Enlightening Leadership: Embracing Your Wholeness to Lift Lives and Steward Impact

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor Elise corte Us.

1:04 Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has been brought to you with passion and price since February of twenty fifteen. Thanks for being with us. I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortes. If we've not met and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and logo therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto Now help companies to enlive and in fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture and inspirational leadership activated by meaning and purpose. You can learn more about how we can work together at gustodashnow dot com or my personal site at least Coortes dot com. Before we get into today's program, I'm thrilled to announce that registration is now open for a fabulous new conference for women for which I'll serve as the MC. Is called Thrive in twenty five and is a jam packed few days in Chicago, June twenty fifth through to twenty eight, twenty twenty five.

1:47 Design to develop women as whole selves, from bolstering your mindset to your financial acumen, to leadership, to incorporating nature and art in your life to raise consciousness and much more. Visit to Thrive dat n twenty five then number dot com for more information and to register. Use my promo code of Gusto all caps DEA and access to free books and programs. I'll be gifting registrants. See you there getting In today's program, we have with us SHOCKT. Dudley, who has established herself as a trusted transformational leadership consultant, intuitive life coach, and spiritual guide offering a holistic approach to authentic, conscious leadership and life mastery. Also with us as Alan Prushan, a season professional with over thirty five years of experience in sales, management, leadership and consulting, and is a business mystic, blending experience, skills and wisdom to disrupt the thinking and stir the souls of leaders. We'll be talking about their work together helping to cultivate enlightened leaders.

2:42 Alan and Shocktee, welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you, Thank for having us. So great to have you on the other side of my mic. I loved reminiscing with both of you about our work together some years ago when we were all together at a consulting company. And that is where I like to say I picked you up along the way in life. Very terrible exp. It's really it's an amazing thing to sing called life. So happy to have you here and get to talk about what you're doing together. It's so great. So we'll get into that. But because our listeners and viewers don't know you the way that I do, let's have you each to share a little bit about your background and then what brought you together for this new venture.

3:23 All right, Well, I've been in the field of transformational leadership for forty five years now, and for thirty of those forty five years I really worked on a separate path to work with clients in their spirituality, and I have been looking and searching for a way to bring those two together, leadership and spirituality. And a few years ago, through Alan's and my relationship and working together on other things, I just had this vision of that union between spirituality and leadership. Started to talk to Alan about it, and here we've went to work on it two years ago and here we are launching the Enlightening leaders Journey.

4:12 It's fantastic, very exciting. Yeah, so my path is a little different, you know. I've spent my whole career working with the c suite literally from the CFO, the CIO to the to the CEO, and I have a very you know, global mindset, view of the world. And while I have some similar training in background to Shokti, I have also spent a fair amount of time in leadership development. So when Shocte came to me with this idea about integrating what we call the oneness of spirit and leadership, it was a natural for me to say yes to because you know, I'm very much like many of the people that we endeavored to serve inso much as they are our business focused first and the spiritual side has oftentimes been in the backseat.

5:09 Well, I'm going to comment on that in just a second here of it. Before I get into that, I do want to have you presence what you are doing together at Enlightening leaders and how that really came to be. Why Why aren't we called, I don't know, Majestic leaders or something like that. Why Enlightening leaders. Well, we really looked very consciously, and you know, us the least, we're very very conscious and aware of language and the power that language and the energy that language contains. So we looked at enlightened leadership. We looked at all kinds of names, but we really wanted an adjective that had it be alive and present in the moment enlightening leaders, So enlighten enlightenment it really points.

5:58 To obtaining you've obtained a. Certain level of wisdom in your spirituality, and it enlightens your path and enlightens your way. And we wanted enlightening leaders to really be about reawakening the oneness in today's leaders and shifting consciousness from separation to oneness and bringing that to leaders because we see that it's time to see spirituality in leadership as one and not as separate. M The only thing I've add to that, Alise, is we were very intentional, as shocked he said, to use the word enlightening versus enlightened. And the reason for that is the more one pursues being enlightened or enlightenment where they realize there's a gap from where they are to where they could be. So we never actually attain ENLiGHT being enlightened. You know, it's that It almost from my own personal experience. The more I see myself as becoming enlightened or you know, experience enlightenment, the more I realize how much further I have to go? Right right?

