing our worth in that busyness. What do we sacrifice at this altar of busyness? One of the first things we push off of our plate is self-care. 

As leaders, we are being watched and emulated. It is important for our own health and balance to reflect on and question our busyness and its place in our life. This is not to say that we shouldn’t work hard and achieve great things. It is to say what is the cost of an unexamined busy life? Your reflection and self-awareness on why you are driven to be busy may lead you to a place of better balance. A place where you understand you have to care for your body, your brain, your spirit, your family and your ‘one wild and precious life’ (Mary Oliver). And from a place of self-care, you will be uniquely positioned to model, incorporate and implement systems that support self-care and even further, collective care into your organization. A culture of collective care establishes connections, supportive spaces, nurturing relationships -  it inhabits the philosophy of Ubuntu (I am because you are). 

Take some time to look at your calendar and your commitments. Reflect on what you do, why you do it… and don’t accept your first answers… dig deeper. Are you taking care of yourself for this one wild and precious life you’ve been given? How can you model, incorporate and implement systems that support your people in self-care and more than that, how can you ensure a culture of collective care?