To what they need be responsive, however, doesn’t result in such general agreement.

There was a time when responding to market and customer need for excellent products and services was enough. Those simple times are gone.

Responsiveness in today’s world of chaos and complexity includes the underlying tapestry upon which business is done: the environment; culture and society; exponential change in technology, world economy and regulatory pressures.

Yet it seems that most of the change that’s occurred in the way businesses are managed has come only fromtrying harder using the same old rules.

It is no surprise that this approach has met with more frustration, stress and control than it has with meaningful change.

What is perhaps less obvious is that the worst casualty of this “fight with life” is the human spirit.

The one thing that could save and redirect corporate success has been relegated to the back seat, or maybe the trunk, in most organizations.

The loss of human spirit, in life and in work, is easy enough to explain intellectually. Although our spirit is, and always has been, right there inside us, we traded it in somewhere along the way for the promise of something “out there.”

We’ve been engaged in a rather desperate pursuit of what we think will bring us success and happiness in life, unaware that our desperation is leading us nowhere, and certainly unaware that the true answer is inside us.

Like Dorothy, we must need to take the journey to Oz in order to know that what we want has been at home all along.

Here are ten paths toward leadership that you might follow in your own life, as a leader of one person (your own life), two people (your relationship), ten people (your family or your work team) or a thousand people (your company or your community). It all starts with a new way of being.

Leadership is about “being,” not about position in a hierarchy. Each of us has access to all these paths, all the time. No one path compromises another; each produces positive benefit for everyone.

Because each one is a pursuit to be lived, not a task to be handled, you’ll never be truly “done,” because there is no place to go.

But together they will make you a leader in life, no matter where you go or with whom you relate. There is perhaps no greater legacy to leave behind than that you have truly lived. It all feels simple in a way. And, in a way, it is.

So then, how might you become the leader of your own life? Simply by letting go of the chase, and by listening to your own spirit as the guide for your journey through the uncharted territory of life.

As you do this, you’ll not only notice a huge shift in the quality of your life, but you’ll notice that your presence will command the attention of others, naturally and without effort.

Let’s look at the person who lives from this authentic, inner, source -- the human spirit. What does he or she look like? “Spirit” is about how you choose to see and experience life; it is not about your belief system.

Those who are living their spirit are just in touch with an inner rhythm, an inner message that guides their life in a way that is simple, clear, meaningful, productive, and easy, all at the same time.

The Human Spirit -- in Action

• Know yourself very well. The way we think, and therefore the way we take action, is based in our deeply held assumptions and beliefs about life. We are generally not conscious of our belief system, so it influences us without our knowing.

  Commonly, our belief system is based in fear, because it developed as a protection mechanism. This makes control the focus of our life, to keep fear in abeyance. Beliefs create “automatic thinking,” which becomes the way we respond to everything.

  The way to change this is to explore your assumptions, probably for the first time. You can do this just by becoming an observer of yourself.

  Getting to know yourself allows you to replace fear-based beliefs with love-based beliefs. Self-knowledge is the antidote to fear. Without belief in yourself, the world will always be a scary place. But without fear, there is freedom.

  You can use the natural inquisitiveness that you’ve had since childhood to direct your curiosity inward, and become a student of yourself.

  Stop looking “out there” for life’s answers. Self-awareness will lead you to honesty with, and respect for, yourself, which will in turn lead you to an unshakable belief in others.

• Assume personal responsibility. It’s common to not accept personal responsibility for everything that happens to us. It’s time to change that.

  You can simply decide that only you are responsible for what happens around you. You are responsible, not just for what you say, but for how you are heard.

  You can decide to always speak your truth, with compassion, even when it is hard or uncomfortable.

  You can decide to stop taking things personally; they rarely are personal, anyway; and to stop making assumptions about the actions of others. You can decide that attitude is your choice, not a function of life’s circumstances.

  You can choose to live “an attitude of gratitude” toward the life you’ve been given, and accept the learning and growth it offers.