7:23 What self actualization? Absolutely? Yeah, never ending ceiling if you. Will, exactly, And we didn't want people to believe there was a place to get to. Okay, I like that, you know, I like that. Now is let me hear you say a little bit about why, what your perspective is on why you think the world needs more enlighten leaders. And I think even I'm starting to sense that you you feel like people are ready for this or maybe wanting this. So what is it that's what's what's happening in the world that makes you think we need more of these enlighten leaders? And I tend to agree, by the way, Well, I'll start that. I mean, if you look at what the societal changes that are actually impacting our world today, you know, with the impact that social media has and that the small person has a bigger voice than they ever had before, what you can see is that people are clamoring for change, whether it's the LGBTQ community or you know, the me Too movement or other marginalized groups in society and in the workplace. People wanting to be in environments that are representative of who they are, what they're about, and as you pointed out in the in the heading of your show, is being up to something bigger than themselves. It requires a different type of leader to lead people that are interested in that right, and whether even when we look

8:56 at like the wars that are going on around the world and how people are aligning with different groups of people in those spaces, they're actually saying the status quo and how we've dealt with these things in the past is no longer acceptable. And so what that means is the leaders need to change. So you could say it's being forced upon the leaders from the bottom up. Yeah, well said, that's quite insightful. Insightful, and I do agree with that. And what's amazing to me in this wonderful arena called Working on a Purpose podcast is I have had several guests on my podcast over the last several years, so there's a coalescence around this idea. I mean, just recently, I've had Steve Ferrell on my program and he is all about this idea of oneness and they started this organization called Humanities Team. It's all about celebrating and embracing the idea of oneness. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had yoc amrem On and he's all about spiritually intelligent leadership. The last chapter of my last book, The rib realization is on spiritual intelligence in the workplace.

10:01 I mean, so I'm just seeing more and more people who are coming to very similar ideas about what they want from themselves, for the world, for their organizations, and I'm very encouraged by that, as are we. And the other thing that I would say to add on to what you've both just said is that if we look at what's happening in the world, of course, in organizations, in families, in relationships, particularly with leadership around the world, the consciousness of humanity right now is one of separation, and that consciousness is causing an enormous amount of suffering. So there's a growing demand for spirituality in both our personal and professional realms, and leaders and employees are alike, and people in their lives are seeking deeper meaning and connection in their work in their lives, and they're yearning, they're yearning for an awakening to happen, to shift out of consciousness and into oneness. And that's going to require a profound rethinking of what leadership means and how it's practiced.

11:18 Mm hm. You know one of the things that I find amazing, So I know we do similar work together, so it's just it's a sacred thing to get to do this kind of work with people, you know, to be in that tender space with people on their level, under their journey of development. And at the same time, what I'm very primy to is that many people overestimate how well developed they are. In fact, I have something I do in my workshops now. I have a brand new book coming out later next probably next year, and a course along with it. It's really about nurturing higher consciousness and deeper emotions, and so I use David Hawkins's Map of Consciousness to be able to kick that course off. And I asked fordispants to guess where they think they are from zero to one thousand on that keeping in mind that the average to well a few years ago he would say it was two hundred and seven. People tend to estimate that they're at four hundred or five hundred, and it's amazing, right. So it's just there's so much work to be done and so much opportunity. So could you speak to this notion of there's there's opportunity and that people do tend to overestimate just how far along they are.

12:23 So it's an very interesting thing. You point to, and it actually points back to something that we just spoke about, which is the more we pursue something, the more we realize how far far away we are from what it is that we're pursuing. Right, So, I think what you're pointing to is really the difference between you know, somebody who's not necessarily as it relates to this conversation all that much on an enlightening journey of their own. They just think they are. And so for us, we really this offering, this community that we're creating is really focused on senior leaders who already recognize that they have a strong connection to spirit and have their own spiritual journey that they're on, and yet they feel that they can't integrate it with their leadership. It seems like they're separate and distinct from each other. And that might be because of how we were raised in the corporate world, you know, in an old paradigm, and that these things shouldn't intermix. And so the people that end up, you know, engaged in the conversation that Chocdy and I are engaged in here with this enlightening leader's journey, are really people that are already on a journey and Chucky, and I can think about a client that we work

13:55 with right now who literally says his calling is being a servant leader, and he is, there's no question about it, and yet there's still a very large gap for him, right So I don't think that in his case, he would overscore himself because he engages with us, he works with us, he recognizes there's a big gap for him to cover. And so. I think it's more a function of people who aren't necessarily on that path that would likely overscore themselves than people are already on the path.

