What is Higher Ground Leadership®?
Higher Ground Leadership® is the beating heart of our work at The Secretan Center Inc. It’s goal is inspiration—of people, organizations, communities and the world.
Who is a leader? Everyone is a leader at various points, situations and stages of their lives—at home, at work, as citizens, and at school. Higher Ground Leadership® is a breakthrough leadership philosophy that enables others to achieve a unique sense not shared by most—inspiration. It is built on the simple concept (seldom practiced, because it is not always easy), that inspired people create inspired families and inspired organizations, that create inspired communities, that inspire the world.
In the introduction of Lance Secretan’s book Inspire! What Great Leaders Do, 15 CEOs and senior executives wrote:
The principles of Higher Ground Leadership® have helped our organizations reduce staff turnover by as much as 66 percent, double levels of employee morale and patient and customer satisfaction, increase the clinical outcomes of many procedures, implement Six Sigma programs successfully, thus contributing to dramatic cost savings and waste elimination, cut the time taken to prepare operating rooms by 50 percent and dramatically increase their throughput, increase profits by 1,000 percent and eliminate layoffs and the use of outsourced labor. Higher Ground Leadership® touches the whole human, not just the working human, so it has helped to heal marriages, improve relationships between parents and children, among others, contributed to addiction cessation, strengthened values and beliefs, and raised personal performance. Most importantly, it has contributed to personal fulfillment, meaning, and inspiration and, therefore, organizational performance and reputation. One person stated simply that, after the birth of her children, Higher Ground Leadership® was the most important experience in her life.
The underlying principles are:
Leadership theory (and just about all other social persuasions) today is founded on the theories of motivation. But missing from this approach is inspiration—and there is a big difference between the two (watch the video below). People are yearning to be inspired and be part of families and communities that are inspiring, to work for inspiring people and teams who build inspiring places to live, work and play, based on values, meaning and fulfilment. To create these inspiring environments though, we must first become inspired ourselves, for we cannot give what we do not have within us. We cannot inspire others if we ourselves are uninspired, and we become inspire when we discover WHY we are here, how we will BE while we are here, and the calling that defines what we DO – we call it the Why-Be-Do®. And we complete these first stpes by building inspiring relationships and creating ONEDream®. This is The Spark.
Once we have become inspired ourselves, we are then able to inspire others. This is how great things are achieved—not just by leading, but—more importantly—by inspiring and by living the principles and values that are vital to each of us and inspiring for others. We reach for greatness when we are inspired to do so. We do this by living the CASTLE® Principles. This is The Flame.
Just as important is the role of each of us—our families, communities, organizations, and our society—to create a legacy, to mentor, lead, coach, teach, grow people and to ensure that what we build makes a positive difference and lasts. This is how we change the world. We do this with Values-centered Leadership®. This is The Torch.
The Spark, The Flame, and the Torch is the Masterwork at the heart of Dr. Lance Secretan’s philosophy.
Higher Ground Leadership® develops our inner landscape so we can have greater external impact on our organizations, our families, our communities, our lives, and the world. This work focuses on who we are, not what we know, because inspiring people teach and model who they are, not what they know. It provides highly effective and practical tools for immediate day-to-day application.
Certified Secretan Faculty Members (called Pathfinders) are all highly skilled in bringing this work into personal, family, or organizational life through facilitation, learning experiences, coaching and strategic mentoring. We also offer a DVD-based training program called “The DreamQuest®”.
The underlying principles of Higher Ground Leadership® can be found in Dr. Lance Secretan’s 22 books, especially his masterwork, The Spark, The Flame and the Torch and his latest work, The Bellwether Effect.