Elemental LeadershipElemental Leadership is an approach to leadership development which connects us with our common humanity and our unity with nature. It was developed by FAST founder, Sara Boas.
Drawing on the qualities of the elements – earth, air, fire and water – Elemental Leadership workshops enable participants to discover their core strengths and to reawaken neglected powers and sensitivities. This supports balanced leadership, which in turn fosters personal well being, vibrant team spirit, and sustainable work-life communities. The balanced leader embodies the clarity and vision of air, the passion and commitment of fire, the receptivity and adaptability of water, and the earthy pragmatism to make dreams into reality.
The work is most memorable when conducted in the form of a retreat in a beautiful, natural environment, far from the demands and constraints of everyday work. In such a setting, even those who have never focused on their own development find that their creative spirit can soar. Sessions can be held in inner-city environments, in offices, conference centres and hotels.
Whatever the setting, the facilitator guides participants through a transformational cycle in relation to each element. The basic steps are as follows:
Contemplate: become aware of the element, whether directly if you are working outdoors, or via intellect and imagination; consider the particular qualities of the element as you know and experience it; write or speak your associations.
Interact: find your personal relationship to the element; gradually enter into closer communion with the element, drumming its rhythm, dancing with it, touching it, moving through it.
Merge: allow the distinction to dissolve so that you fully experience yourself as fire / earth / air / water…
Reflect: thank the element and let go; draw or sculpt your experience; then reflect on your relationship to the element, how it manifests in you and how it can help or hinder you in your leadership.
The Elemental Leadership process is intended to reinforce certain leadership principles.
Activating Bodymind Wisdom
Our leadership values are only authentic when we embody them, in our actions, in our gestures, in the way we walk and talk. Elemental Leadership is a bodily process, as well as an emotional, mental and spiritual one. Each element is experienced in movement and takes root in the body, so that the leader can embody its qualities in every decision, every move, every day. This ensures holistic transformation, not just cognitive learning.Learning through Discovery
The learning in Elemental Leadership takes place through discovery, not instruction. The only conceptual input explicitly provided by the facilitator is the matrix of the four elements. The guided process then takes each person into an intimate knowledge of their own relationship to these elements. Participants in Elemental Leadership find their associations to each element, explore how the elemental qualities live in and through them, and articulate their own leadership development needs. The results of these explorations are strikingly similar across individuals, industries and nationalities. Certain words and images are associated with each element, whether the participant is female or male, an engineer or an artist, from Japan or the USA, Iran or Papua New Guinea. This transcendence of differences takes us to the place where culture and nature meet, helping us to contact some of the most deeply shared properties of being human, and to remember the natural elements from which we first were born.Enhancing Sustainability
Long term prosperity is grounded in the health of individuals, depends on vibrant team spirit and extends to the vitality of economic, social and ecological systems. Elemental Leadership brings attention to our own well being, our contact with others, and encourages an intimate, empathic engagement with the natural environment. This supports respect for human nature and for the wider ecosystem. This, in turn, fosters leadership decisions which ensure the sustainability of the individual, the community, and the natural environment.Engaging in Creative Dialogue
Elemental Leadership is founded on the premise that we are both created and creative. Through thought and action, imagination and insight, feeling and analysis, the process facilitates creative dialogue. This dialogue is both unspoken – through imagery and rhythm, felt sense and movement – and spoken, using words to explore aspects of our nature and culture.Integration
At the end of an Elemental Leadership retreat, each participant performs a self portrait incorporating all the elements. This integrates the learning and brings the focus back to the individual leader and the resources they embody. In preparation, each participant goes for a walk alone, to reflect on and assimilate their process. During this walk, they find an object which stands out for them and represents their relationship to the elements. Most people bring a beautiful, natural object such as a stone, a feather, flowers or leaves. It could be anything, however – a shoe, a tin can, a book… After the walk, they write five lines, one relating to each element and one for the whole. Some paint a picture or make a collage or sculpture. When they return to the group room, the space has been prepared with candles, flowers and a clear space. Each participant in turn stands, moves, speaks their lines and places their creation and found object on a small ‘shrine’. The group provides quiet witness. Without applause or discussion, each person shares this embodiment of their own balanced leadership. Inevitably, this simple ritual gives birth to a compelling work of art, without the participants having any technical instruction, rehearsal, or previous performance experience. This enactment of embodied leadership resonates in the memory and provides encouragement to the participants back in their everyday communities.Benefits
The Elemental Leadership process has proved to support participants in:
- Balancing personal preferences to enable holistic leadership
- Reclaiming qualities which have been suppressed or neglected due to cultural conditioning, narrow education or personal circumstances
- Receiving support from nature in lonely or exhausting roles
- Appreciating diverse qualities in self and others
- Awakening innate creativity
- Gaining a simple language for articulating experience
- Enhancing personal health and well being
- Attuning to nature (one’s own nature and that of the larger ecosystem)
- Being more fully oneself and developing natural charisma
- Accessing inner and outer resources for ongoing leadership development
Individual leadership development is just the beginning. It is the basis for encouraging vibrancy and balance in interpersonal relationships, teams, organisations and communities.
As you finish reading this, please take a moment to connect with the elements: to receive the support of the earth beneath you, to feel the sun’s fire around you or within you, to sense the ebb and flow of your watery body; and to enjoy the lightness of your breath as the air enters and leaves you.
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