  You can decide to do as you say, always, and to do your best work. All of these changes have the phenomenally powerful effect of shifting your reference system, or how you evaluate your life, from external, one based on the opinions of others, the need for approval, and what you have, to internal, one based on your own self-knowledge, personal responsibility, and who you are.

  The authenticity of your being will be an inspiration, not just to yourself, but to others around you. Personal integrity creates a force field around you, of aliveness, creativity, energy and freedom. In integrity, you feel happy for no reason.

• See the bigger perspective. Often, we spend our lives responding to the events of life, those things that happens around us. Rarely, however, do these represent things that matter most to us.

  What’s far more important than life’s events is the recurring pattern in those events; here we find the underlying meaning in life.

  No matter what is happening in your life, the view is very different when seen from a bigger perspective. For every situation life hands you, take one step back.

  How would you respond if you were watching this situation as a movie, for example? When you separate yourself from the “stuff” of life, you will begin to live from a perspective of “What’s possible?” or “What is this trying to teach me?” instead of from the more common perspective of “What’s wrong now?”

  The truth of life is that underneath the chaos of daily living are both order and harmony that follow the natural rhythm and cycles of the universe. Get into the flow, instead of fighting it.

  Seeing a broader perspective allows you to create and live the ultimate big picture, a life vision, a deep personal belief in something that does not yet exist, but that you could devote yourself to creating.

  This in turn results in a self-discipline that is born of your passion, so that your focus doesn’t go up and down with all the minutia of life. “Always drink upstream from the herd.”

• Develop a thirst for learning. Learning is a life-long pursuit. As a matter of fact, at the spiritual level, the purpose of life is to allow the soul to learn.

  If we could allow life’s events and situations to teach us, instead of to be a problem for us, life would get easier overnight.

  Stuff happens. It’s about how you respond that matters. You can choose to respond by adopting a “culture of learning” in your life.

  Like nature, you can choose to move only in the direction of what works. True learning asks you to change who you are, at the level of being.

  True learning is about building a sustained capacity to create in your life, and is an ongoing commitment. An important part of this is to master language skills.

  All our actions happen in language; it is the only tool we have as humans to get things done. This means speaking, listening, critical thinking, the science of distinctions.

  Can you take full responsibility for learning how to think, speak, listen and respond in a way that everyone around you, including you, grows? Language is a new opportunity to take fuller and richer responsibility for who you are and how you relate.

• Orient life around your passion. What do you care deeply enough about that you could devote your life to it? If you don’t know, it’s worth the process of inquiry and discovery.

  The answer lives inside you; it’s not something you have to go out “in search of.” To discover your passion in life is to get in touch with your soul’s purpose for being here.

  To design your life around your passion is to honor your soul’s journey, and to bring your own life into congruence with your soul; this creates the most amazing peace you could ever find.

  To do anything else is to willingly sign up for a continued fight with life. Once you have absorbed and acted upon many of the ideas presented here, you’ll find it no surprise that the passion you discover inside you will center around making a contribution to the lives of others.

  For it is here that you might best honor your soul’s journey of learning and growth; herein lie fulfillment and meaning in life. If you want a quick entrée into your passion, start asking what you’d like to have others say about you at your funeral. Then ask yourself if they’d say that today. If not, get moving.

• Live in the present moment. Anything that happens in life happens in the present moment. Think about it; you can’t have something happen to you in the past.

  But if your attention in life is not in the present moment, then you miss out on everything that is real.

  And for most of us, attention is focused on the past, fueled by anger, guilt, or resentment over what didn’t happen for us; or on the future, fueled by anxiety about what hasn’t yet occurred.

  If none of your attention is left for complete awareness and experience of the present, you miss it all. With a deepening knowledge of yourself, you will be more capable of being present.

  And the more you live in the present, the more you will see your mind before it has impacted your choices.

  From this place of fresh awareness, you will make new choices, ones that are (1) conscious, and (2) based in self-respect and love, not fear. Being in the present allows you to be relaxed and genuine; you are no longer worried about stuff you can’t change, past or future.