14:37 Yeah, that makes complete sense, complete sense. Now for our listeners and viewers are maybe new to this whole idea of this enlightening path, pursuing a path of toward enlightenment or being enlightening in my world of course, spiritual intelligence, inspiracial leadership, what might they be recognizing in their life if they're not on the path already, what might be happening for them that might be an indication that there could be an opportunity to step into this path that you're helping to. Stewart won't need like symptoms for them. Well, it could be a variety of things. At least they could be suffering. You know, they could feel this divide in themselves and not know how to wrestle it or how to tame it. They could be lonely. You know.

15:26 One of the myths of leadership is that it's lonely at the top, not as an enlightening leader, but in lead and the traditional paradigm of leadership, it could be thought to be lonely at the top, and that they're looking for connection and don't know how to find it. Or they are recognizing that they are on the path, but they're missing distinctions. They're missing the energy that they need to really catapult themselves and their organicization forward, and they're looking for guides, They're looking for mentorship and people that can support them on their journey.

16:11 I would add to that, there's what I what we'd like to call a healthy discontent with the way things are in their life. Right. So, you know, the leaders that we're talking about, you know, the big dreams, big goals, big aspirations, and yet they feel a discontent between where they are and what they envision for the future. M HM. Beautiful way to open the possibility for those who are listening that this might be something for them. Let's take our first break. I'm your host, doctor Releas Cortes. When I were shocked you, Doctor Dudley and l impression of enlightening leadership. We've been talking a little bit about their perspective of why the world needs more enlightened leaders and how you might recognize that this might be a journey for you. After the break, we're going to start talking about some of their attributes of enlightened leadership. We'll be right back.

17:12 Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

18:04 Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, Doctor Lee's Cortes, as I am dedicated to help me create a world where people realize their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business that betters the world. I keep researching and writing my own books, so my last one came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating meeting and Purpose can radically enliven your business. And I wrote it to help leaders understand the nature of today's workforce and what they really want from their employers. And then I offer twenty two best projects to help equip them to create the culture to provide that. You can find more about my books at my websites at Leascortes dot com, Gustadeshnoud dot com or on Amazon if you are just now joining us. My guests are Alan Prushan and Shakti Dudley of Enlightening Leaders. They're offering design for business leaders to embrace and integrate their spirituality into their lives, their leadership, and their businesses, which is what we're talking about today. So I would love for us to dive into as many of the of the attributes that you that you have. We probably won't get to all of them, but I would love for us to distinguish as we can as best we can, so people start to see what's the promise of this? What does this look like and smell like and taste like. So the first one I wanted to start with here is listening, looking, and leisure. What an interesting group of things to put in one attribute.

19:24 Yes, shocky, if you don't mind, I'll start us off. I was you would, thank you. So it's very fascinating. You know, most of us in business get to senior levels of leadership because of our education and then what we're able to demonstrate at work. But in that education, we're never taught really about listening and looking. For sure, and in this context, when we talk about looking and listening, we're not actually talking well, what are we looking and listening for? And to whom? And really what we're doing is looking and listening for spirits guidance. So what that looks like, and I was really prepared to give you an example is you know, when we get into the quiet in a meditative environment or situation, and then we present whatever it is that's top of mind for us and just being in the quiet.

20:22 If we effectively listen for guidance frequently not always, because it's not like on demand, something emerges. And that happened actually for me today as I was sharing with Shakti two nights ago, I think, yes, two nights ago, I was driving home with my son and his partner and my wife, and my wife asked me a question and I overreacted to the situation, and you know, caused an upset for my wife and for me, and I suspect for. My son and his partner. So, you know, morning on Monday, in the quiet, I explored it, and what showed up for me was I need to be accountable for my actions and I need to send an apology to my children and communicate, you know, what was kind of happening for me. And I copied my wife just so she knew that I actually did this, and my wife, you know, first thanked me for doing it, and I said, you're welcome. I just want to be clear, I didn't do it for you. I did it for our children and for me, right and part of it for me is a to be responsible for my behavior but also be and we'll talk about this some more, which is to be accountable and to be vulnerable. And these things are what enlightening leaders do. They don't act like, oh,

