Home > Work > Co-Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead
1 " When someone is walking beside us, we have more courage to walk into the unknown and to risk the dark and messy places in our journey. "
― Karen Kimsey-House , Co-Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead
2 " Failure is a natural part of learning and developing, and it teaches us to be resolute and steadfast in our endeavors. "
3 " Letting go of the security of what is commonly understood requires a big leap of faith and a willingness to fall. "
4 " The more we can embrace failure, the more we will be able to open to it and the more confident and resilient we will become. "
5 " The more we are able to engage in enthusiastic disagreement with each other, the more we will be able to uncover the best in ourselves and each other. "
6 " When there is alignment and understanding, it is much easier to navigate forward together, moving in and out of agreement. "
7 " While the big events of our lives create the impetus for change, it is the moment-by- moment choices that mold and shape us. "
8 " We must be present enough and receptive enough to “hear” with our whole being beyond just the words that are being spoken. "
9 " Our differences need not divide us because even as we are unique and individual, we are also all one. "
10 " There’s no better way to serve and nourish the magnificence in another person than to simply listen to them openheartedly and without judgment. "
11 " It is only through dialogue, deep listening, and passionate disagreement that we find our way to something larger than a singular and isolated point of view. "
12 " We are most effective when we are able to lean in fully to the resource of the other people in our lives. "
13 " Everything changes when we finally cast off the shackles of striving for approval and acceptance outside of our own skin and instead decide that we are in fact good enough—that there is nothing we need to do to earn acceptance, approval, or love. When "
14 " From this expanded meta-view, they notice patterns and cycles that they could not see when they were in the thick of the situation. Their instinct and intuition kick in, and they often have flashes of insight that were not accessible when they were too close to the circumstances. The "
15 " We are conditioned to think that we are somehow all alone and that everything depends on our ability to be good enough, smart enough, and wise enough. We feel that in order to lead effectively, we must have all the answers and solutions already worked out on our own. This false sense of isolation is insidious and pervasive. The "
16 " must have the awareness to notice what is needed in the moment and the agility to respond from a wide palette of creative choices rather than from an entrenched system of patterned and predictable reactions. "
17 " Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. "
18 " So often, people feel powerless and ineffective because they have been told that they are wrong and that they don’t have what it takes to lead effectively. For "
19 " In reality, leadership is multidimensional. In any project or community there are many different leaders, each leading in different ways, with people changing roles fluidly. In any given day, each of us moves through a range of different leadership dimensions. We are all leaders in one way or another, and when we choose to be responsible for what is happening around us, we are able to work together in a way that includes and utilizes the unique talents of everyone. "
20 " Life is both eager to express itself through our particular lens and offering its wisdom and beauty to us in every moment if only we are willing to slow down and receive it. "