January is a good time for self-reflections usually translated into resolutions, and as a professional executive coach, I hope your personal development is central to your plans for the New Year.
The year 2018 in numerology corresponds to the master number 11 (2+0+1+8). Usually this pseudo spiritual-scientific approach reduces all multi-digit numbers to the single-digit numbers 1 through 9 with the exception of the three Master numbers 11, 22 and 33. These three Master numbers have a specific set of archetypal energies that sets them apart from all other numbers and possess great potential for learning and growth.
"The 11 symbolises the potential to push the limitations of the human experience into the stratosphere of the highest spiritual perception; the link between the mortal and the immortal; between man and spirit; between darkness and light; ignorance and enlightenment" (numerology.com)
In the Tarot, eleven is the card of Justice (fairness, truth, balance between the Higher-Self/Inner Wisdom and the Ego); Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. There are eleven players on a football (soccer) team, on an American football team, on a cricket team; November 11 is Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day) or Veterans Day in the United States…..etc.
The number 11 is the number of leadership, personal power and a clear channel to the subconscious mind; cultivating true self-awareness by Presence (stillness and calm; feeling; whole self…).
So from a business perspective, one could say, the year 2018 sets the tone to teach us ‘vertical development’ by raising our level of consciousness developing our mental complexities and emotional-spiritual intelligence in order to lead more skilfully with open-heart, connectedness, authenticity…etc. It’s a gateway to bring you to the next level of your soul’s evolution providing you have the courage to step into this…
Otto Scharmer states that “vertical development” is “the capacity to deal with disruptive change, which requires us to let go of the past and to let come the future, to shift our awareness from one state to another. In the language of tech: vertical development is about suspending your habit of installing yet another app and instead upgrading your entire operating system.”
In 2017, I have blogged on the concept of working from the inside-out as a professional coach with my clients and recognise this is the most difficult adult learning path as a learner and practitioner. Just like the Master numbers (i.e. 11) it requires time, maturity, and great effort to integrate into one's personality.
The trend in ‘vertical development’ is not new and for example, one of the quickest ways to gauge a ‘vertical development’ culture with my clients is to examine their Cultural – Strategic sustainable alignment or if my executive coachees’ recognise that their business is full of natural tensions (polarities) that cannot be solved, only managed (how to think both/and as oppose to either/or).
I’ve also had the privilege to complete John Mattone’s Intelligent Leadership (IL) coaching certification in 2017. The executive leadership coaching process ignites and strengthens a leader’s inner-core (inner self) and outer-core (outer-self).
This alignment of the inner- outer selves, working from the inside-out, changes the way that leaders conceptualise their worlds. The outer-core measures the leader’s individual skills and abilities (the what) commonly referred to as leadership competencies, measurable visible, concrete, exterior behaviours (Level 3 Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation for training).
The inner self, your inner core is the heart of the engine (the how) achieving those results – so the inner-self will drive the outer-self. This is one of the man reasons this learning path is difficult because it takes time to align the inner self with the outer self; it takes persistence, courage, determination, will and courage to face one’s woundedness and pain because as human beings we strive for security, shelter, comfort, status-quo …where fear exist there is an absence of love, love is light and light is consciousness.
During the remaining month of January and 2018, I invite you to reflect on what it means to step into your own authentic power - your own powerful, purposeful inner journey through the process of egoic-dissolution:
What’s the meaning of aligning your inner world (i.e. values/beliefs) with your outer world?
How to truly let go of the familiar and step into your highest fulfilling purpose?
How should you cultivate the confidence you need in the face of pressure, criticism and failure?
Have you actively engaged with a leadership coach to help you with this alignment?
Mirrored in the external world as the world ‘you’ live in and the world ‘you’ want to live can bring about its tension and it is this tension of the inner and the outer that will define your Leadership Journey – may I wish you a safe and enriching one during 2018.
"There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way". (Harry S. Truman).
