Hunkering down, avoiding close contact with people outside the home, socializing via screens have become daily routine. We are still learning about living this way. It’s not necessarily automatic yet, and likely will never be automatic behaviour. This morning I learned that long held habits die hard. For years I’ve woken up and in my half-sleep, made a pot of English Breakfast tea for my husband and myself. I stopped doing this in April when my husband quit caffeine. I make my tea and his dandelion ‘coffee’. This morning seven months of behaviour was amiss when, in my half-sleep and on auto-pilot I started spooning out the tea as if I were making a big pot to share. “What am I doing?” I thought as I caught myself in the act of an old ritual. Old habits die hard and new habits are hard earned.

All this is coming to mind as I and the Inclusive Leadership Co-operative and people all around the world are thinking about the new year, after the December break. With the vaccine for COVID-19 in our midst, tantalizingly close and whispering the promise of safely stepping out, embracing friends and sharing spaces, we are at risk of launching ‘auto pilot’ mode. I know our old ways of 2019 stretch back thousands of years, and are merely repressed, not gone, just like making a pot of tea to share. So how will all of this impact plans for our coming season?

I’m thinking of balance. January is a classic time to restore balance. Isolation for some might have led to a lack of stimulation. For others shifting work to home and online screen time with colleagues has led to reduced eye movements and burnout. We’ve adopted changes to stay safe during a pandemic and we are still adapting to those changes. As we discover what is good, what is too much and what is missing we can reorganize our daily routines to be a healthy balance of stimulation, rest and recreation for body, mind and spirit. If you are looking for your screen time to be both stimulating and social, I highly recommend ILC’s two online learning opportunities.

Discover Your Inclusive Leadership Potential

An introduction to the four pillars of Inclusive Leadership can be found in Discover Your Inclusive Leadership Potential. With the adjunct discussion forum, this course engages us in researching our own experience so we are learning and discovering our potential at the same time, building community in a cohort of participants.

Click HERE for more information on Discover Your Inclusive Leadership Potential, or contact me: inclusiveleaders @ gmail.com (remove spaces when emailing)

Developing Your Communication Skills

If you are already introduced to Inclusive Leadership through the Discover Your Inclusive Leadership Potential, or a weekend workshop, then Developing Your Communication Skills will be a great way to strengthen your Inclusive Leadership potential. As co-op members learn and grow in their skills, the ILC provides opportunities for emerging facilitators. Join new facilitator, Betty Doherty and veteran, Raj Gill in this interactive course.

“This is great, will definitely make effort to be part of it.” ~Peter O.

Click HERE for more information on Developing Your Communication Skills or to register contact Betty & Raj:   raj.gill @ telus.net bdoherty1 @ telus.net (remove spaces when emailing)

The Inclusive Leadership Co-operative has volunteer openings and these will be posted in the coming week. This is another way that balance can be maintained or restored. Being engaged in meaningful action either working collaboratively on a project, or working independently on tasks that help make a worthy organization function well might fit perfectly with your new year plans. Stay tuned for the next post.

Lindsay Beal,

Coordinator, Inclusive Leadership Co-operative