Finding Our Way: When the Labyrinth Becomes the Teacher

In my years of coaching Fortune 500 leaders, I've learned that sometimes our greatest leadership lessons come in unexpected packaging. For me, it was a slightly overgrown labyrinth in Nashville, on a quiet morning when the city slept.

I was there for a workshop on spiritual transformation, but the real teaching was waiting for me in that dewy garden at the Scarritt Bennett Center. Each morning, I'd venture out before dawn, determined to "solve" the labyrinth like it was another strategic challenge to be conquered. And each morning, I failed.

You see, I was doing what so many leaders do – trying to think my way through what was meant to be felt. I'd stand there, analyzing the paths, questioning the design, convinced something must be wrong with the layout because it wasn't yielding to my expertise. When frustration would peak, I'd retreat to a nearby bench, watching the labyrinth like it was a puzzle to be cracked rather than a teacher to be heard.

Sound familiar? How often do we approach our leadership challenges this way – analyzing, controlling, resisting the natural flow because it doesn't match our predetermined roadmap?

Lauren Artress, the Godmother of the modern labyrinth movement, teaches us that everything in the labyrinth is metaphor. And oh, what a metaphor this was! Here I was, a seasoned spiritual and leadership coach, playing out the very pattern I often help others recognize: the battle between our rational mind and our intuitive wisdom, between control and trust, between forcing and allowing. Attempting to control the water instead of going with the flow.

The labyrinth was showing me – and now shows my clients – how we navigate uncertainty. In today's VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), we're all walking paths where the next turn isn't clear. The question isn't whether we can figure it all out in advance – we can't. The question is: can we trust the path enough to stay on it?

Just as I eventually learned to integrate my analytical mind with my spiritual heart, we as leaders must learn to blend our strategic thinking with deep listening. The path forward isn't about choosing between the two – it's about allowing them to become partners in our journey.

When leaders come to me now, struggling with uncertainty or major decisions, I sometimes offer a labyrinth meditation. Not because it holds all the answers, but because it teaches us how to walk with questions. It shows us that sometimes a path filled with questions is actually leading us to look inward for the answers.

As the Buddhist saying goes, "The teacher appears when the student is ready." The labyrinth finds us when we're ready to learn its truth: that leadership, like life, isn't about controlling the path – it's about trusting ourselves enough to walk it.

If you, too, are seeking clarity, try walking a labyrinth. You can find a labyrinth near you by going to this site: World-Wide Labyrinth Locator - Welcome