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Embodied Leadership

by Martin Saville

Do you have the presence of a leader? Do you inspire trust? Do you make good choices
under pressure? Do you create healthy, open relationships? These are embodied qualities
of leadership - they say more about who you are than what you know. But that doesnt
mean they cant be learned.
Over the last few years, I have been working with individuals and groups on precisely
these kinds of leadership issues, using an approach drawn from the world of martial arts.
The approach is called Embodied Leadership and is the brainchild of Richard StrozziHeckler. The key idea is that it is possible to work on who you are through your physical
body.
For example, think about what happens when you are startled. In that moment, you are
most likely flooded with physical sensation - the adrenalin coursing through you or your
heart pounding. Your breathing changes, your musculature contracts, you may literally
jump. Emotion will be there too - maybe fear or anger. Words may pop into your head,
which may or may not be rational. In that moment, to most of us it is clear that our physical
body and who we are are one and the same thing.
What has all this to do with leadership? My point is that the embodied qualities of
leadership - things like presence, the ability to inspire trust and to be graceful under
pressure - are all hugely impacted by what is going on in the body. If we want to change
these things, often the most powerful thing we can do is to make a change physically. (Just
as when you are startled, the best way to calm yourself is to slow down and deepen your
breathing, and consciously relax your musculature.)
So, where do the martial arts come in? At the core of this approach to leadership
development is the idea of being centred which comes directly from martial arts such as
Aikido. When a practitioner of Aikido is centred, her body is in a state of alert relaxation.
Her centre of gravity is low, making her hard to push around. Her weight is balanced, so
she can move quickly in any direction she chooses. Her gaze is soft with wide peripheral
vision and her breathing is calm and steady, so she can anticipate and react appropriately
to whatever comes her way. She has a presence that is both powerful and open.
These qualities are not just useful in a martial context. Because they are qualities of the
self not just of the body, they are equally relevant to leadership. And they can learned and
practised. That is the idea behind Embodied Leadership.

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Another powerful aspect of the Embodied Leadership approach is the way it reveals
peoples individual and collective traits. I use it with teams to help them coordinate more
effectively together. For example, I might give each team member a jo, a four-foot long
staff used in Aikido, and teach them some simple moves that require coordination between
the team members.
As they undertake this activity, someone might be rushing ahead of the others, not noticing
where they are. This might be the team member who acts impetuously in the office without
thinking about his impact on others. Or there may be someone who finds it difficult to give
a clear strike with the jo - the strike should come down straight down the centre line, but
they strike off to one side. This person may find it difficult to be direct or assertive in their
communication.
Its not an exact science of course, but how people are in the activity will say much about
how they are in the world. By creating a connection for people between the way they are in
the exercise and the way they are out in the world, they can see their habitual patterns
more clearly. The exercises also create the possibility of change: by practising another way
of being in the exercise and working with what this brings up for them, participants find
themselves able to embody new leadership qualities and commit to something new.

This article first appeared in London Business Schools Alumni News, April - June 2010
Further Reading
Strozzi-Heckler, R. (2007). The Leadership Dojo: Build Your Foundation as an Exemplary Leader, Frog Ltd,
Berkeley

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