INsight/ Leaders Serve Others

Guanyin bodhisattva image at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Denver, 15 September 2022 — Transforming into a leader who serves others

Story

It happened in 1947, and it was not the first time she spoke on the radio in a live broadcast. However, the speech she gave on her 21st birthday stood apart from her earlier talks. On this occasion, Princess Elizabeth, unaware that she would become Queen just five years later, used her speech to make a far-reaching vow.  A vow that she has kept during her entire 70-year reign that ended last week. 

Speaking from South Africa, where she was visiting at the time, the Princess welcomed the opportunity to reach out to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth, wherever they lived, whatever race they came from, and whatever language they spoke. Then she made her vow, declaring that her whole life, whether it be long or short, would be devoted “to your service.” A powerful commitment!

This week, the news of the Queen’s passing reached me as I was visiting the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. When I witnessed the museum’s 400-year-old image of Guanyin, the bodhisattva associated with compassion, I reflected on how the vows made by bodhisattvas — people who are on the path towards awakening — had a good deal in common with the Queen’s commitment to a lifetime of service, in a way that can speak to leaders today.

Challenge

Throughout history, some artists have chosen to depict bodhisattvas with multiple faces and arms. In the photo, we see the bodhisattva Guanyin with eleven faces and forty-two arms, manifesting her commitment and ability to observe the suffering in people around her and to reach out to all who need help. Traditionally, the commitment of bodhisattvas has been to serve all sentient beings. Note that this is not limited to human beings and extends to animals, trees, and plants.

In my 21st-century interpretation of the bodhisattva vows, their service spans the spiritual, mental, as well as physical, social, and economic wellbeing of the people they are helping. The classical texts about bodhisattvas refer to a mission to ‘liberate’ others. In my view, such liberation is highly relevant for the challenges we face today, where humans have managed to put our planet on an unsustainable path, marked by unprecedented losses in biodiversity, global warming, and environmental damage. While we have the intelligence and the resources to turn this crisis around, the question is what our attention is focused on: ourselves or others around us.

Leadership in our 21st century goes well beyond the quest for increasing performance in our workplaces. It calls on us to challenge the very directions we are taking individually and collectively. For example, shouldn’t we question the timing of colonizing the moon and nearby planets in our insatiable hunger to exploit more resources while we still lack peaceful, equitable, and sustainable ways of living together on our own planet? We can also see the need for liberation of the mind in leaders who choose conflict over collaboration, deluded by fear or a misplaced sense of greatness. I noticed that men tend to be more vulnerable to falling into this trap than women leaders.

Question

My question for you this week is about taking inspiration from global and local leaders who have committed themselves to a life of service to other people and, better still, to all sentient beings. Who are your role models for compassion and service to others? Helping fellow human beings sort out their priorities will require a shift from an individual focus on performance and profit to an ‘awakened’ collective focus on solving our problems through collaboration — isn’t that the kind of liberation that we can stand for today?

For as long as I can remember, I have taken inspiration from Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to a life of service and her behaviors to execute her commitment. And the more I am learning about Asia’s wisdom traditions that exhort people to choose the bodhisattva path of helping others, the more I come to realize how important it is for us to incorporate these traditions for service into our 21st-century leadership practices to grow leaders and bring positive change to our workplaces and our world. 

In the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth and countless bodhisattvas, the way to take these inspirations forward is for you to make a personal choice for your life, embracing the value of service and committing yourself to practice effective leadership behaviors every day and every week. Can you start to see yourself in the image of the Guanyin bodhisattva with many arms and faces? While living as a 21st-century bodhisattva is easier said than done, it is a call that each of us can answer by deciding to liberate our minds and transform ourselves. Our planet urgently needs more leaders who decide to live a life of serving others. Contact me on LinkedIn if you have questions about this.