Training to become a leader

Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s new book examines how to become a leader in business and personal life

Terry Hankins Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author of “The Leadership Dojo,” will lead a free workshop on the concept of leadership and how to train to be a leader in business or personal life on Saturday, April 12 at the Strozzi Institute. Zoom Photo

THE LEADERSHIP DOJO What: Author Richard Strozzi-Heckler discusses his book “The Leadership Dojo” and how to train to be a leader in business or personal life. When: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12. Where: Strozzi Institute, 4101 Middle Two Rock Road. Admission: Free. Information: 778-6505 or visit www.strozziinstitute.com.

Are leaders born or made? What is it that makes some people stand out in a crowd and can these leadership qualities be learned? Those are questions Richard Strozzi-Heckler, founder of the Strozzi Institute of Petaluma, addresses in his new book, “The Leadership Dojo.”

With a background in psychology, Strozzi-Heckler has always been interested in what makes certain people excel. “What is it about them and how do we get them together in high performing teams?” he said. “That’s been my fascination. I believe that leaders, if they have a sense of vision and purpose, can be trained. There are two kinds of leaders. Those who have followers and those who are leaders of their own lives.”

Strozzi-Heckler has been studying martial arts for more than 35 years and has been teaching aikido for 13 years, so it’s not surprising he brings some of the principles and disciplines from martial arts to his book on leadership. “The world dojo means place of training,” he said. It comes from a Sanskrit word meaning a place of awakening. So a leadership dojo is a place where people can practice the skills and virtues of leadership.”

While there are many books available on the subject of becoming a leader, Strozzi-Heckler said he takes a very different approach in that his focus is on practice — learning by doing. “My work is not just about seeing a PowerPoint presentation or reading models of what a leader is, but how you train to be one. How do you learn to become a leader?”

Over the years, Strozzi-Heckler has worked with individuals and organizations from all walks of life, training each to become leaders in their own fields. “My work has introduced me to a wide range of people,” he said. “From non-profit social work, gang kids, emotionally disturbed kids from broken homes and disabled people to Fortune 500 companies and work with the military. There’s a hunger for this kind of training and it’s gaining velocity. People are just beginning to see the difference between knowing something and being able to take action. We’re used to sitting at a desk downloading information, but the question is whether we can take the information and act differently. It’s how we take action that produces leadership.”

Once someone makes the decision to change, the question is how to go about that change. Strozzi-Heckler said the first step is realizing that we are conditioned to do things that we often don’t know we’re doing. The key to change is becoming aware of these responses and retraining our bodies and minds to take on a new behavior.

“The subtotal of our history is in our body,” said Strozzi-Heckler. “Our conditioning is in our body. It’s allowed us to be in this world up to now and was successful up to this point. But if people want to grow and transform that history, a shift needs to take place.”

Strozzi-Heckler said that our conditioned responses to circumstances can be felt in the body; anything from a quickened pulse rate to a rigid stance. Becoming more aware of such physical responses to stress allows the individual to become aware of the behavior and shift from that response to a new one.

“The more aware we are, the more choices we have,” he said. “So it’s noticing a historical pattern and not enacting them automatically, then taking on a new practice so new behaviors can happen.”

This process retrains the body, not just the mind. Strozzi-Heckler said this is critical to enacting a change. “It’s retraining your nervous system, or spirit, if you will.”

This retraining must be practiced over and over, and eventually, the body and mind takes on this new behavior, which becomes a habit. Once again, the key is awareness in order to effect personal change. Through that awareness, practice and change, leaders can be born.

“In the 17th century, people began looking to rationalism and philosophy, which was a good thing then, but we’ve became divorced from our body and moods. More and more people have become anesthetized to feeling and emotion and how they’re being in the world. My view is that one reason we have so much violence in the world, so much conflict and social injustice and ability to trash our soil and water is that we’ve lost touch with our bodies. The more in touch with our body we are through somatics, feeling and being able to generate positive feelings in others, it makes it much more difficult to hurt others and our Earth.”

Strozzi-Heckler will delve further into these concepts in a free workshop based on his book, “The Leadership Dojo,” from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12 at Strozzi Institute.

For more information, call 778-6505 or visit www.strozzi institute.com.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at Yovanna.bieberich@argus courier.com)