100 Days of Doing Power Differently: Change Your Leadership, Change The World

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From media to movies, from the courtroom to the boardroom, to virtually every corner of corporate and political America, evidence has been presented to show us that power is being demonstrated with alarming toxicity and complicity. I think many of us are ready to change that.

But how do we put action behind that commitment? How do we begin to reconstruct the idea of power? Whether we have been abused, the abuser, or a bystander, how do we redefine what it means to be “in power” and what power is allowed to do? How do we all agree that while there have been victims and victors, the silenced and the silencers—that society at large has played a supporting role in an unfolding drama about power? In addition, how do we acknowledge that while sexual impropriety has received most of the attention, that abuse of power extends to much more than those victims—and includes widespread emotional abuse? How do we wake up more powerfully to our individual opportunity in this saga?

Rather than dig deeply into sociological or psychological analytics of the role each of us and society play in this display of power, this guidebook offers a way for each of us to personally own individual impact and explore our own individual understanding of leadership and power in our lives. It invites us to examine the subtle and overt ways we all have adopted the belief system that permits the abuse of power and guides us to implement a new version of power in our various domains. To help with that exploration, the guidebook starts with a new model to use when thinking about power and follows it with daily reflections to assist in the personalization of that model. Most importantly, it grants all of us the opportunity to determine how our own unique personal power will show up in this world going forward.

We have followed this structure because it has been our experience that many leaders want to impact the world in a positive way that redefines power but we often lack the language and structure to combine the external knowledge provided by the world and the internal wisdom living within us. Also, leaders are often embroiled in massive day to day activity that obscures the opportunity to build time to a practice of mindful leadership. It is our intent that committing to this 100 Day Program will provide the structure and language to transcend those obstacles.

Many of us will have resistance to the notion that we actually have a position of power or have a role to play in redefining it in this moment of history. However, whether you are an executive or a supervisor, a church leader, a teacher, a coach, a director or anyone who exerts control or influence over another person’s life, you have the opportunity to help redefine what it means to be a leader and what it means to be in power. Isn’t that exciting?

We believe that there has never been a better time to redefine and reinstitute power than today. We know that you picked up this guidebook because, somewhere deep in- side of you, you want to be a part of this great movement of reinventing power. You understand it will require your commitment and your courage, but you know it will be worth it. Together, we can create a world that does power differently—and establishes a shift in consciousness that ultimately returns us to our full humanity. Is there anything more important?