Awareness in leadership

Awareness. I recently wrote a post saying that you can rest in awareness. Just rest in it. Self-awareness? You may have wondered. No, I meant awareness. Even though you will find countless posts and articles talking about the need for self-awareness in leadership. But that doesn’t cover the topic and that’s not what I’m looking at here.

So what is awareness and is it something you need to be aware of?

What is awareness in leadership?

One way to approach this is to have a direct experience to understand the meaning of awareness. In a coaching session I might be inclined to ask you, “What is between your thoughts?

Between my thoughts? You might ask. Yes, that moment between thinking different thoughts. Can you describe what is there?

If you can answer with anything other than ‘a thought’, then you’ve probably touched awareness. Unless you describe it as emptiness.

Awareness is what’s always there. It’s what observes you observing what’s around you. – Just read that again if you like.

If your head hurts trying to make sense of it, you’re not alone. I felt the same way when I first came across this statement. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.

And it also shows that trying to understand it too much can be the wrong solution. That’s why we talk about the need for direct experience.

The more I delved into the subjects of thinking, thoughts, consciousness, the more it began to make sense.

The Illusion of Thought Control

A statement that helped me further understand or see this whole subject in a very different light was that ‘I may not be thinking my thoughts consciously’. So I may not be in control of those. And to make sense of this I was given a direct pointer and I began to understand what this could potentially mean.

Oh well, it’s probably not understanding but experiencing.

Because: ‘What is your next thought?’ the challenge said.

What the heck? My next thought?

Well, my next thought is obviously … hmm, well wait’? What is my next thought? I don’t know. Do you know? Can you answer what your next thought is going to be?

Because there it is, it just appeared out of nowhere. No need to plan the ‘thought’. No need to think about the thought.

Boom.

That’s it. Is this scientific proof? I don’t know, I’m not a scientist. But I started to realise that thoughts appear, thoughts disappear. There is very little I can do to change them, to stop them coming or to give them a direction.

Are your thoughts really yours?

What does this mean?

Perhaps one way of putting it is that all your many thoughts are not you. Have you ever heard that before?

You are not your thoughts.

Because you do not think them (or most of them) the way you want. They just come up. So are you sure they’re yours?

I don’t know if I need or want to answer this question. But it leads to a deep recognition. The worries about the future, the regrets about the past. The many ‘what ifs’. What if they are simply not true?

What if they are not really your concern, but your mind telling you stories? Your mind trying to protect you or your ego running amok?

The impact of awareness on leadership and well-being

When you consciously look at thoughts, you begin to see a strange thing. They keep you busy, they distract you, they have the power to make you feel bad.

And no matter what theory you believe about their origin, you can’t even tell exactly where they come from.

And since I don’t want to get into a scientific discussion that I would lose, let me focus on what this means for my leadership coaching business.

So many of my clients are struggling with some form of (let’s call them) problems. Issues that they ruminate and think about over and over again, even late at night.

It’s often doubt and anxiety about decisions, upcoming deadlines or difficult conversations. Worries about other people, the future or even past actions.

And they can lead to an impaired sense of well-being.

Finding clarity in the space between thoughts

So what if some of these thoughts simply do not reflect reality as it is? What if the key to more success and happiness for you lies in what is between those thoughts?

The pure awareness that is always there?

The awareness that can give you clarity and confidence and let you forget all your worrying thoughts.