Na’aleh’s 28 Core Skills of Leadership – Manhigut

Manhigut: Practice leadership with your whole self.

Self-Awareness: Align head, heart, and body.

What are you thinking?  How are you feeling?  How is your body responding?  Often, our thoughts, feelings, and bodies are not aligned but heading off in different directions.  For instance, I may be thinking about tomorrow, feeling saddened about something that happened this morning, and responding to someone’s request with annoyance.  When we align our head, heart, and body, we become fully present in the moment for the other.  We are also aligned to common purpose and aware of how we are showing up with our best selves.  We only arrive at this complex skill of personal alignment – called authenticity – after time spent mastering the other six practices of leadership.

Being with Others: Live authentically across life.

While it is challenging to do so, we can even go beyond living authentically in the moment.  To excel in leadership, we can learn to lead authentically across all the different roles of our life.  We achieve this when we are no longer different people at home, in the office, and with friends.  We lead in alignment with the same core values, character strengths, and common purpose in every area of life.  Amidst all the uncertainty in our world, leading from a core that guides us daily provides others with a tether amidst the turbulence and an inspiring model to emulate.

Resources

Action Toward Change: Inspire and guide through sharing the story of your leadership journey. 

While some will be inspired by seeing us lead in action, not everyone will be present to notice.  Thus, it can be even more inspiring to tell and share our stories of leadership.  This skill involves crafting stories that offer a coherent narrative illustrating the journey we have taken to get to where we are now – the struggles we courageously overcame, the achievements we humbly note, and the ways in which we are continually learning to lead.  Stories that inspire others toward leadership are exemplary, not extra-ordinary. 

Advanced Skill: Embody the Jewish in the telling the story of your leadership journey.

Finally, as Jewish leaders it is helpful and important that we embed our stories in the stories, rituals, and celebrations of the Jewish people.  For instance, we can relate our personal journeys to those of our mythical Jewish ancestors.  We can connect to Abraham’s faith or Esther’s courage, to Moses’ humility or Miriam’s care for the Jewish people.  We can also employ Jewish holidays in telling our stories and inspiring others to leadership.  We can use elements of the Passover seder (for example, the four children) to express how we each come to leadership through different paths.  Or, we can stand within the Sukkah, with its sides open to the vagaries of nature, in order to convey the importance of open-heartedness and steadfast purpose in leading our People through the challenges we face in today’s uncertain and complex world.  Our Jewish stories of leadership weave our personal life into the continual journey of the Jewish People from generation to generation.

  • Consider which Biblical character best represents you and why.
    • There are many Biblical characters you could choose from.  Here are a few examples and why they may best represent you:
      • Abraham: Uncompromising faith in God.
      • Jacob: The Jewish “trickster”
      • Leah: Devotion to family.
      • Moses: Humble and persevering.
      • Miriam: Not afraid to challenge authority.
      • Esther: Brave and an advocate for her people.
      • Ruth: Unwavering loyalty
  • Adopt or adapt a Jewish ritual for a meeting or program you are leading.
    • Rituals have traditionally been used in Judaism to mark the entrance into and exit from liminal moments in a life, from Shabbat to weddings to Jewish holidays.  Thus, they have the power to carve out time and space as separate from the everyday life and devoted to sacred purpose.  Here are a few ways that traditional rituals can be employed to “house” and close a program, but you should feel free to play with Jewish rituals yourself for all sorts of purposes.
      • Havdalah (meaning separation) is the ritual that concludes Shabbat and prepares us to enter the rest of the week, we drink wine, we light and extinguish a braded candle, and we smell spices.  The latter symbolically (and concretely) helps us to take the beauty and peace of Shabbat with us into the week.  Consider adapting the passing of a spice box as a way of ending a retreat (or other intensive meeting) through which each participant as they receive the spices will reflect upon what they are bringing with them back into the everyday world of work.
      • A Tisch (literally meaning a table) is the fun, frolicky time prior to the Jewish wedding ceremony when (traditionally) the groom entertains his guests with drinks, niggunim (wordless melodies) are sung, the ketubah (wedding contract) is read, and the groom attempts to offer a few words of commentary of the weekly Torah portion. Consider gathering retreat participants together at the end of the day for singing and offering lighthearted commentary on the day’s activities (as if it was the text that people comment upon).  Or one could simply close an evening meeting with a niggun that pauses periodically for participants to offer reflections and gratitude.
      • A Sukkah (meaning a booth) is an outdoor hut, temporarily constructed to observe the holiday of Sukkot, where Jews traditionally would eat their meals, entertain guests, and even sleep in.  The Sukkah is meant to be a fragile structure open to the vagaries of nature, often decorated by children, within which we celebrate the season of joy.  Consider asking people to bring to your meeting objects (from stones, sticks and strings to drawings and fruit) out of which a temporary sukkah can be constructed in which your meeting will be housed.  By having everyone participate in its “construction,” you symbolically affirm the importance of the group working together as a team – confronting difficult challenges with creativity and joy in their hearts.