A decade ago, I discovered something that would transform my life, work, and leadership approach forever: We are not the voice in our head.

This simple yet profound realization changed everything in my world and leadership. While leadership today is often framed around skills and strategies, I have found that the most transformative shift we can make lies in how we engage with our inner world.

I believe Eckhart Tolle best encapsulates this concept brilliantly in this quote, “Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.”

This exactly describe the shift I made almost a decade ago when I realized I was not the voice in my head. We are all conditioned from birth by our upbringing, education, and our society to identify with a mind-made sense of identity.

It’s all made up. Who were we before we were given a name and our stories? Making this shift from the reactive ego to the conscious observer, changes everything in profound ways.

The Two Aspects of Consciousness

Once we make this distinction that we are not the voice in our head but the awareness that observes, we realize we have two aspects of consciousness:

The first is the the reactive ego. This is the part of us that dentifies with thoughts, emotions, and external events. It seeks control, defends itself, and reacts to perceived threats.

The second aspect is the conscious observer. This is the higher aspect of our awareness, capable of witnessing thoughts and emotions without becoming entangled in them. It brings clarity, calm, and the ability to respond with greater insight and wisdom.

In every moment, we are faced with a choice: Do we engage from the ego, locked in reaction based on our past, or do we step back as the observer, where we gain perspective and can lead with awareness?

Rising Above the Battleground

A Course in Miracles teaches that choosing the observer’s perspective allows us to rise “above the battleground.” From this elevated state, we can see situations without judgment, recognize our emotional triggers, and make decisions that align with a deeper wisdom.

Leaders who operate from this space bring more than solutions. They bring calm, presence, and connection. They become a source of stability in times of chaos and rapid change, and complexity.

The ego creates an illusion of struggle in surrendering itself to awareness, much like a cloud believing it must work hard to become the sky. Yet what you truly are is already present. It require only your recognition of this timeless truth. It can begins with a simple moment of pause—a conscious breath that reminds us we are not our thoughts or emotions.

In that pause lies the power to choose differently. By simply witnessing our inner dialogue instead of reacting to it, we create space for insight to arise.

This transformation isn’t just for moments of crisis. When leaders cultivate the habit of observing rather than reacting, they unlock a new dimension of leadership—one that is grounded in presence and free from the noise of ego.

This shift allows us to be the awareness behind thoughts and emotions rather than their prisoner.

The Leadership Shift That Matters Most

In the words of Joseph Jaworski, “When we operate in a state of presence and heightened awareness, we tap into a deeper source of knowing.”

This isn’t about being passive. It’s about stepping into the kind of leadership where decisions are guided by greater wisdom and not reacting based on our past experiences, judgments, and attachments.

Great leadership isn’t defined by the battles we fight, but by the peace we cultivate—within ourselves and those we lead.

When we rise above the battleground of reactive thoughts, we gain access to a higher way of leading—one that connects, inspires, and transforms.

So the next time you feel the pull to react, take a breath, step back, and remember: True leadership begins not with control, but with presence.

— Bill

Bill Fox, Founder, LeaderONE​
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Pioneering Leadership from Within | Unlocking Human and Organizational Potential

P. S. The most expensive leadership training in the world is the one that teaches you to be someone else. What if the real breakthrough isn’t in becoming a better leader, but in unbecoming everything that’s not authentically you? The Anti-Leadership Workshop may be what you’re looking for.