It has been a long time since I saw the Northern Lights so high in the sky. Sometimes as I walk, they skim the edge of the northern horizon at this time of year. The best views of them would be in the early hours of the morning – and I am not a morning person! Last night though, as Gert and I drove home from a concert, we saw them dancing above us.

An almost lyrical movement of greens, whites, a touch of pink accent, a swirl, a wave over the span of the sky, and then… gone. At that moment the shadow of a cloud blocked our view. On the edges of the cloud, you could still see the glow, but you would be forgiven if you didn’t recognize the aura of the aurora borealis. In the daytime, fluffy white clouds would be a joy in themselves, but tonight they just got in the way!

We kept driving towards both home and my favourite place to catch a glimpse of them – the top of a hill, looking over a field. There the spirits peaked out again but not like before. I used my husband’s camera to take the picture. Mine was too old, but I had been told that newer ones could capture the view better than the naked eye. The proof is in the image. It sort of didn’t seem fair or true when the picture was brighter, more glorious than my vision of it. This is the beauty that is beyond the eye of the beholder. There is so much more light in the world than we sometimes see.

In the Building Community Leaders program, a partnership between ROI and Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies, we have been looking at DiSC, a study of our own personality traits and how we interact with others. All of us have pieces of each personality type, but DiSC is a tool that helps you discover what your “happy place” is – where you shine. It categorizes each individual into one of four categories or a combination thereof. Doing such an activity with people you know can be very interesting. We can either be surprised at someone’s classification, or smile at how accurate it is.

Sometimes in life, it is assumed that one “letter” has all of the accountants, one the cheerleaders, one the peacemakers, etc. But that is not true. DiSC does not necessarily analyse your skills or your likes. It talks more to your style of getting things done than anything else. Our jobs, life situations, the crowd we are in, our culture and even social pressures can stretch us out of our norm. Continued pressure from these things can hide our natural light or tendencies. But they still exist in all their glory.

Which is important to note. What does your light look like? Are you green, white, yellow or pink? Are you a burst of energy flying across the sky or a steady pulse? Each are beautiful. Together they are spectacular.

Leadership comes in all styles. The strong quiet ones, the loud and bold ones, the detailed, get-it-right-the-first-time ones, the natural networking ones. Each brings a different take on the vision and mission of an organization. If the organization can find a way to part the clouds and allow people to shine with their natural skills, the resulting aurora borealis will be… Amazing. Magical. The Stuff of Legends.

To Northern Lights

Peggy