Lessons from the Mat #2: Again and Again: Leadership as a practice

One thing I’ve noticed about both yoga and leadership is that neither gets easier simply because you’ve been doing it for a long time.

Some days everything feels steady.

Other days the simplest pose feels surprisingly difficult.

Leadership has always felt the same to me.

When I teach Warrior II, I often notice students focusing on the shape of the pose.

The back foot.

The front knee.

The arms.

Eventually, I stop talking about the mechanics.

Can you stay steady while your legs begin to shake?

Can you soften your shoulders without losing your strength?

I’ve realized leadership asks the same thing of us.

Leadership Is a Practice, Not a Performance

One thing yoga continues to teach me is humility.

How I feel on the mat today tells me very little about tomorrow’s practice.

So I return. Again and again.

Over the years, leadership has humbled me in much the same way.

I’ve walked into meetings knowing I hadn’t handled the previous day as well as I could have. I’ve apologized to team members when I realized I’d been too quick to judge. Leadership requires showing up – especially when it’s hard.

Learning to Notice

One thing I’ve observed is that some of the most insightful ideas come from the quietest person in the room. Often it’s not the person that takes up the most airtime and physical space, but the leader that observes, listens…and then speaks. More often than not, they’re also the people who shift the conversation.

These leaders don’t need to have all the answers. They create space for better answers to emerge.

Leading with Grounded Strength

Early in my career, I thought good leaders had the answers. Experience gradually taught me something different.

Good leaders create enough clarity that other people can find answers too. More often than not, the outcome is better than anything I would have come up with on my own.

Over time, I’ve come to appreciate that yoga asks us to be strong without becoming rigid. In warrior poses, you engage, but you don’t strain. You hold firm, but stay fluid.

The leaders I’ve admired most lead the way a yogi practices Warrior II.

Leaders Know When to Pause

One of the hardest things I do in strategy sessions is to resist the urge to fill silence. Silence in a strategy session lasts much longer for me than for everyone else!

I’ve learned that the most important insight in the room often arrives a few moments after everyone becomes uncomfortable.

Yoga made me much more comfortable waiting. It reminded me that discomfort isn’t always a signal to act.

The longer I lead, the less I think leadership is something we master. It’s something we return to. Again and again. Much like the mat itself.