ELIZABETH ELLAMES

This month marks four years since I launched my second book, Light Leadership.

For me, Light Leadership is not about being perfect, enlightened, spiritually superior or possessing all the answers. It is about learning to lead from the light of what is true within us.

I use the word LIGHT as an acronym, but it wasn’t intended at first; the attributes aligned later. 

L — Love

I — Integrity

G — Gratitude

H — Hope

T — Truth

They are not simply words. They are qualities we are continually asked to respect and embody.

Love reminds us that leadership without compassion can become control. Love allows us to be human, open-hearted, and connected, even as we discern what we will and will not accept.

Integrity asks us to live in accordance with what we know to be true. It is the willingness to choose truth over popularity, belonging, convenience or approval.

Gratitude keeps us humble. It reminds us that wisdom is not something we possess; it is something we continue to receive. Even our difficult experiences can become teachers when we are willing to extract the wisdom rather than remain imprisoned by the wound.

Hope gives us the courage to believe that what is possible is greater than what has already been. Hope is not denial. It is the capacity to envision another way and then participate in creating it.

And Truth is the anchor and the author. Truth asks us to look honestly at ourselves, our relationships, our choices and the systems we participate in. It asks us to remain curious enough to question what we have been taught and humble enough to change when we discover that what we believed was incomplete.

And it rests on a foundation of Perception, Initiation, and Virtue. 

• Perception – allows us to see.
• Initiation – asks us to grow through what we see.
• Virtue – asks us to live according to what we have learned.

And LIGHT LEADERSHIP asks:

Can we do all of this while remaining based in Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Hope and Truth?

That is a much deeper definition of leadership. Because the world does not necessarily need more people telling others what to do. It needs more people willing to take responsibility for the quality of consciousness they bring into the room.

• People who listen deeply.
• People who question honestly.
• People who dare to face what they would rather not see.
• People who can hold complexity without immediately needing an enemy.
• People who can say, I was wrong.
• People who can say, I don’t know.
• People who can say, This no longer feels true for me.

And people who can stand firmly in truth without needing to make another person wrong to feel right.

This is LIGHT LEADERSHIP – It is not leadership from the ego, but rather leadership from an illuminated sense of self. And perhaps that is why these attributes can feel challenging. They require us to meet ourselves continually.

Perception challenges our assumptions.

Initiation challenges our naivety.

Virtue challenges our need for approval.

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Love challenges our judgment.

Integrity challenges our foundational validity.

Gratitude challenges our entitlement.

Hope challenges our cynicism.

Truth challenges everything that is built upon illusion.

This is not always comfortable. But transformation rarely is.

The Light Leader is not someone who has escaped the darkness; they are someone who has learned how to walk through darkness without becoming darkness.

• Someone who can see plainly without losing compassion.
• Someone who can know their worth without needing superiority.
• Someone who can hold boundaries without closing their heart.
• Someone who can stand alone when necessary, yet remain connected to humanity.

And someone who understands that genuine leadership begins within.

This may be the leadership we are now being invited into.

Not leadership built upon status, appeal or authority.

But conscious leadership, embodied leadership, L I G H T LEADERSHIP.

Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Hope, Truth.

• Five qualities.
• Three foundational attributes.
• One invitation

Become the person whose presence carries the light of humanity.

Heart to Heart, Elizabeth

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