The mystic Aurobindo wrote, "If there is to be a future, it will wear a crown of feminine design." If the state of the world is a reflection of the quality of our leadership, unprecedented indicators and opportunities of the 21st century—socially, politically, culturally, environmentally, and more—are calling us to step up and leap into our greatness as women.
Restorative leadership is leadership that recognizes the interconnectedness of all life and acts for the highest benefit to all. Striving to do no harm and to heal the Earth, our communities and ourselves, restorative leadership cultivates the best and most balanced expression of universal values and natural laws.
In restorative leadership, leadership is considered an innate capacity born of our interconnectedness—each action and inaction impacts this miraculous web of life. So the question of how to design our lives and communities becomes, "What intention does each of us choose to bring to our influence?" Then we get to live that question as we manifest each individual’s unique contribution and humanity’s collective best. This is a time, like no other, to celebrate and claim the power of design in our leadership.
As a faculty member at the Omega Institute Women’s Leadership Center, I have encountered many women who embody restorative leadership. Grandmother Maria Alice of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, who taught me that women are naturally able to elevate leadership in the world because we "host the whole." Dr. Vandana Shiva, who urges ordinary women to recognize the power within to "be leaders wherever they are." And Janine Benyus, the matriarchal voice of biomimicry, who reminds us to ask the fundamental evolutionary question answered by all living beings, "How shall we live in a way that contributes to the continuity of life?"
Through restorative leadership, as demonstrated by these women, we discover how to bring out the best of our diverse humanity to ensure a sustainable future. Clearly, it will take women self-authorizing as the next, and necessary, future in the leadership revolution. Much depends on each of us taking this leadership leap into the new horizon of possibility. I hope you will join me at the Omega Institute in July.
