Ginny Whitelaw, author of The Zen Leader, discusses what lead her to write this book.

“Once is a mistake, twice is stupidity.” My siblings and I heard that many times from our dear father. In his orderly, controlled life things were always very black and white. Once a pattern was learned we did not vary our response. Things were absolute and this served us well for many years as we matured into adulthood.

Last week I was at an intensive Zen training and did the opposite of what I normally do.  Normally I bring Zen meditation and physical elements into leadership programs to accelerate “walking the talk” of learning. Last week I was asked to bring leadership skills to Zen trainees. What a wonderful experience! It showed me again why Zen and leadership belong together: not only does Zen take leadership to a new level, but leadership brings Zen into the world where it can do some good. It also showed me how the skill side of whole leadership – e.g., being strategic yet operational, results focused yet engaging people – paradoxical as it is, is still the easy part. The hard part is getting out of our own way, and that’s where Zen comes in.

Why Zen leadership and why this blog? Zen and leadership belong together. Zen brings leadership to its enlightened best, without the fears and smallness of ego getting in the way. Conversely, leadership brings Zen into the world where it can do the most good.  Zen Leadership is not some model “out there” for you to emulate.  Rather it is your own boundless, creative nature expressed in a way that adds value and inspires others to a better place. The Zen leader in you emerges through what I call “flips” in consciousness that transform your sense of self from separate to connected and, ultimately, one-with-everything.  Along the way, these flips radically reframe leadership, for example from coping to transforming, from driving results to attracting the future, from the confusion of delusion to whole and awakened leadership.