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Most of this document is a direct excerpt from The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership.

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COMMITMENT TWO

Learning Through Curiosity

Above the Line: I commit to growing in self-awareness. I commit to regarding every interaction as an opportunity to learn. I commit to curiosity as a path to rapid learning.

Below the Line: I commit to being right and to seeing this situation as something that is happening to me. I commit to being defensive, especially when I am certain that I am RIGHT.

Keys

• Four competencies trump all others re: predicting sustained success: learning agility, self-awareness, communication, and influence.
• A leader’s defensiveness can hijack an entire group’s energy, bringing down the entire collaborative effort.
• Being Right at 2+2=4: The issue isn’t “being right,” it’s “wanting / fighting / proving” rightness.” We don’t fight over 2+2=4
• Conscious leaders do go below the line, but regularly interrupt their reactivity.
• Drift-Shift Model: “Presence” is the state of being above the line (flow, “in the zone,” etc.). Then, “something happens,” (anything!) and we “drift” out of presence. Energy goes flat, our body and breath constrict, and we become reactive and triggered. (And we want to scratch the itch—Shenpa!)
• Drift: There are many ways to drift (worry, sarcasm, getting on Twitter, comparing ourselves, shopping, pretending to be interested, eating, interrupting, doing email, etc.) (see page 70 for more). Learn to recognize your patterns of drifting.
• Shift: Shift “moves” are a reliable way to move from closed to open. Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS = drift); Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS = shift). Two shift moves: conscious breathing (4 conscious breaths); radically changing posture.
• Wonder: Wonder is open-ended curiosity, asking questions for which we don’t know the answer, and we don’t know—or care—if there is an answer.. Most leaders try to “figure it out,” presupposing there is an answer. Ask questions with “I wonder…what/how…”
• Info. Collection: Feedback from our bodies, other people, etc. should be a gift. Get curious about what your body or another person is giving you. How can you learn?