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Our brains, a territory yet to be fully discovered, and underutilized.\u00a0 I came face to face with truly understanding how very little we actually know about our own brains as a parent who has had to journey with all three of my children having some sort of neural divergence.\u00a0 My oldest having autism as my first experience as a parent not knowing if what I was experiencing in my parenthood was \u201cnormal\u201d or not?\u00a0 It took until he was 4 and in preschool for them to tell us he was \u201cdifferent\u201d and off we went to testing after testing and waiting over a year for an appointment with a psychiatrist only to hear that he had autism (not a surprise) but also mild retardation (a shocking prognosis to hear honestly) and that he would eventually plateau in his learning.\u00a0 A true Joy sucker punch, and categorically untrue.\u00a0 We then had to wrestle with neural divergence when our second child developed Epilepsy as an infant.\u00a0 It was then when I walked through threshold learning when a brilliant pediatric neurologist at Stanford University noted \u201cwe don\u2019t know what causes epilepsy, we know and understand only a small percentage of the brain\u201d!\u00a0 What?\u00a0 Truly amazing, and yet another sucker punch to the joy center, what are we doing wrong as parents?\u00a0 And then finally last year, after years of holding our breath, to get a preliminary diagnosis of ADHD for our youngest.\u00a0 JOY\u2026. Where are you?<\/p>\n
In Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder book Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People you Lead<\/em>, they dive into how our Fast-Track thinking can help us as Leaders.\u00a0 Earlier in our Doctoral studies, we read Kahnemans Thinking Fast and Slow.\u00a0 <\/em>In this book, Kahneman made the following Distinctions: our \u201cSystem 1 thinking: is fast, unconscious, automatic, effortless, without self-control and does 98% of our thinking\u201d[1]<\/a> and our \u201cSystem 2 thinking: is slow, deliberate, conscious and with self-control\u201d[2]<\/a>.\u00a0 My take on this reading was learning how to take advantage and utilize our \u201cslow thinking\u201d more.\u00a0 It is here where I feel Warner and Wilder tap into perhaps helping us utilize our \u201cfast thinking\u201d in a more efficient way. Warner and Wilder say \u201cour fast-thinking is our right brain, master system, maintains our identity and optimizes engagement\u201d[3]<\/a> and our \u201cslow-thinking is logical, conscious, strategic, problem solving\u201d[4]<\/a>.\u00a0 In first comparing these thinking theories, they seem opposite, but I wonder what it would look like to blend them?\u00a0 I felt in Kahneman\u2019s book he was encouraging us to tap into slow thinking in order to bring about strategy and logic? Did I remember that right? And our fast thinking is where we spend most of our time.\u00a0 This is where, for me Warner and Wilder help us to also, not instead of, tap our fast thinking as well to move into our right brain relational thinking.\u00a0 They introduce us to RARE leadership: \u201cRemain relational, Act like yourself (Authenticity?), Return to joy, and Endure hardship\u201d[5]<\/a>.\u00a0 All of these \u201cchoices\u201d are part of our fast-track thinking!<\/p>\n It is one thing to learn about all these ways to tap into our brain potential and a whole other story on figuring out \u201chow\u201d to tap into these potentials.\u00a0 In Rare Leadership<\/em> the authors addressed in their chapter \u201cwhere to start\u201d to do the following which I found helpful: Imitation, Identity, and Imitation.\u00a0\u00a0 When explaining my doctorate pursuit to others, I find myself educating on the difference between and Ph.D and thesis and a DLd and its project base thesis, it\u2019s taking research and practicing out in the world our thesis.\u00a0 We will spend our lives \u201cpracticing\u201d leadership, and I find that freeing\u2026we won\u2019t perfect it, but in practice we will move closer.\u00a0 In our doctorate we have been encouraged to find a life coach to help us discern.\u00a0 I find that this chapter in Rare Leadership<\/em> helpful when trying to start.\u00a0 Finding our mentors!\u00a0 People who we want to \u201cimitate\u201d[6]<\/a>, and find \u201callies or Identity\u201d [7]<\/a>(those who journey with us), and \u201cintimacy\u201d[8]<\/a> with God.\u00a0 So, in my own words, find those you want to emulate, watch them, follow them, find those who walk with you, who encourage and rally behind, and then retreat, find intimacy with God.\u00a0 These seem like a great survival guide for Leadership.\u00a0 My first true mentor was a husband-and-wife team, Randy and Susan Reese, who were true mentors to me in college.\u00a0 Randy has written a book with the former campus pastor at Bethel College in Minnesota Keith Anderson, called Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction<\/em>.\u00a0 In this the authors state \u201cChristian faith is an imitative faith. It always has been\u201d.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 They note that Jesus begins all discipleship the same way. \u201cWe are forever students: we are forever taught.\u00a0 Each one who hears the words of Jesus, first to follow and then to go and teach others to obey, stands in a long line of disciples that originated with the twelve followers hand-picked by Jesus, the rabbi-carpenter of Nazareth\u201d.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 If we are to lead, we must be lead! First find yourself a good mentor, who do you want to imitate?<\/p>\n For me, the one\u2019s I want to imitate are those who follow RARE leadership.\u00a0\u00a0 I am drawn to those who relational, authentic, return to joy (choose UNSHAKABLE JOY), and endure hardships!\u00a0 As a parent, I feel I have definitely endured hardships and the unshakeable joy of this, is that I have found a way to stand back up, dust myself off, and work as hard as I can to remain relational and authentic!\u00a0 What a beautiful challenge this book brings us!<\/p>\n \n [1]<\/a> www.suebehavioraldesign.com<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> www.suebehavioraldesign.com<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Warner, Marcus and Wilder, Jim. Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy and Engagement in the People you Lead.<\/em> (Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2016) 27.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> \u00a0Warner and Wilder, 26.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid, 46.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid,106.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid, 109.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Ibid, 108.<\/p>\n