I wrote a lot of this with the intention of contextualizing a new offering I’ve been working on: The Creative Field. And then it just made more sense to post it here. If you’re in the bay area, I’d like to invite you to two events: one in July and one in August. It’s sort of the best way to engage with everything I’ve been learning over the last many years.
A little over a year ago, I started calling myself a “leadership coach.” By and large, these labels don’t really matter to me, because much of what coaching delivers has to do with intangibles: interpersonal chemistry, instinct, energy. But I wanted to take a stand for leadership in particular. I wanted to take a stand for the leadership potential of every individual I come into contact with.
Sure, some of my clients are what you might typically call “leaders” in a traditional or organizational paradigm: managers, founders, executives. But I didn’t choose that label because I wanted to exclusively serve folks sitting at the top of a hierarchy. I wanted (and want) people to see themselves from the perspective of permission, impact, and creativity.
The concept of hierarchy brings up very interesting things for folks. Especially those of us who grew up in the cult of individualism1. Our world really seems to privilege one particular type of leader: the sole figurehead, the savior, the savant. The founders I work with are navigating this paradigm. Children of immigrants are caught in it. I have been caught in it.
When we live within the frame of individualism, we search for safety through of our one sole leader. We look to this person to protect us from violence, or we seek to hold them accountable for all of the harm committed in the system. This leadership model indicates that our leader is responsible for all of the friction and ailments in our society. And then it’s easy to overlook the culture of power, domination, and dissociation that surrounds these people — and that surrounds us, too.
Our dreams seemingly live and die on the premise of our relationship with this leader.
It works similarly on the flip side. As I’ve come into supporting more and more leaders, I see how individuals are often unequipped to resource from their own collective. Individualism strikes again.
I’m in charge, therefore it’s all on my shoulders. If I don’t do it, then who will? I can’t trust anyone like I can trust me.
Shadows (like shame, fear of losing power, tight grip on control, perfectionism, discomfort with uncertainty) keep us from leveraging the full creative potential of our people, whether they’re employees, collaborators, or communities of practice. Many of us burn out, become lonely & disillusioned, and abandon our dreams.
I have seen this play out in startups and corporations. I have seen it in organizing and politics. I have seen it in creative collaboration and the art world. It doesn't work. At least, it doesn't work for me.
When we project all of our hopes and all of our disdain on the same target, we are not as attuned to the ways that we actively create the environment that we live in. In order to live such that we dismantle structures of dominance, we must be building awareness of how we reinforce that dominance, and perhaps be actively looking into alternatives.
A general sense of panic has permeated the atmosphere. Rising fears of collective crisis / collapse. I experience more desperation, dissociation, and despair from my loved ones than ever.
This desperation is calling us towards new models of operating in groups. Towards listening together to the land. Towards collective stewardship and buy-in at all organizational levels.
This is what I have always oriented towards addressing through my work. How can those of us at the top of a hierarchical structure invite folks at other altitudes into their leadership potential? How can those of us looking “up” at a person in power actively shift our perspective and participation so that we relate differently to that individual and their surrounding power?
In corporate terms I’ve seen this practice called supporting leaders at all levels. But I’m here to explore beyond that. I’m talking about the youngest child in a family who opens the door for everyone’s transformation and healing. I’m talking about the first person in a generational line to get sober. I’m talking about organizers who tirelessly weave webs of community so that everyone has a place, and knows it.
We need more prophets, and fewer messiahs2.
If you’re reading this, you are a leader, whether or not you buy that. At least, you have the capacity to exhibit leadership in your environment.
Co-Active, where I trained as a coach, defines a leader thus:
One who grows their capacity to take responsibility for their / our world
By this frame, leadership isn’t a static position or action. It’s motion, expansion. It’s about participating in the world. It represents one’s inner self and outer expression. And it doesn’t require global scale.
Augusto Boal3 called this osmosis, or interprenetation.
The smallest cells of social organization (the couple, the family, the neighborhood, the school, the office, the factory, etc) and equally the smallest incidents of our social life (an accident at hte corner of the street, the checking of identity papers in the metro, a visit to the doctor, etc.) contain all the moral and political values of society, all its structures of domination and power, all its mechanisms of oppression.
Interested in large scale organizing? You can experiment with the people you live with, your friends, your family. Discover acts of resistance and worldbuilding in the everyday, and notice how these have ripple effects out into the world!
For me, this has looked like slowing down with the existing relationships in my life. It means sitting with the unknown far more than I am comfortable with when conflict arises. It means continually being humbled by new ideas and perspectives that challenge me. It means trusting my instinct when I do have something to offer, and letting my gifts flow freely outward. It means noticing when I’m touching a boundary or need for space, and respecting my own needs with reverence.
I’m wanting to bring these practices to more and more people. So, I started working on…
It’s a culmination of a few years of practice with alternative organizational models, coaching & facilitation, and listening to the quiet unknown. And I’m so fucking excited about it, I want to shout about it from the rooftops!
If you’re in the bay area, come join us at our practice sessions in July and August. And, as always, if something in here struck a chord with you, drop me an email or let’s get on the phone.
As always, I wish you moments of peace, stability, togetherness and solid ground during these times. Everything is impermanent. And we will all likely be asked to step into the ring to co-create what happens next. I look forward to standing beside you.
With love and in solidarity,
Rishi
at this stage, is it maybe all of us? who hasn’t been impacted by the hegemony and imperialism?
my definitions;
prophet: one who listens, and speaks what they hear
messiah: one who is regarded as a savior
Anyone who is remotely interested in my work should spend more time reading Boal’s work. I highly recommend reading the Games for Actors and Non-Actors and The Rainbow of Desire. If nothing else, this primer (pg. 49-59) gives you an idea of the powerful impact of Forum Theater.