All over the world, women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievement.
However, progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places around the world and violence, rape, sexual slavery and many other atrocities continue to be committed against women on a daily basis.The Dalai Lama made his famous proclamation at the Vancouver Peace Summit in 2009 that; “The world will be saved by the Western woman.”
For any Western woman who is inspired by the Dalai Lama’s sentiments and truly wants to make a difference in the world; our HUMILITY and ABILITY TO LISTEN is of utmost importance.
We need to be attentive to the ways we can sometimes bulldoze in with good intentions and unconscious assumptions that we know what is best for a community, or with the belief that we have some divine ordination to ‘save others’.
I would offer that a simple re-frame of the Dalai Lama’s proclamation might be helpful here.
Perhaps instead of trying to ‘save the world’ we might instead cultivate our capacity to deeply LISTEN to the world.
This way, we can support the natural intelligence and leadership that already exists within our global communities.
You see, the problem has never been ‘the masculine’ in roles of leadership – it has been the absence of and bias against traditionally ‘feminine qualities’.
And although, labelling traits as either masculine or feminine reflects popular perception rather than evidence-based fact, it’s a useful way to think about what works in organisations today.
The following qualities, traditionally identified with women, produce excellent results for leaders of both genders.
1) Empathy: Being sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others.
2) Vulnerability: Owning up to one’s limitations and asking for assistance where needed.
3) Humility: Seeking to serve others and to share credit where it’s due.
4) Inclusiveness: Soliciting advice and listening deeply to the people around you.
5) Generosity: Being liberal with your time, contacts, advice, and support.
6) Balance: Giving life, as well as work – equal consideration.
7) Patience: Taking a long-term view over short-term results.
The most charismatic leaders around the world today are appreciated for their capacity to listen, for their open-mindedness, for their ability to stay calm in stressful and challenging situations, and for their emotional and relational intelligence.
Great leaders throughout history embraced optimum qualities of leadership and let go of traditional notions of gender.
There is an ancient Incan prophecy about ‘The Eagle and the Condor’ and it talks of a time when the Eagle from the North and the Condor from the South will unite.
It speaks volumes of where we have come from and where we are going as a society.
The Eagle represents the North – masculine energy and the power and will of the mind. The Condor represents the South – feminine energy and the compassion and wisdom of the heart.
The prophecy continues by saying that the next 500-year period, which began in the 1990s, would be a time of divine union between the Eagle and the Condor. Or rather, that there would be the potential for these two archetypal energies to fly together and birth a new era of awakening and consciousness on this planet.
If we could all LISTEN deeply to what this world needs, instead of trying to ‘save it’, we could become facilitators for the organic emergence of a FEMININE LEADERSHIP around the globe.
A leadership whose time has come!