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“How do you connect to your heart?”
In a recent presentation on the linkage between brand and leadership, I emphasized the need for leaders to connect to their hearts. Becoming a contemporary leader means putting humans at the middle of everything. If you are disconnected from your own heart, it is virtually impossible to do this. Largely because the first human you are leading is yourself.
During the Q & A portion, a man in the audience sincerely and vulnerably asked “so how do you connect with your heart?”
This is an extended version of what I shared with him …
First, some backdrop. Connecting to my heart is a new thing for me. I was largely influenced by two prevailing forces in my life: ranch life and Christian fundamentalism.
In ranch life, there’s not much credence for feelings or emotions — other than anger or humor. This is understandable. The days are long. The work is hard and often dangerous. The risks are huge. While you have a lot of alone time on the back of a horse or on a tractor, most of that was just being with your own thoughts.
In Christian fundamentalism (of which I was a part of for 40+ years), connecting to the heart is considered dangerous. Despite Jesus’ teachings to the contrary, the strong message was that our hearts are fickle, unstable and unreliable. You are supposed to let Jesus in to…
