The Leadership Dojo

Key Concepts

The importance of being centered

“Powerful leaders embody a centered presence. This centered presence mobilizes and motivates people to action. It calls forth their talents and skills; it increases trust and fellowship.” (p. 22)

Leadership is centered in the body and is built by practice

“We learn through our bodies, through recurrent practices, and learning means being able to take new actions. Leadership is a learnable skill.” (p. 47) 

That practice must be done in context

“To learn new skills and behaviors, it’s vital that you practice in the environment in which you want these new skills to appear. This simply means that you practice what it is that you were choosing to transform or create in the environment in which you want it to show up.” (p. 77)

The range of embodied behaviors

“A reflex is an involuntary physiological response as a result of the nervous system’s reaction to a stimulus.” (p. 81)

“A habit is a behavior that is regular, repetitive, and unconscious.” (p. 82)

“A routine is the way a set a task is a range that is typically repetitive and unvarying.” (p. 82)

“A practice is a conscious choice we make to train ourselves so we will behave and act in a particular way so that becomes embodied or part of who we are. To choose a practice is to have a narrative why one is committing to this practice.” (p. 83)

“A generative practice is a conscious choice to embody a behavior that can be used in whatever situation we find ourselves. It’s a commitment to a way of being in the world. It is life-affirming, creative, and it produces a reality by how we orient to our life situation.” (p. 83)

Five domains of the “Body of a Leader”

Action—“Leaders take action. ...But action is not necessarily movement. Action is connected with a powerful story of care. In other words, if our actions are not directly connected to a narrative or what matters to us, and why it matters, we are simply performing tasks, going about our days tediously completing a checklist.” (p. 97)

Mood—“By changing our shape—that is, how we organize ourselves by the way—we’re able to shift our mood, how we are being in the world.” (p. 102)

Coordination—“We can train ourselves to be in harmony with other bodies for effective coordination, and we can train ourselves to observe bodies so that our ability to accurately assess someone’s sincerity, competence, and reliability in fulfilling on commitments is enhanced.” (p. 106)

Learning—“It’s not enough to simply be knowledgeable about something; it’s necessary to act and perform in new ways.” (p. 107)

Dignity—“Exemplary leaders embody their values and what they care about.” (p. 115)

Five Principles of Leadership Presence

• Centering—”An embodied commitment to Self-Knowing” (p. 121)

  • “Being present through centering is the first step and knowing ourselves at a deeper level than our normal discursive thinking, which is a requisite for exemplary leadership.” (p. 121)

• Facing—”An embodied commitment to Integrity” (p. 137)

  • “It’s a crucial skill for leaders to face into life with directness, authenticity, and compassion. When we truly align and face, we see who’s there, and not just our idea of who we think should be there, or how they should be, or a socially constructed idea someone, but the person who is actually in front of us. Facing brings us into a direct relationship with what is occurring instead of wishing or hoping it to be some way other than what it is. Facing gets us out of our heads and allows us to see what needs to get done, with whom, and how to do it.” (p. 140)

• Extending—”An embodied commitment to Listening” (p. 146)

  • “Energy follows attention. We put our attention on will appear more vivid in our field of awareness.” (p 147)

• Entering—”An embodied commitment to Courage” (p. 156)

  • “When we enter in this way we’re declaring, ‘I am here to engage with you in a responsible, ethical manner. I come in a spirit of choice and collaboration. I acknowledge this a risk for both of us, but I’m committed to moving us toward a mutuality of maturity, connection, and power.’” (p. 158)

• Blending—”An embodied commitment to Collaboration and Partnership” (p. 165)

  • “Blending is when we stand in the other person’s shoes, see his perspective, engage with his interpretation of the world, feel what he feels, and then direct his energy towards partnership and collaboration.” (pp. 168-9)

Quotables

“Leadership can be developed; it’s a choice and an option. It’s a skill and art that can be developed through commitment and practice. Leadership is about living our purpose while engaging deeply with others.” (p. 5)

“In the Leadership Dojo the premise is that the ‘self’ is the leader’s primary source of power. Clearly, intellectual capacity in specific technical skills matter, but alone they do not make a powerful leader. It’s the self that is able to mobilize and motivate others, coordinate effectively with them, the trust, and generate positive moods.” (p. 17)

“Exemplary leaders do more than talk a good game. Their presence and actions back what comes out of their mouths.” (p. 47) 

“Alienated from the wisdom of the body, our lives have become theoretical and abstract, distancing us from the direct, felt sense of living. Our bodies have become sick, joyless, incapable of satisfaction, ineffective in action, and victim to the purveyors of cosmetics, medicine, and the illusion of perpetual youth. Except as delivery mechanisms that haul our brains from meeting to meeting, our bodies have grown inconsequential.” (pp. 49-50)

“...if we heard a baseball player say, “I’m not going to batting practice anymore, I’ve already done that,” or a heart surgeon who said it wasn’t necessary to practice his craft anymore, it would sound ridiculous to us.“(p. 58)

“The physical body is a reflection of who we are.” (p. 86)

“Somatics declares the human form as the space in which humans act, relate, think, feel, and express emotions and moods. In this interpretation, the body is the field in which we build trust in intimacy, produce meaningful work, create family, community, and teams, bring forth a world in language, and live our spiritual longing.“ (p. 93)