21:56 I can't make a mistake, I can't be a week or something like that. And you know, I got really positive feedback from our children. That wasn't my objective. And I literally said, if there's something we need to talk about for you to be complete, please let me know. And it was in part for me to get complete for what happened. So that's the looking and the listening, and the looking is really fascinating because we simply are not trained to look. We are so trained to use our brain for thinking and looking for me is literally closing my eyes and being able. I like taking pictures but using my imagination to create word pictures or pictures of situations in the past, and it helps reveal things to me. And that's what really looking is. And then the last thing is leisure. You know, when I grew up in the corporate world, we didn't vacationing and talking about leisure was not like a big deal. In fact, you know, there was a badge of honor when people didn't take vacations. But the irony of it is is that when we go into leisure, especially, it frees our mind up. We get released from the day to day burdens of our work, and new creativity and inspiration emerges.

23:18 And I love using the example of Richard Branson because he's really known for stepping away from his work and just get to a leisurely environment. And he talks about the level of creativity that gets generated when he does that. And that's what's available to each and every leader by actually stepping away, creating leisure and then looking and listening and we'll see what emerges, right, and listening to our spirit and to the spirit of all that is as opposed to just trying to think things through for ourselves. It reminding me the second show that I ever did, which remember this is now almost nine and a half years ago, is Marty Ruiz, and Marty Ruiz would talk about how he gets divine drop ins, divine downloads right, and so I think that's what you're talking about here is and it's to be present to that, to be available for that. It's just so And I love how you distinguished that hell and that was that was yummy.

24:20 Thank you. So we got to the next one, or do you want to add something shocked. Now, I'll actually tie it into the next one. Okay, So the next one that I just couldn't resist hitting as well, distinguishing between the higher self and the human self. Yeah, so we're very intentional about using this language because we don't No one's ever taught us that, right. We think we're just human beings, but the truth of the matter is we're spiritual beings having a human experience. I love how you quote Chardon on your site. It's fantastic. Yes. And and if we're spiritual beings having a human experience, then I have to look at what does that mean that I'm a spiritual being. So we have this higher self, we have this higher knowing that's connected to the spirit of all that is. And when he talks about divine downloads, those divine downloads come to his higher self, then it's up to his higher self to apply them into his human life. So our human self is our everyday human activities, our mind, our body, our feelings and emotions, and our thoughts.

25:43 But that's not our higher self. Our higher self operates at a much higher level of frequency and vibration to love, to pure love, and to the light of all that is, and we radiate that love through our human self, to ourself into the world. But as human beings, we have so much we have to heal in our own human self, and we can't do that without our higher self. Yeah, we need our higher self to guide us, and that's our intuition. Our intuition comes from our higher self. So it's a higher aspect of looking and listening and integrating our insights into our human choices that we need to make to experience growth.

26:45 You know, that was beautifully rendered. Shockti, and I completely align with you. I've really come to understand that every single human being walking the planet is a walking wounded human and the opportunity is to get present to how to the extent in which we are wounded, and then what are we doing to try to heal ourselves. I think the most dangerous people that I've ever seen, including leaders, are those who are completely unaware of their wounds, and they are throwing so much shrapnel into the world as they thrust themselves about, you know, not realizing that they're really disgressing with a lot of pain. Absolutely, and I think through that pain that people are in and not being responsible for it, they think that their human thoughts and their human feelings is their higher self, right right, just not. And I most people are so surprised when Alan and I help them wake up to who they truly are. Then we have a higher perspective to deal with the human feelings and thoughts because we can't ignore them. Like you said, we have to heal those wounds. But from a place of love, not from a place of separation.

28:00 Enough from the language of humanity per se either or ego and all the things that live in that space one. Hundred percent correct, at least not from there. Yeah, yeah, anything else you wanted to add to that for we go on to the next one. Oh, let's go, let's keep going. Great, all right, Well, this one's really intriguing to me. This idea attribute number three, the wisdom of the seasons. I have some favorite I have a favorite season and we're in it right now. But let's hear about the wisdom of the seasons. Why is why is the fall your favorite season? I lead a little bit about how you do how you describe it maybe a bit different for me is I find myself coming alive in fall. So we have this long, hot summer and then the cooler temperature comes and I feel the sense of I can get down to business kind of thing. And if I look at so many of like my job changes over the years, or when things happen, things get released, it's in the fall, and there's something invigorating for me about that before we go into the you know, the the winter when things get really cold and I feel like you need to hibernate.

