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Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė

Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė, creator of Conscious Leadership Programmes: being a leader for myself means I am both functional and happy

VZ.lt

Changing reality always brings anxiety, but at the same time new opportunities. Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė, a creator of conscious leadership programmes, ontopsychologist and business practitioner, points out that when there are no clear points of reference outside, the only one left to measure up to is oneself. So how can we wisely embrace the challenges of uncertainty, not be afraid of change and see new opportunities more easily?

Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė notes that leadership is often confused with management. True leadership, she says, is about taking steps and making changes that no one else in the context has done before. "We live in a time of confusion, so when I use the word 'leadership' and I want to bring it closer to its true meaning, I feel the need to add an adjective: intentional, authentic, integral... In business and in other areas, we always need a guide who can blaze new trails and bring people together."

And yet, is a leader born or made? R. Baltė Balčiūnienė paraphrases a thought from the Bible - to whom more is given, more is required. "Being a leader is not our choice. If I was born to be a leader, I cannot not be a leader and live only for myself. It's not about skills - leaders just have more mental energy. From a very young age, we notice those children who are more receptive, more active, more profound than others, who absorb more of both the positive and the negative in themselves from childhood, and who feel the function of society within themselves," notes R. Baltė Balčiūnienė.

She adds that those with leadership potential simply have an easier time of it, but they also need more discipline: "People with average potential sometimes do better than those with higher potential if they are disciplined and consistent. It is important to note that mid-potential people can also be great professionals, managers and make a lot of money, but when I talk about true leadership, I mean creating new meanings. And this is not only measured in money, but also in other values."

The criterion of true leadership and undefined leadership

R. Balte Balčiūnienė believes that today we do not know what and how to measure our life. We are used to choosing the categories "good" and "bad", "successful" and "unsuccessful" according to what is accepted in our context. But we do not take into account the fundamental criterion - where we feel growth and more vitality and where we feel less. This is how a leader's decisions can be measured.

"We really suffer from unrealised potential. It still has to manifest itself in some way, so the pent-up energy can spill out through anger, aggression, illness, etc. This is especially true for leaders."
One of the main debates in business and other fields today is how to act in such an uncertain reality. According to R. Balte Balčiūnienė, the defined reality is merely a projection of our mind.

The old SPOD (Steady, Predictable, Ordinary, Definite) was a stable, predictable, ordinary and defined world - the complete opposite of the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) that displaced it at the end of the 20th century, and the uncertainty it brought with it is constantly challenging us to transform ourselves internally and externally. The pandemic of 2020 has given humanity another "gift" - BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible).

"Business processes and interconnections have begun to operate according to the principles of complex systems that few people understand - in a non-linear, non-proportional way. Our brains can no longer keep up with the flow of change, innovation and knowledge (true and false). When exposed to intense information noise, the amygdala, which acts as an emotional sentinel, sounds the alarm. Automatic reactions such as anxiety and fear are "triggered". We are in childlike emotional states where decisions become dysfunctional. This "reality" of the inner world needs to be dealt with as soon as possible, and this requires psychological stability. Our task is to survive in the world of VUCA by creating our own SPOD 2.0 situation - to define a small territory of action, to move in small steps, to constantly check the environment and to use some, albeit vague, reference points for the future," R. Baltė Balčiūnienė is convinced.

When we act under the uncertainty imposed on us, when we turn on our will, when we change our habits, routines, goals and principles of action, it is easier for us to maintain our adulthood, to make functional decisions, to see new possibilities and to be our own leader.

Level up to ourselves and create new meanings

In today's world, according to R. Baltė Balčiūnienė, being a leader for oneself is particularly important, because it is simply no longer possible to be aligned with the outside: "You can only have external reference points to adapt and create yourself by defining your own little SPOD reality. And to recognise when you have jumped into a strong emotional state, become a child again and immersed yourself in the BANI reality."

R. Balčiūnienė points out that technological progress has freed our hands, artificial intelligence has freed our minds, which means that we have more time for creativity. "Creation is about giving something that doesn't exist in your memory a new start. And to be your own leader today means to be both functional and happy. In nature, functionality always comes first - what value you create for others, and what value others create for you. If there is no functionality, there is no happiness and no pleasure."

In today's turbulent world, we are also faced with another feeling of leaders - am I doing as much as I should and could? Will the change I create be significant enough?

"When a leader thinks he is not doing enough and feels he needs to save the world, he is not realising his full potential," points out R. Baltė Balčiūnienė, "But this does not mean that realising your potential is saving the world. Trying to save the world where you have no influence only wastes your energy. Leadership develops more in business or in specific professional activities, because it's very clear - you make a decision and you see that the value is either more or less. In other areas there is no such clear measurement. It is then easier to get lost in a sense of personal significance, that you have to do something global. Usually, those who do global things don't have that sense of self-importance, they just love what they do."

It's true that sometimes leaders aim too low. "When you feel a very strong intention that pushes you to expand your boundaries, often in the face of established habits in society or in organisations, it is also a sign that we can start to make a bigger impact through those expanded boundaries, whether it is in our organisations, in our city or in our country," notes Balti Balčiūnienė.

The 11 most needed competences in times of uncertainty

1. A strong mindset is the ability to see causes, to see the future, to see beyond and deeper. The more complex you can see and act, the more you can influence others.

2. The ability to stay on top of information and think critically.

3. The ability to define the context and to understand what functionality and value you can bring to it and what the context brings to you.

4. Reinforcing the criterion - do I feel more or less life or growth? The greater the uncertainty, the more distant the perspective, not the other way around.

5. To be able to create uncertainty at will and to remain a subject in it.

6. To be able to remain in uncertainty or to pause - to wait for information with future orientations to appear.

7. To be able to listen to what is behind the words.

8. To be able to share responsibility fully.

9. The ability to act out of compassion without being identified. Emotional neutrality helps.

10. The ability to make decisions that work but are not necessarily right.

11. The ability to reflect on one's behaviour and see one's mistakes.