By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to enhance your job performance . Reading time: 3:21.

Imagine feeling sheer ecstasy!!! Fully clothed. On the job. Every day. Drug free.

Yes, you read that correctly: ecstasy. And no, you are not reading one of THOSE tabloids that sensationalize and titillate. Although there’s plenty to titillate your bottom (line). Read on.

Ecstasy. The word stems from the Greek ‘ex stasis’, meaning “to stand outside of yourself.” And that ability may well be the differentiating factor of humanity as Eric Newton writes in his book The Arts of Man : “One of the basic differences between man and the animals is his power to stand outside himself.”

Exercising that differentiating factor -standing outside yourself -is a key leadership skill that is often undermined in wanna-be leaders too wrapped up in themselves and their own egos and ideas.

Real leaders know that when you can’t or won’t step outside of yourself you can’t appreciate anything. You have no real sense of comparison, no real basis for perspective, no real understanding of value.

That’s why the most effective leaders know that without ecstasy, they can become too self-absorbed, too self-righteous, and too all-knowing. The most effective leaders know: they DON’T know.

They know they need to let go of their preconceived notions and get lost in something other than themselves, let their feelings climb outside of themselves. In sheer ecstasy. No wonder the drug culture confiscated and corrupted the sense of ecstasy that real leaders enjoy without drugs.

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