LEAD, follow, or get the hell out of the way

“Gifted leadership occurs where heart and head—feeling and thought—meet.”

Left, meet right.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://neuronarrative.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/left-brain-right-brain.jpg&imgrefurl=http://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/all-the-people-you-are-an-interview-with-author-rita-carter/&usg=__nN

This idea, though very basic, particularly resonated with me.  It astonishes me that our public school system focuses on cultivating our intellect but hardly addresses our emotional intelligence.   Perhaps we would have fewer “problem students” if teachers addressed the emotional states of their students.  It seems to me that in Western culture, addressing the emotional needs of students is separated from the academic standards of development.  For me, it wasn’t until I took a Psychology elective in middle school that I even learned the relevance and importance of our less cognitive selves.  Not only is this a part of our neurological interactions, but it is also critical to our everyday social interactions.

But regardless of whether or not one wants to be a leader, the four aspects of emotional intelligence--“self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management”—are relevant in everyday life.  At least, I saw the Ram Dass elaborates on the idea of “self-awareness,” but more in the metacognative sense.  Instead of thinking about thinking, the idea is to also to think about feeling.  While this initially seemed counterintuitive, it makes sense that in order to check our emotional impulses, we must first recognize them. 

Sor Juana is the embodiment of a leader with "organizational awareness."
http://xuitlacoche.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-dream-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz.html

On another note, the following quote resonated with me:  “Organizational awareness:  A leader with a keen social awareness can be politically astute, [and] able to detect crucial social networks and read key power relationships.”  One particular historical figure comes to mind.  I am studying the poetry of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, perhaps the most famous Latin American poet of the 17^th century.  What continues to astound me about her political and literary legacy is her demonstration of precisely “organizational awareness.”  She lived in a society, which was heavily influenced by the European Renaissance period.  Add this influence to a machista society that already oppressed women and you have a total oppression of Latinas during that period.  She understood the power relationship between men and women, church and state, and between social classes.  This enabled her to strategically maneuver between the different strata of society and get an inside perspective of the oppression she was experiencing.  She demonstrated an ability to be “politically astute” as she recognized the power she would gain by befriending a powerful nun in the Catholic church—perhaps the most powerful institution in 17^th century Latin America.