Hello and welcome to Ancient Wisdom for Modern Work,
A podcast designed to help you apply proven lessons from the Yogi Masters of yesteryear to the work we do today.
I'm your host and guide,
Kimberly Kaler,
And it's my great pleasure to share my insight on how to meld mindfulness into our work world,
However you define work,
As a teacher,
A corporate executive or community volunteer.
Today's topic is Astea in Leadership.
Are you unintentionally stealing from your team?
When we hear the word stealing in a corporate context,
Our minds usually jump to embezzlement,
Fraud,
Or perhaps walking out of the supply closet with that box of pens.
Most leaders pride themselves on their integrity.
We don't cook the books.
We don't rob the petty cash.
Therefore,
We assume we are practicing the third yama,
Astea,
Or non-stealing.
But in the nuance of leadership dynamics,
Theft is rarely about physical objects.
It's far more subtle,
Pervasive,
And damaging.
Astea challenges us to look beyond material possessions and consider what else we might be taking that doesn't belong to us.
Are we stealing credit for a team member's idea?
Are we stealing time by running inefficient meetings?
Are we stealing opportunities for growth by failing to delegate?
Applying Astea to leadership requires a deep introspection into how we value the resources,
Energy,
And contributions of the people we lead.
It shifts the focus from what can I get to what can I give,
Transforming a culture of scarcity into one of abundance and trust.
The invisible theft of time.
Time is the one non-renewable resource in business.
Once spent,
It is gone forever.
Yet leaders often treat their team's time as an infinite commodity available for their consumption.
This is a violation of Astea.
Every time a leader arrives 10 minutes late to a meeting,
They're stealing 10 minutes from every person in the room.
If six people are waiting,
That is an hour of collective productivity and life vanished.
It sends a silent but powerful message.
My time is more valuable than yours.
This arrogance erodes respect and breeds resentment.
The meeting trap.
Consider the standard weekly status meeting.
If the agenda is vague,
The discussion circular,
And the outcomes unclear,
You are stealing focus.
You are taking people away from their deep work,
The state of high concentration where real value is created,
And trapping them in a shallow pool of inefficiency.
To practice Astea regarding time,
Start and end on time.
Treat the calendar with your team as a contract.
Cancel unnecessary meetings.
If it can be an email,
Let it be an email.
Give people their time back.
Respect off hours.
Sending urgent requests on weekends or late nights steals your team's recovery time.
It robs them of the rest they need to be effective.
How important it is to give credit where credit is due.
One of the most common complaints in exit interviews isn't about salary.
It's about lack of recognition.
When a leader presents a team's work as their own,
Or fails to explicitly acknowledge the individual contributions and contributors behind a success,
They are committing intellectual theft.
This often happens subconsciously.
A leader might say,
I achieved these results instead of we achieved these results.
They might absorb a brilliant idea in a brainstorming session and later present it to the board as their own epiphany.
The impact on innovation.
Stealing credit is a quick way to kill innovation.
When employees realize their contributions will not be recognized,
They stop offering them.
They hoard their best ideas or execute them minimally.
Why invest discretionary effort in the return on investment,
ROI,
Of recognition if it goes solely to the boss?
Astea demands radical generosity with credit.
A secure leader understands that shining a light on the others does not dim their own.
In fact,
It makes the entire team shine brighter.
When you practice Astea,
You become a loud advocate for your team's work,
Ensuring their names are mentioned in rooms they haven't even entered yet.
So how do you avoid hoarding opportunity and growth?
Perhaps the most insidious form of stealing in leadership is the theft of opportunity.
This happens when leaders hoard responsibilities,
Refuse to delegate,
Or fail to provide mentorship.
We often justify this behavior with phrases like,
It's just faster if I do it myself.
Or they aren't ready yet.
While seemingly practical,
This mindset is often rooted in a desire for control or a fear of irrelevance.
By clutching every important task,
You rob your team members of the struggle and triumph of learning something new.
You steal their potential to grow into leaders themselves.
The Succession Void Failure to plan for succession is also a violation of Astea.
If you're not actively training someone to replace you,
You're stealing the organization's future stability.
You're making the team dependent on your presence,
Which creates a fragility in the business structure.
Practicing non-stealing means actively looking for ways to give power away.
It means stepping back so others can step up.
It involves asking,
Who needs this challenge to get to the next level?
And then handing over the reins,
Even if it means they may stumble a bit.
So what are some actionable tips for practicing Astea?
Integrating the principle of non-stealing into your leadership style requires a conscious effort and a willingness to examine your own,
Wait for it,
Ego.
Here are some practical ways to start.
Number one,
Conduct a time on it.
For one week,
Track how you interact with your team and their time.
Did you start every meeting on time?
Did you interrupt anyone's workflow with non-urgent queries?
Did you send emails after hours that created pressure to respond?
Identify one area where you're stealing time and make a commitment to stop.
Number two,
The credit check protocol.
Before every major presentation or report submission,
Pause and do a credit check.
Ask yourself,
Who contributed to this data?
Whose idea sparked this strategy?
Have I explicitly named them in the document or the presentation?
Make it a habit to publicly praise specific individuals.
Instead of general,
Good job team,
Try,
Sarah's analysis on the quarter three trends was pivotal to this strategy.
Number three,
Delegate for development,
Not just dumping.
Review your to-do lists.
Identify tasks that you're holding on to because you want them done perfectly.
Now look at your team.
Who has the potential to handle this,
Even if they need guidance?
Hand the task over,
But frame it as a growth opportunity.
I want you to lead this client call as I think you're ready to handle high level negotiations,
And I'm going to be there to support you,
But you have the floor.
This gives them experience rather than stealing their autonomy.
Number four,
Respect boundaries.
In a remote or hybrid world,
The line between work and home is blurred.
Leaders must be the guardians of that line.
Practice a stay by not stealing mental space.
If you have an idea at 9 PM,
Schedule the email to go out the next morning.
Let your team's evening belong to them.
So how do we wrap this up?
The abundance of non-stealing.
When we stop stealing time,
Credit,
And opportunity,
We create a vacuum that is quickly filled with trust.
Employees who feel their time is respected become more productive.
Teams that know they'll be credited become more innovative.
Individuals who are given opportunities become loyal and engaged.
Astea invites us to lead with an open hand rather than a clenched fist.
It reminds us that leadership is not about accumulation of power,
Praise,
Or control,
But about distribution.
By ensuring that we take nothing that isn't ours,
We create a culture where everyone has exactly what they need to thrive.
