Greetings!
Courageous leadership involves diving into topics that aren’t always warm and fuzzy.
After attending the PathNorth Civility Series, I’ve had a series of conversations around intolerance.
Intolerance grows out of differences of opinion and the three biggest areas are that of racial, religious, or economic beliefs.
For most of my life, I’ve thought I was incredibly tolerant choosing a “live and let live” motto.
Yet, bias is sneaky, and unconscious bias is just that, unconscious.
In these courageous leadership conversations, I recognize how much past hurts and trauma play into the desire to win at all costs that people engage in arguments which breed hatred, and eventually turns into combat.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has long been my hero for a variety of reasons.
He got that the root of anything that isn’t love is really fear.
And, Dr. Shawne Duperon, Founder of Project Forgive (
www.ProjectForgive.org
), speaks about this through the lens of forgiveness.
Intolerance is not our true human nature.
Little kids don’t see differences.
Courageous leaders get the value of differences and recognize tolerance is necessary for success.
Anything else breeds hostility.
For years, I’ve been saying love is the answer regardless of the question.
We all want to be valued, loved and appreciated for who we are.
Love makes us our brother and sister’s keeper as we see what makes us all one.
While there are attendees who are vastly different is terms of their racial, economic, gender, sex, and religious profiles, they all belong and willingly engage in open and honest conversations about their struggles and successes.
Tolerance is being patient and choosing to understand. It is how you were wired from birth.
Courageous leaders empathize, willingly trying see things from another person’s perspective and being a champion for peace.
ACTION:
The
Upside Challenge
of the week is to commit to taking one step to be a champion for peace.
When you find yourself judging or being intolerant/aka angry and feeling superior:
1) Take a look at yourself, and ask yourself “What am I fighting “for”?;
2) Hold that as yours, and then set it aside for the moment.
3) Ask what is it that this other person may be fighting “for”?
4) Get curious with love. What is their perspective?
5) Step into the different perspective – even just for a moment.
6) Discover.
The world needs you and your brilliance.
Lisa Marie
President/CEO
Upside Thinking, Inc.
951.334.9162 ~ Mobile
p.s. Called to make a bigger positive difference in the world? To champion for what matters most? Ready to fully step into your calling in the new decade? Join me at Design Your Destiny Live. Register today –
www.DesignYourDestinyLive.com
Your time is now.