29:02 That's for me, that's what falls for me. Well, kudos to you for actually being able to recognize that connection that you have to the seasons. Now, you know, we all have connection to the seasons. When we think of spring as an example, you know, everybody would say, oh, the spring's about rebirth. You know, the plants are coming up out of the ground, the trees are blossoming, and. And that's all true. And what we would say is, okay, Well, if that's true, how does. That apply to business, right? Well, I don't know. So maybe we a great time to launch new projects or new products or new services, give birth to things, just like nature is giving birth to the plants and.

29:52 The trees in our world. So as a leader, we we would. Say that's a good time to mirror what spring represents in our businesses. Where most companies at least do it. You know that businesses are set up by quarters, right, right, and so that we follow this Gregorian calendar, which has nothing to do with the wisdom of the seasons. Nothing, nothing. So if we understand that there are universal laws and principles in each season that give us higher knowing, higher wisdom to then apply into our businesses in our lives, we would rethink how we have things on our calendars and how our businesses are structured.

30:49 I completely agree that our twelve month calendar is quite artificial and it doesn't pay attention to rhythms and such and so very very interesting. And of course as I go on my own journey Shati and Allen, I'm much more present to my knee, my visceral need to be in nature, to be enveloped by nature, to be overwhelmed by its beauty, to be just moved by its beauty. This morning, I ran my six miles with my friend at the at white Rock Lake and just got moved to tears. It was so beautiful, the sun just coming up, just this beautiful orange orb coming up over the water, and I was like, just for me, It's got to be just for me.

31:30 And you know, like right now we're in the late autumn season, and the divine teaching in the late autumn is different than in the beginning of the autumn season, which is about taking stock and inventory and being in harvest and gratitude. But we're now in this tricky part of the autumn season. We're betwixt in between seasons. It's no longer really the beginning of autumn. It's for sure not summer and it's not winter yet, but we're kind of in between the two. And the divine principle what this season teaches us in the late autumn is the principle of death, regeneration, and rebirth. So we have to shed our skin, We have to let go of the leaves.

32:20 The tree isn't trying to hold on to the leaves that are naturally falling, right, Nor does anybody cry because the leaves are falling off the tree. Because we know comes spring it's going to get reborn again. But we don't look at our own lives or our own leadership or our own organizations. What is it we need to shed? What is it we need to let go of that no longer serves us, and allow that to regenerate our spirit, regenerate our purpose, regenerate our power, and relook and listen for what's in the highest and best. It's good to be reborn again. That's just your example.

33:05 So you could say, Elise that when you found that it's the great time that the fall for you personally, has been a good time for you to now these. Are our words, not yours. Shed work situations that no longer work for you. You had an. Intuitive, your spirit had an intuitive knowing this that this was the right time. For you to be doing this, and it was serving you, and you. Were not necessarily conscious. And all we're saying is, well, now you get to be conscious about it. Right, And now I am conscious about it. Yet, it would be so wonderful if leaders really could be taught about the sacred teachings in each season and come to each season with curiosity and wonder, you know, what does this season have to contribute to my life as a human being, as a leader, And how could I bring the teachings of this season into my company and empower my company with these teachings.

34:09 Wow beautiful, really wow is right. Let's let our listeners and viewers just think about that as we take our last break. You think about the power of the seasons. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortes. We are on the air with Shock T. Dudley and Alan Prussian of Enlightening Leadership. We've been talking about a few of their attributes. After the break, we're going to talk about the next one, which is embodying completeness. We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite alease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise send an email to Elise A. Lise at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose.

35:38 Thanksteresting with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. I mentioned in my last break that my LAist book came out in twenty twenty three. It's called a Great Revitalization. What it did for you is I created a simple three page assessment that you can take off my Gusto Dahanel site to determine the extent to which your organization is meeting the needs of today's discerning workforce. You can find it again at gustodeshnow dot com if you are just now joining us. My guests are Alan Prushan and Shakti Dudley of Enlightening leaders Leaders, where they offer design with something for business leaders who enhance and integrate their spirituality into their lives, their leadership and their businesses, which is probably what we've we've been talking about today, especially with them through their attributes.

