Naturally Wild Leadership
Welcome to my blog series! Naturally, I’m pleased you are here. Over the next season, we’re going to explore what it means to approach leadership with a balanced heart and mind connection to authentically connect to, and operate within, your “naturally wild” zone.
Our collective health as humanity is calling out! Let’s honor the call of the wild. In our rapidly advancing digital world, we are disconnecting — mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually, with the natural vibrations that are innate to us. Communities are (some not so) quietly suffering from this distancing from our core nature. Our job as leaders is to reconnect our tribes to their naturally wild and get back into the rhythms of Nature.
From over 20 years in the field of leadership development, my experience is that I find most leaders focus far too much of their valuable leadership energy in a reactive mindset and not nearly enough on the proactive heart space. This thwarts them from thriving in their role.
I believe the path to open the heart is through deepening our relationship with nature and then forming community around our natural connections. All of nature resides deep within each one of us.
Recently, I hosted an Emerging Leaders Networking Event where I introduced:
Dayton’s 5 Truth of Human Nature
1. Great natural seeds of POWER are within you.
2. The only block to your growth is YOU!
3. DISCOVERY of your power is through your HEART.
4. When your power is freed, your true, authentic self emerges, and you enter into your “NATURALLY WILD” zone.
5. Our Naturally Wild zone exponentially expands when planted in a SPIRIT-DRIVEN COMMUNITY.”
Honoring the five truths, I guide emerging leaders to believe in their power, get over — or around! — themselves by identifying the elements of their inner game, enter an authentic heart space, love the process on purpose, unleash their power to create a naturally wild zone, and then join, or build, a spirit-driven community around their mission.
Inspired…Naturally
Do you believe that you live in a really awesome place on Planet Earth? I do.
Living along the central coast of California, I am surrounded by abundant and amazing nature. Daily life here includes a diversity of wildlife, from the many sea creatures of the marine sanctuary to the animals, insects and birdlife of the Los Padres mountains and fertile valleys. Wildlife sightings always excite me to the core. I know that my most authentic voice arises when I’m in nature — where I’m most connected with the power of Universal Source.
It has become my custom to silently focus at the end of each day to express gratitude for one creature that I witness in their habitat. Today, it will be the vibrant green hummingbird that popped up from the rosemary hedge and greeted me this morning. Zipping in and out of my vision in just a couple of seconds, the impact of the hummingbird lasted all day. The message I received was to “be positively productive and in motion.” Perfect!
We can learn so much from our encounters with the natural world. Just in the past season, I have witnessed whales, otters, dolphins, pelicans, owls, hawks, bobcats and foxes, among others. I get this surge of excitement and clarity. When I take the time to pause and allow the moment to truly sink in, that’s when I’m in my naturally wild zone.
I believe that when we connect with our natural environment, we make decisions that resonate with a vibration that emanates from the land and waters; and, this keeps us connected. This may sound like ancient wisdom of our land’s indigenous peoples; and, well… exactly! We know that deeply embedded in our DNA is an intelligence — a nature intelligence.
The Nature Quotient
Just as we have a measureable IQ and EQ, I promote the concept that there’s a nature intelligence quotient, let’s call it The Nature Quotient or “NQ.” When we connect with our true source, we operate in the zone of the “naturally wild”. Here, we are most alive and ready to trust instincts and intuition. This not only makes us better leaders, it further inspires our teams to operate with more creativity and freedom.
When we were children, we often trusted our instincts. We may not have had the full vocabulary to articulate what felt; yet, it was real. Then, as intellect develops, our minds begin to honor “facts” at a higher degree than our natural intelligence. Our trust in our instincts comes only in spurts at best. We blindly miss opportunities to make the natural connections as we spend time in our cars, on planes, in front of monitors, or on one our many digital devices.
Author of The Nature Deficiency and Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv spoke with such clarity as the keynote speaker at the AEE (Association of Experiential Educators) Conference in Minneapolis. Louv’s message resonated deeply. We are now welcoming an entire generation with a Nature Deficit Disorder into leadership positions. We now need this twenty-first century to be the century of human restoration in the natural world.
I see too many potentially positively powerful rising leaders have their confidence in their NQ compromised. Let’s support emerging leaders as they honor their intuitive senses. Our collective health as humanity is calling out!
With a focus on guiding emerging leaders to excel naturally in their first role as a leader, I encourage a developed focus on tuning in to the naturally wild zone. I’m actively coaching this generation of future leaders to honor their own authentic naturally wild zone to connect to their truest purpose.
Together, we are creating a powerful spirit-driven community of authentic leaders for the future.
Whatever ignites your passion, get into the naturally wild zone and live it to your highest human capacity.