The Big Idea
They once worshiped their raft; now they love the shore where it has taken them. — Fr. Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Welcome to the Learning Leader, a field experience blog for leaders curious about making the leap from identity to impact leadership and closing the gap between first half of life/career striving to second half significance. The Learning Leader is a discovery zone for Gap to Goal experiments (and probably some misfires) meant to inspire and intrigue leaders serious about moving good ideas to inspired impact.
You are incredibly welcome here.
So what is the Big Idea?
The Big Idea [of the Learning Leader] is many things. But one thing it definitely isn’t: It isn’t (primarily) about you. Lest that land too sharply, let me be clear: it isn’t about me, either. Our field experience will resist the ego-urge to walk at the head of the line or stand in front of the class.
Generally speaking, leaders like us, who click into blogs like this, have accumulated things: titles, experiences, achievements, resumes, degrees, you name it. Scroll LinkedIn lately? We’re up to big things and have made big investments to build our identities. These achievements are necessary to the first half of life/career work. We can’t get to the second half significance without a solid first half, during which our identities and sense of who we are, what we do, and how we are known are formed.
But … there’s a second act.
For authentic leaders, after years spent becoming there comes a time to turn our attention to being: being open, present, and authentic. Being (like Ted Lasso) curious, we push the fullness of our achieved identities and accumulated experiences to lead beyond ourselves. My hunch is that if we successfully unfold into a more persistent state and style of being, those we lead can more powerfully become.
Riffing a bit from Elizabeth Seton: True learning leaders want to live with purpose so that others can more purposefully live. They focus, essentially and obsessively, far more on the shore than the raft that carries them to it.
“They once worshiped their raft; now they love the shore where it has taken them.”
Richard Rohr’s quote assigns the first half of life/career leadership, that is identity leadership, as the raft. The second half of life/career leadership, or impact leadership, is the shore. It’s a powerful idea. You can’t have one without the other. And you most definitely can’t achieve the powerful purpose of the raft if you never go ashore.
In starting this blog, this field experience for the Learning Leader, I want to test this raft — the self I’ve lashed together up to this point — and see just how far she can go and just how much good she influences.
The Big Idea is the discovery: of the science of the Learning Leader and the art of the purposeful life.
If you’ve built a good raft, but are ready to put it to new use and head for new shores; if you aspire to lead with deeper capacity, not simply greater competency; and if you aren’t looking for one more blog that tells and sells you on more of what you should do, but instead invites you to explore all you could:
Hello, there. I’m so glad to find you.
Like these ideas? Learn more about the g³ strategy Approach for Learning Leaders
