13: COACHING TO SUPPORT DOCTORAL ROLE TRANSITIONS ■ 303Gods did not ask me why like Moses I did not part the Red Sea. Nor did they
ask me why like Gandhi I did not go on a hunger strike for people. Nor did
they ask why like Rosa Parks I did not refuse to go to the back of the bus.
They asked me, ‘Zusia, why have you not been more like Zusia’?” (Hassidic
Stories, 2010)
The lesson from Zusia’s gods is that we must be our authentic selves. We do this by
increasing our self-awareness in many domains and summon the courage to bring our
true selves into our leadership tasks.
Leadership consciousness translated into the tasks of leadership will involve
attention to a legacy one can be proud of, a focus on long-term gains over short-term
successes, consideration of what benefits the most amount of the people, and about
the wellbeing of those who inherit the earth (Barret Values Centre, 2009). Leadership
consciousness speaks, in addition, to the interior life of the leader—a state of being
that is mindful of and quests to merge individual meaning with community benefit.
David Whyte (2007), a poet who spent a chapter of his life as an organization con-
sultant, said “We cultivate an inner life knowing that what is most important to us
must be spoken and made real in the outer world” (p. 142). The route toward devel-
oping leadership consciousness will vary for each DNP according to individual style
differences, histories, cultural backgrounds, age, gender, and work contexts, but this
will always involve increased awareness in the multiple domains described in the
following.
■ DOMAINS OF SELF-AWARENESS THAT CONTRIBUTE
TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEADERSHIP CONSCIOUSNESS
We, ourselves, are the instruments of change. We therefore need to know who we are
and who we are not. This means insight into our gifts and talents, how to use them,
what blocks their potency, and what support and guidance we need for further devel-
opment. It means knowing how we differ from others, that we cannot be all things to all
people, and that we have limits to our gifts and strengths. Once we are clear and accept
who we are and who we are not, we can move forward to actualize our leadership po-
tential and our leadership consciousness.
AWARENESS OF PERSONAL STYLES AND STRENGTHS
Many cultures throughout time have created systems for mapping different character
types. Land-based cultures—those that are literally dependent on geography, seasonal
changes, and weather—have traditionally differentiated people by how they represent
qualities of the seasons and the directions of the earth. These divergent qualities, when
put together, reflect balance and harmony with the environment. The ancient Celtics
from Ireland and Scotland referred to the Wheel of Seeing (MacEowen, 2007) and many
Native American peoples refer to the Medicine Wheel to reflect archetypal ways of be-
ing in the world (Arrien, 1993). These two different cultures, developed thousands of
miles away from one another, have astonishing parallels in identifying the character
types. When we translate these types into our modern way of thinking, they describe
four archetypes as follows: the Leader, or Warrior , represents the North; the Visionary