What can yoga offer leaders?
Having immersed myself in leadership studies over the last year, I'm struck by the crossover between yoga principles and leadership development. (Also, between yoga and financial planning, but that's a post for a different day!) Why is this important? Because it reminds me that, for those of us who are interested in learning and development, leadership, and professional growth, there are low-cost tools at hand to help scaffold these practices. While the physical practice of yoga can help build both mental and physical resilience, the philosophical principles are also powerful tools for resilience and growth.
The three concepts I'd like to highlight today are satya -- truthfulness; svadhyaya -- self-study; and tapas -- growth through discomfort. These come from a group of principles called the Yamas and Niyamas--guidelines for living.
When I was coaching, I'd tell my athletes "the first rule of rowing is do not lie to yourself or others." (The second was that a little bit of flair never hurt anybody. I stand by both). I also always made this promise to my athletes: I will never lie to you about what I believe you are capable of, or the circumstances we face in each competition. The principle of satya provides the foundation for growth and development. What I wanted my rowers to understand, was that you couldn't improve if you weren't honest with yourself. Do you really want to be here? Does your level of input match your desired output? Do your goals match the team goals? Are you happy? Is this worth it? The questions change--but if the answers aren't honest, you can't move forward. What I also needed my athletes to understand was that I was not asking for honesty that I wasn't willing to give. I apply the same when I teach yoga--it's not up to me to decide what clients want out of their practice. It is my responsibility to show up truthfully and facilitate the space for them to do that as well.
Svadhyaya, self-study, matches the leadership principle that we must work from the inside out. If, as a leader, I'm not willing to ask the questions, do the work, pursue my own improvement--how can I ask that of those around me? Svadhyaya asks that we not confuse contentment (santosha) with stagnation, or complacency. Similarly, leadership is not an arrival, it is a practice. You can be content and invest in growth. You can be content and have goals for the future. You can lead from where you are now, looking forward to where you want to be. Svadyaya--the commitment to self-study, the investment in your own growth and learning, ongoing curiosity--is a powerful quality in a leader. Those leaders who still believe they can learn are honest, and humble. They create trust.
This brings us to tapas, which is growth through discomfort. I could spend thousands of words on this topic, but what is key here is that tapas, the heat or fire of effort, is not the same as self-punishment. If you're a gardener, you know you have to set your seedlings out to "harden off." You aren't trying to kill them. You aren't saying "okay, baby tomato starts, it's May in Spokane--you either thrive or die! Live through pain!" You supply incremental stress to the system so the plant can grow stronger and thrive. When we tell people to "lean into discomfort," we also need to ensure that discomfort is productive, not self-punishment. Or, if we are leading, we need to focus on creating enough system stress for growth--but not so much that the plants don't survive long enough to go into the ground.
These three concepts provide a powerful context for growth and development, for leadership, that is nuanced. It acknowledges the grey areas in which we all work. Sometimes our capacity for discomfort is higher. Sometimes our capacity for honesty has been compromised. Sometimes we've lost the time for self-study. What I like about situating these concepts into a larger conversation--whether about leadership, or coaching, or training, or professional growth--is creating the awareness that you can fill your toolbox in a lot of different ways. Maybe it is going back to school, or hiring an executive coach, or therapy, or ongoing certifications. Maybe it's going to yoga and remembering to breathe.