In this podcast, Kevin Hancock speaks on Awakin Call about his books Not For Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse and The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey into the Business of Shared Leadership. He speaks about his journey to Pine Ridge as well as the healing process and lessons he learned there. He then talks about how he incorporates the tools he gathered there to implement a better structure at Hancock Lumber. In an effort to disperse power, Kevin shares the leadership role with every one of his employees. This allows them to find their true voice and the company benefitted from this greatly. He leaves the podcast by talking about how shared leadership will continue growing throughout the world.
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Here are a few highlights from the podcast (click here for the full transcription):
- One of the things I’ve thought a lot about is the idea that we all come from a tribe. We’re all born into a certain moment in time, place, culture, community. And that entry point, if you will, pulls on us all to act a certain way, to be a certain type of person. But ultimately, each soul is here living a life on earth to find their own true voice, authentic to who they are, and to release it and share it with the world. (16:35-17:28)
- One of the ideas that I really talk about in that book is the idea that awareness and connectivity, in and of itself, is a powerful act. So when I would go to Pine Ridge and come back, people would ask me what I did there. And at first, I really struggled to provide an answer. But finally I just came clean and said, I don’t really do anything there, which I don’t. I just travel around the reservation and spent time with people that I know there. And this is a place where for decades, generations, people from away have gone there to fix, save, change the people that live there. And that doesn’t work, of course, because change comes from within. And I really would see power in going there for no other reason than to be aware and connected. (32:45-33:47)
- So at Pine Ridge, one of their core values is wisdom. And the Lakota believe that wisdom is primarily acquired through experience by living a life. And for those who have lived the longest have had the most experiences and have therefore acquired large quantities of wisdom. And elders, therefore, are highly respected within the community. If you go to a public gathering and a younger person stands up to speak, they will first ask permission to speak for the elders. And I remember a few years ago when I took my mom with me to Pine Ridge, and we had a really lovely experience. And it was fun for me to see that immediately upon arrival, she was put in front of me in a place of honor, even though she never been there, because she was the elder. And so it really made me think about how our culture, mainstream culture, could engage elders differently. (43:04-44:35)
