Leadership on the Line

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Sacred Heart

Exercising leadership is an expression of your aliveness. But your life juice—your creativity and daring, your curiosity and eagerness to question, your compassion and love for people—can seep away daily as you get beat up, put down, or silenced.

In our work with men and women all over the world, in all walks of life, we have seen good people take on a cloak of selfprotection to insulate themselves from the dangers of stepping out. Self-protection makes sense; the dangers are real.

But when you cover yourself up, you risk losing something as well. In the struggle to save yourself, you can give up too many of those qualities that are the essence of being alive, like innocence, curiosity, and compassion. To avoid getting ...