36:20 So the next one I wanted to cover is the idea of embodying completeness. Now that's a concept that of course all three of us are familiar with, but I would venture to say, most people who are listening to the show are not familiar with it, so talk to us about embodying completeness. Well, yeah, I think a good place to start is, you know, a comment I think at least that you made earlier, that we're all, you know, wounded in some way, shape or form. Right as you said that, I was thinking to myself, could you imagine like closing your eyes and seeing the world and everyone interacting with each other just based upon their wounds. That's in reality, that's what's actually happening. Yeah, And it's you know, it's not a pretty picture that one would see if we you know, now, we all try not to do that, Okay, or I should say most of us try out to do that.

37:18 But what embodying completeness could look like I already started to speak to when I shared my example of my story about the conversation in the car on Sunday night, and then me being responsible by sending an email to my children and to my copying my wife, because I was clearly, clearly my own old wounds were at play with Why I responded the way I did that was my human self, not my higher self, responding to what was happening in the conversation with my wife, and I behaved in such a way that's inconsistent with who I hold myself to be, or I should say who my self holds itself to be. Right, And so I did it as for me for me to be complete with what I did that didn't work, also to be responsible for it, and that I could move on unburdened by what happened in this case in the recent past.

38:20 So the truth of the. Matter is. Lightning. Leaders are always seeking to get complete because we're all human. We all make. Mistakes like the one I you know, my example, And if we don't get complete with the way things were and the way things weren't, we carry that burden forward. Now, imagine if I didn't get complete with my children and then I went out to dinner with them again. Now they're waiting for the next blow up by dad right now. Maybe my son's more used to it, but his partner isn't.

39:01 Do I want her to be seeing me as this you know person that at any point in time is going to explode and make the environment. Uncomfortable for everyone. Of course not. But when I take responsibility, then she knows that I'm actually paying attention. I recognize the impact I had on others. I'm responsible for it, and because I communicated it, I'm not committed to it. So yes, it was for them, and it was every bit as much for me. Right unburden myself from my poor behavior. And you know, Elise, this one is really near and dear to my heart, because we create a very safe space for the leaders that we work with to really hold their pain, for them to unburden themselves and tell the truth, maybe even for the first time, things that they just never dared to say out loud, are things that happened in the past that they've worked on and worked on but just can't seem to get complete. And we have some magic around us through the powers that be and the light that Alan and I listen to and give to others that really give people a safe haven to embrace their own pain and learn. How do

40:32 you forgive and let go of the past in a way that's enlightening and in a way that lifts you up and lifts others up where you can truly truly be complete. And then once you have done that work, how do you then continue a practice of living your life being complete every day because as leaders, we have that responsibility. Yeah, if I could just add, you know's there's something truly magical. We see it, we've lived it. When we're working with a leadership team and they get complete with personal situations that have nothing to do with anyone else on the leadership team, and or getting complete with interactions with other members on that team, it brings seasoned professionals to tears. And I say that not like as a badge of honor, but when you create a safe space, people get to be their authentic selves in a way that simply does not happen in the professional workspace.

41:49 And when they do, what gets created is a level of compassion and collegiality that you cannot create ate any other way. Because it can't be man h in factored. It has to be like when we're willing to truly be vulnerable with each other. I totally understand that and really really appreciate that. And you know, like we've been sort of saying this that I think it really bears seeing out forth right here that I think all three of us are present to just how difficult it is to be a leader today. The spotlight has probably never been stronger on leaders today.

42:30 And as you said at the beginning of the show, I think it was you Allen. Maybe it's just shock you can't remember what Seana said that that this being the force from every one of the reorizations pushing up on the leader to be more or to do more, to you know, be more emotionally intelligent, to be more giving, to be more understanding, to be more communicative, to more, more, more, more, more and more. And I just really want to share an express or for the work that we get to do, to be in the space that we've been talking about, to work with leaders on this really precious journey. It's it's really hard work. A lot people were saying, you know, I'm not going to do this. I'm not. I'm out of a leadership game. This is this is a lot to expect of me, and I appreciate that and support that and those that stay in the game they need help.

43:17 And at least this is what you just said, is exactly why Alan and I are creating the Enlightening Leaders Community, so leaders from wherever can join the community. You know that's private, right, I mean it's public, it's a private community. Behold their heart and be with like minded, like spirited leaders that are on this path to learn about becoming an enlightening leader. You know, that's wonderful. I want I think that's horrific that you've got the community, because one thing that I have certainly heard from people that I work with is, gosh, it can be lonely in that smaller circle or not to have really someone that could really confide in beyond maybe you know who they're working with. So we're getting We're only got like about five minutes left here of the show, so I want to jump to one other attribute in particular here next as we can. And this is something that I've gotten really present to just in my own journey in the last probably three or four years, and that's the idea of everything is interconnected.

