Authentic Leadership & Conflicts in the Middle East Begin With You

Huh?

What is the energy and intent you "put out there?" If we are all connected, then whatever we do can act like a ripple in a lake - it can spiral and escalate. Do you want it to be a gentle ripple in the water or a world war 3 bomb that displaces everything in your wake?

We recently watched Morgan Spurlock's Where in The World is Osama Bin Laden?It reminded me of the difficulty and misunderstanding I had with my insurance agent (wrote about August 19th). It helped me understand why walls build up and people reinforce perceptions and negative feelings  ... it's up to us on a small scale everyday to keep our side of the street clean - all we can control is our own integrity.

For me, it ultimately is a question of managing my emotions and reactions so they don't escalate and I can have an authentic two-way communication with another person. We too often think we have communicated when we speak and "get something off our chest"... we need to hear and understand not just the words of what someone else says but their motivation and intent.

Our challenge lies in neutralizing our emotions or seeing beyond the other person's emotions - and yet our emotions give us much needed information. So, how do you balance accessing and feeling your emotions but not letting them run you?