  This concept will allow you to redefine your notion of time. Once you master the present moment, time unfolds into a flower of possibility.

• Manage the process of life, not the outcomes. You may think you can control your life. After all, that’s probably one of the beliefs that lay hidden in your unconscious.

  The truth is that you can’t. Life happens to you in a way that allows you to learn and grow the way your soul needs to. You don’t choose that. What you can control is how you respond to whatever happens in life.

  Here you have the choice to learn and grow, or not. Stop trying to manage outcomes; instead, manage the process of life. The world is chaotic and uncertain.

  But the underlying order and meaning of life can be viewed as a process, one that follows nature’s simple rules. Nature herself has no agenda, and isn’t trying to achieve anything; she has only an exquisite process for creation and sustainability.

  Letting go of your control allows you to be more resilient, adaptable, and more genuine with your truth. This, in turn, leaves you a gentler person, because it is the passion of your words that carry your power, and not your fears, opinions or worries. And that opens you to accomplish far more in life -- of what you truly care about.

• Trust in a higher power. There is an underlying rhythm in our lives. We have the choice to (1) recognize it, which we can when we become observant and more peaceful, and (2) go with its flow, by aligning our intent with the natural harmony under the chaos.

  These laws are universal, and are at work whether we flow with them or fight with them. Why make life hard when you can make it easy? Yes, there is pain in life.

  There is loss; there is sadness. Hiding from these things doesn’t change their existence.

  Get in touch with the flow, and then get over yourself. Once you do this, you will naturally open up to intuitive power you already possess. Intuition is what lives in the gaps between our ordinary thoughts; it arises out of the void. But if there is no void, intuition cannot flourish.

  Quiet time allows you to step out of your beliefs, and opens you to the power of another sense, one you can more deeply trust than any of your five senses. Believe in the universe.

• Take care of yourself. Now that you have come to know yourself, believe in yourself, and see that you are a part of something so much bigger than yourself, you can use this perspective to know the value in caring for yourself.

  Contrary to the commonly-held belief that taking care of self is “selfish,” it is actually the way in which we regenerate ourselves and our energy, so that we may continue to do the work we are here to do, and to be the person we are here to be.

  Find balance in yourself, in the areas of physical care (exercise, diet, relaxation), mental care (learning, visioning, problem solving), spiritual care (meditation, solitude, laughter, play, sacred time and space), andemotional care (connecting with others, nurturing, relating).

  Caring for yourself allows you to connect with yourself more deeply, which allows you to connect with others in a way that shares the real you, honestly and authentically.

  It also allows you to find a “pace” at which you can sustain your life of meaning and purpose, a pace at which you never lose yourself.

• Practice every day. Living authentically is a life-long pursuit, made up of ongoing inquiry, reflection and action. But as in sports, competence doesn’t come without practice.

  And excellence doesn’t come without more practice and a deepening commitment. A little practice each day goes a long way. And it’s not about “getting it right” each day; you won’t always do that.

  What it’s about is continuing on the path each day, always releasing self-judgment, and always maintaining the discipline of the warrior spirit who wants to be the best at what he or she does.

  It’s about intention. It’s about rituals, everyday practices that reinforce who you want to become. One way you might set your intention in life is this: “I want to be, live, work, and relate to others ‘as one’.” How would it feel to you if all the boundaries in your life just melted away, and you could be the same person everywhere, the same person that your heart and your soul want you to be? Ultimate simplification; perfect peace; no fight.

I was stuck for years in the picture I painted in the introduction. I can tell you that adopting new life principles hasn’t been easy. But I can also tell you that, after a lot of work, and an ongoing commitment, my life is happier, more fulfilling and meaningful, more productive, less stressful, and more at peace.

Others notice. So do I. And I didn’t have to turn myself into someone else to do it. All of it was already inside me, as it is inside you. All it takes is believing and behaving as if it were already true. Before long, it will be.

Helen Keller said, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.” You can choose to live a daring adventure (or nothing at all).