44:18 One. If you could speak to that, I'll that's. Shock take the lead. Well. It really points to the universal law divine oneness. And one of the things that the Enlightening Leader's journey makes available to people is teaching the universal laws. And these universal laws elist are the most precious wisdom I have ever gained in my life, and nobody's teaching them in school. You know, I wish they taught these to elementary school and junior high school and high schoolers, but they are ancient principles that have been around since the time began and the underpinnings of everything in life. And the main one is the universal law of divine oneness, which says that everything is connected to everything else. Everything, what we think, what we say, what we do all has a corresponding effect on others, ourselves and the world around us. And leaders really need to rise up to that and really get that. You know, it's not us versus them anymore.

45:37 That paradigm is bankrupt, and we must transform the mindset and transform the culture in our organizations that everyone and everything is connected. And our youth is going to be those pushing us up in the organization because that's really what they demand. They demand connection, they demand interconnectedness. They demand that everything matters, All living things matter. I will even go as far as to say objects matter, nature matters.

46:17 Every single thing is connected. And if we don't realize that, then the universal law of cause and effect will be our demise. You know what I mean by that? That was powerful? I do, yes? Did you want to editing to that? Ellen? No? No, I think Chuckie said it very well. But I think what she just pointed to is, I'll say, people from our generation, okay. Don't necessarily have much connection to the universal laws, and they don't necessarily see that there is a cause an effect to the decisions and choices they make as leaders.

47:04 They just say, well, this is my decision, and then they don't realize that there's a ripple effect. That they may not be able to point from A to B to see that this decision impacted X, Y, and Z. And that's what Shockedy's pointing to. And So if someone in my organization or family or friend circle is suffering, am I separate from that? Well, it's their suffering. No, I am not separate from that, not according to the universal law of oneness. So I'm going to extend my love. I'm going to extend my insight and be of help in any way that I can to aid them in releasing their suffering and coming more into a place of peace and harmony.

47:54 Except in the old paradigm of leadership, if Shocked's purse only suffering in the work in her life, we are not allowed to talk about that in the workplace. We're not allowed to bring. I'm not saying we're not truly allowed, but in the old paradigm, it's not my job as her leader to actually deal with that. But that's just false. And then when she leaves, people wonder, well, why. Did she leave? Well, it's simple because nobody cared about her. They didn't care about the human being. They were so focused on. The task at hand, the results that were pursuing, the impact that we're having on the business, that they didn't tender the challenge that she was dealing with in her life.

48:45 You know, I have a very dear friend that used to. Work for me, and then we're going to We've got like thirty seconds for you to out story help this. And she would say, the best thing that ever I had with you as a leader is that I was able to cry in your office and you always had it for me right, and that it was okay for her to have her experiences in life in my office. That's beautiful. That's the world I want to live in, Alan, for sure. It is. As long as we let our guard down and we do this work, this goes by so fast. You guys, thank you so much for coming on working on purpose. It's so good to see you again and celebrate the work that you're doing. It's so so important. Shock to er for coming on. Don't go away. Let me disclose the show. Listeners and viewers, you're going to want to learn more about Shock to Deadly and Alan Prushan and the work that they're doing together at Enlightening Leaders, So visit their website. It's Enlightening leaders dot com. Once again Enlightening Leaders dot com. Last week, if you missed the live show, you can always catch it be recorded podcast.

49:46 We were on with doctors Christopher Wrong, Michaelson and Jennifer Toasti Karaz talking about their new book, Is Your Work Worth It? How to Think about Meaningful Work? It was a meeting conversation among those three meeting and work researchers, and I dare say it will make you meaning We question how you spend your own working hours and our steward and the experience for those you lead. Next week, we'll be on the air with Jennifer Pastikas talking about the brand new conference we both are part of, which is Thrive in twenty five. I mentioned that at the beginning of the show it's specifically curated to develop the whole woman. Jennifer is one of the organizers and I am proud to serve as the MC. You can learn more about this conference at www dot thrive dash in twenty five dot com and twenty five.

50:27 Is then number. See you then for another inspiring and educational conversation on working on purpose and remember work as one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we create. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance, and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they Craig. See you there. Let's work on Purpose.