Stewardship & Ownership

It could be said that, at this time in human history, one of the great opportunities we have is to look at how we, as civilization… as humanity, has managed and led organizations and projects and countries and nations and communities in the past to look and see what worked (and didn’t work) and what we need to do now.

It could be said that most of the civilization has been preoccupied with owning and controlling commerce, money, the flow of money, being in control of property, being in control of people and countries; and that, basically, there’s a preoccupation with ownership and control to such an extent that the environment, the markets, opportunities, discoveries, a lot of times have fallen by the wayside.

Stewardship is a guiding… how do I say?… it’s almost another form of leadership, but it’s not control- and ownership-driven. It is coming from a different place.

The consciousness is that that steward is a guide – not just a director, not just a driver, (and not even a driver) – they’re a guide. They’re guiding a ship to a particular destination: the ship of a country, the ship of a company, the ship of a project, whatever it is.

So one of the opportunities we have in global systemic transition is to become stewards, and not owners and drivers; and to not let the drive to own take over what it means to be human. So you can count on that when stewardship is brought in, there’s expanded humanity, there’s expanded meaning, and there’s expanded kindness; it’s integrated. The heart is brought into the situation, whereas in business the heart is usually to be outside of business. Business is supposed to be business.

But in heart-centered leadership… this is the stewardship we need now in the world.