Dis-Covery: Leading from authenticity
Following on from our previous blogs about Chellie’s latest book The Catalyst’s Way, we now delve into ‘Dis-covery'. Chellie has selected the following insights and inspiration from the contributions of real-life catalysts, the Foundational Storytellers, as a guide for your own Dis-covery.
As valuable as it can be to visit the Chamber of Discomfort, you do not want to get stuck there. It can become an echo chamber that perpetuates your defaults, habits, judgements, assumptions, and familiar alignments. It is, however, important to channel the work from the Chamber of Discomfort as you move to ‘Dis-cover' - spelt this way to emphasise the process of uncovering, taking off, fragmenting and pulling apart. Dis-covery is to inquire into our experience and bring to light new possibilities. It’s not the most comfortable place to be and often means something is breaking up, but it is essential. Poet David Whyte describes this as discovering our stranger within, the parts of ourselves we have yet to meet, the as-yet unlived and future self.
To allow for the growth and agility needed to navigate leadership dynamics, the ability to pull apart the layers that shroud our thinking and perceptions and dismantle what no longer serves us is priceless. So, what are we breaking?
Defaults and habits, the well-trodden paths of our minds and ‘business as usual’, by questioning the status quo and exploring alternative ways of thinking and doing.
Assumptions and judgments that cloud our ability to see beyond our biases by putting them up for examination and healthy debate.
Belief systems, often deeply ingrained and influence our decisions and behaviours, by deconstructing them and questioning whether they align with our current goals and values.
Familiar alignments, often a place we find comfort in from our personal or professional lives, by challenging ourselves to break free from these alignments by exploring new connections and collaborations.
Prompting Dis-covery
Dis-covery transforms discomfort into awareness, learning, and growth. It is like taking an uncomfortable walking tour of our life, it’s not a chronology or a chronicling of what others have done, but an inquiry into our beginnings, encounters, and lived and felt experiences. Three main elements come into play here, and on your journey of Dis-covery, it's important to use each one as a prompt for reflection.
Prompt 1: Dive into the flux. Whilst theory can teach us many things, true Dis-covery comes from throwing ourselves into the unknown. Like many doctors, Cyan Brown received medical training that instilled a top-down, hierarchical approach to leadership. Thrust into an immersive personal experience with the Tekano programme in South Africa that supports health equity catalysts, her journey opened her up to new ways of seeing things: “[the programme] started by asking difficult questions of my leadership, my self-awareness, my positionality and my work. It asked of me, and all of us, to pause long enough to reflect on the story of how we arrived at this work and why we are doing what we are doing.” Cyan leaned into the opportunity to Dis-cover, even though it “sometimes meant the answers were uncomfortable, caused fragmentation and sparked fierce debate.”
Prompt 2: Find opportunity in adversity. Dis-covery further presented itself when Cyan was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplasia, needing multiple hip surgeries, in her twenties. Cyan got thrown into a situation of navigating the healthcare system as a patient and experiencing first-hand the challenges people who are differently abled face. Being in a wheelchair during recovery meant finding the “vulnerability needed to ask for help with everything. Whilst being differently abled for those periods was initially quite hard, ultimately it built strong relationships with those around me and helped build my inner tools and resilience in that process.”
Prompt 3: Be your authentic self. Do this even when it may go against the grain of cultural conditioning or challenge so-called professional ‘norms’; standing in your authenticity is part of Dis-covery, says Le Nhan Phuong. Phuong, too, is a doctor in a system that values medical expertise and can entice people to present themselves as an infallible expert. On top of that, Phuong has had to deal with societal and cultural norms from his community: “In Asian society, it's not just about 'keeping face', it’s also about self-confidence. We tend to see ourselves in how other people treat us, and we internalise it. In some ways, we use other people as a mirror.” Doing inner work and inquiring into his personal feelings and values provided a more authentic and stable ground to move on from the chaos of others’ opinions.
The Three Plateaus of the Mind
Dis-covery isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing process of self-awareness and transformation. Harvard professors Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey, renowned for their seminal book Immunity to Change, describe the three plateaus of the mind which highlight the potential for us to move to the self-transforming mind.
The socialised mind: We are oriented to our social environment and take cues from family, peers and communities. Our identity and ideas are highly influenced by particular belief systems and community protocols. Leaders at this stage are often overly influenced by their environment and lack personal agency.
The self-authoring mind: We step back and generate our own belief system and values. We still might choose to align with our social context, but we bring more consciousness and awareness to the process. We evaluate, question and form our own standpoints, which may or may not align with the outside world. Here, leaders begin forming their own beliefs and values, stepping away from societal norms. They exhibit a higher level of consciousness and critical thinking.
The self-transforming mind: We can see the limitations of different perspectives and approaches, including our own. We see partiality, are reflexive and adaptable and have the mastery and expertise to sort through multiple positions whilst maintaining a strong sense of authenticity. At this stage, leaders possess the ability to transcend their own perspectives, be open to diverse viewpoints and adapt to new ideas and approaches, all while maintaining authenticity.
In Conclusion
Dis-covery is not merely a word but a powerful framework for those undertaking a transformative journey to become catalysts of change. We need to venture on a journey that takes us from the comfort of our defaults and habits into the challenging territory of self-discovery and transformation. By breaking apart the layers that obscure our vision, we allow the light of new perspectives and possibilities to illuminate our path. In this ongoing journey, leaders evolve, adapt, and become more authentic versions of themselves, ultimately leading themselves and their organisations to higher levels of wealth and well-being.
