To help leaders create their leadership models, we designed a process tailor-made to facilitate joyful discovery: The 6-step Blueprint process. Each leader’s model represents a series of “aha” moments about what matters most to them, what they value, and how they want to show up for others. These models are visual representations of a system, composed of concepts and practices, which leaders use to help other people-and themselves-understand their approach to leading. Among other things, we guide people through the messy but rewarding process of developing their own personal leadership models. This thinking deeply informs our work at ConantLeadership. We only have to train our minds to be both curious and prepared. They can be desired events that we seek, and create, with intention. With the right mindset, ‘aha!’ moments do not have to be rare, incidental marvels that happen to us. The same magic is available to any one of us. The real epiphany occurred afterwards, because he hungered to know the world better, to turn something hazy into something clear. His ‘aha!’ moment didn’t happen when the apple fell from the tree-that was merely the impetus, a point of confusion where he encountered something he didn’t understand. Newton’s story shows us that we don’t have to wait for miracles in order to experience the jolt of revelation. Even Newton’s discovery was not instantaneous, it required some probing. And, they demand that we meet life’s questions with openness-a willingness to see where they lead. Legend tells us that Isaac Newton was lazing under an apple tree, with no intention of having a “eureka!,” when an apple fell from the sky, bonking him on the head, and prompting him to wonder, “why do things fall straight down, instead of upwards or sideways?” That simple question led him to develop the law of universal gravitation.ĭay-to-day, for most leaders, eurekas don’t generally fall from the sky they need a little coaxing. In the popular imagination, ‘aha!’ moments are stumbled upon accidentally. Then, something unexpected-an insight from a book, a lyric in a song, a passing comment from a friend, an observation on a walk etc.-careens into our consciousness at just the right time, in just the right way, activating our synapses and helping us draw connections that create newfound clarity for how we live, lead, relate to other people, and make sense of a senseless universe. Often, an ‘aha!’ moment follows a period of confusion or murkiness, when we’ve been stuck or wrestling with a problem. On a globe rife with turbulence and disarray, any taste of clarity is a welcome treat. These eurekas, while sometimes elusive, are such a delight because they help us understand both ourselves and the world better. Have you ever experienced the elation of an ‘aha!’ moment? An ‘aha!’ moment is a miraculous little pocket of discovery when seemingly disparate things in life finally gel together in a way that just makes sense.
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