Leadership – Creating community – Aarohi X

What do Dhoni and Aarohi have in common?Think of a time you felt noticed, listened to, valued by someone? Placing you in the glare of the spotlight, that someone chose to remain in the shadows/ the penumbral glow.

That’s humble/penumbral leadership. Where leaders stay in the glow and promote their team members to the glare of the spotlight. The hallmark of such leadership is that every member’s smallest initiative is considered gold. In that aspect, Aarohi’s facilitators = MS Dhoni. The facilitators notice every effort, listen to every thought, and go the extra mile in valuing each person’s initiative. And they do this consciously, by stepping back and allowing for others’ creative volcanoes to explode, first. This is no cakewalk, y’all.

Especially when you yourself (as a facilitator) know more about some topics than perhaps everyone put together in the room. (They would disagree with me, but don’t believe ’em.)I was particularly shocked when one facilitator apologized while paraphrasing a participant’s points while adding her own excitement to it.”I’m sorry,” the facilitator remarked to the participant… “Did I paraphrase you correctly? Or was I saying *more* than what you intended to say?”

Wow. What do you call a facilitator who actually apologizes for adding their own content instead of feeling superior for knowing that stuff? What do you call a facilitator who motivates us to *show up* at every meeting even if we do not speak? (Collateral learning kehte hai).A facilitator who doesn’t miss a smile or a word or a chat or a whistle that every participant brings to the table? What do you call them, y’all?

Har Aarohi-x meeting mein, apne “baith-ing” and “bol- ing” (yup, that’s a pun on batting and bowling) ko ithna encourage karte hein… aise logon ko MS Dhoni nahin kahenge tho aur kya?