Resources: Articles by Beata Lewis
Trust in Leadership
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
Building and restoring trust is at the heart of leadership and collaborative excellence. It is a practice of making and fulfilling commitments. These are the commitments that give a life meaning and are connected to a deep sense of passion and values. In any relationship, you have implicit and explicit commitments about the quality of connection that you want to co-create and participate in. When things get difficult or fall apart, you need to know what you are fighting for, not just what you are fighting. … You become more authentic, powerful and trustworthy by taking action from informed choice and an abiding connection to what you care about.
The Feminine Face of Leadership in Science: Qualitative Study Findings
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
Women leaders in science have a story to tell. Their stories may inspire courage, empathy and resilience in the women and men with whom they collaborate. Their stories point to questions that must be addressed in the pursuit of innovation and scientific excellence.

The Feminine Face of Leadership in Science was an inquiry to understand what women scientists face and what they need to succeed as leaders in their chosen fields. From the perspective of encouraging whole-person leadership, it was also an inquiry about how women leaders in science want to shape the character and practices of leadership to meet current and future challenges in the business of science.

I sought out women in science because I believe they have a vital role to play in shaping a sustainable future for humanity. The role of scientific and technological innovation to our economic, social and political well-being cannot be overstated. Women represent a substantial and fast-growing pool of the creative talent in science and technology. What forces are shaping current and future leaders—men and women—so they can meet the challenges before them? As women emerge as leaders in these male-dominated and strongly masculine professional disciplines, are they “merely” stepping into existing molds or are they re-defining and re-shaping the practices of leadership consistent with their values, standards and perspectives? ...

Study conducted in 2003.
The Human Dimension of Leadership: Relationships Built on Knowledge, Trust, Power and Presence
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
The path to exceptional leadership is a personal and individual journey. Each person defines the purpose of the journey, but it will ultimately be about the release and fulfillment of human possibility. Leading—as a way of being, not just focused on a role or title—is a function of relationship with yourself and others. It is a way of being in the dynamic balance of reflection and action. In its essence, leadership consists of the principles, skills, behaviors and attitudes that harness and integrate knowledge, trust and power to get something done.

Wisdom, integrity and courage are leadership characteristics that foster and synthesize knowledge, trust and power. Especially in times of complexity and change, leaders who by their presence and competency can build trust quickly and inspire others to collaboration are the ones who succeed. Building your presence as a leader is a process of coming into an authentic and powerful sense of Self and being able to extend into the world with clear intention, skillful action, and grounded compassion.
Fulfilling the Promise of "Beyond Conflict"
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
Life and business will always include conflict. There is no getting beyond that: life is set up that way. "Beyond conflict" can seem like an unrealistic promise for that idealized place of eternal peace and harmony. And maybe not much creativity. But together with the idea that the "only way out is through," beyond conflict suggests that something comes after conflict; there is something on the other side. "Beyond conflict" can promise a way to navigate turbulent - even treacherous - rapids and arrive at another shore, assured that, although there will be more stretches of turbulence as the continues, we will not only survive the journey but may thrive in it.

As a professional Mediator and former attorney, I am familiar with the costs of conflict run amuck in business. As an Executive Coach and Change Consultant, I value conflict for its creative potential. What could it really mean to move beyond conflict where you are?
The Human Dimension of Leadership: Relationships Built on Knowledge, Trust, Power and Presence
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
Achieving balanced leadership—for women and men—means dedicating our attention to what produces health and vitality. We live in an era foretold by numerous traditions as being about the re-emergence of the feminine and reconciliation of the whole. It is understandable and predictable that both men and women regularly dis-identify with their innate and essential feminine nature in a culture that diminishes and derides the positive value of the feminine.

If we are going to fulfill any promise of becoming qualitatively different leaders, we must reclaim aspects of our dis-identified selves for the sake of being more fully generative and honoring our complex wholeness. Emerging models of leadership – such as transformational and integral leadership – are based on a fundamentally different approach to human motivation, interaction and accomplishment. Balance and integration can arise from a conscious emphasis on relationship, on alternative ways of perceiving and using power and on what makes living systems function and evolve.
Meeting the Challenge for Collaborative Excellence: After-Word - Case Study
by Beata C. Lewis, Bridging Lives, and Margie Tatro, a U.S. National Laboratory - February 2003
Here we describe a consulting engagement with a leadership team in 2003 which focused on relational dynamics to optimize the value and impact of collaborative efforts.

..."The Center leadership team experienced considerable value from being explicit about how they choose to collaborate. They now share the foundation for a common language and understanding for addressing ongoing needs and interactions. They identified and are implementing specific action items. The team has greater clarity about the consequences of specific choices. By investing conscious attention to collaborative needs, they can better help each other reinforce and get support for the relationships that promote what they all want: growth and success."...
Here We Go Again: Being Your Best in Trying Times
by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC - Bridging Lives LLC
When you consider what is happening in your life, do you ask yourself “Who am I in the midst of all of this?” How are you “playing” in this game of life? You have surely heard the expression: Play to Win! What does that mean and what else would a person choose? It means going as far and as well as you can with what you have, rather than playing “not to lose.” It’s a creative stance rather than a protective or reactive one.

How we play to win is inextricably connected to the thinking and feeling state that we create within ourselves, regardless of circumstance. Indeed, from a creative mindset, the circumstances may offer a challenge, but the real work is in shifting one’s inner orientation to what is possible. The creative stance becomes our prevailing way of being as we practice. And opportunities for practice abound, daily. ...
What You See Is What You Get -
Bridging Mediation & Cultural Diversity Awareness

by Beata C. Lewis, JD, MSC
First published in July 1999 – Northern California Mediation Association (NCMA) Newsletter

My intention is to participate in an ongoing dialogue that helps all of us more consciously and effectively hold a space for issues of cultural diversity to show up in our practices. And I am most curious about what shift in consciousness would be required for all of us to see through diversity lenses all of the time. …
I see the need for reintegrating cultural diversity awareness as an essential thread running through the weave of all our work and interactions. These are issues of how we interact with one another, the very core of what makes the mediation process different and meaningful. I also see the need to perceive these issues with greater depth and subtlety of inquiry. That is to say, there is more to cultural diversity than meets the eye. The dynamics, influences and consequences are not always black vs. white and obvious. …
emBODY-INg CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
by Beata C. Lewis, JD and Ulla Glaesser, LLM
Life - with all the conflict and change it brings - is a process of improvisation. If the one reliable constant in life is change, then life is a constant practice in reconciling conflict. Our challenge is to transform the experience of conflict into an opportunity for constructive change and growth. If freedom is operating from choice, then there is no foolproof formula to follow. The joke is that as soon as you think you've figured out all the answers, the questions change.

While we can acknowledge and appreciate this intellectually, how does it play out in our lives? What, for example, happens when I am faced with changes to which I feel profound and righteous resistance? What happens when I cannot control the outcome by force of will or reason? What happens when I am blindsided and have no power to respond effectively? What happens when the changes bring irreparable damage or feel totally unfair? What happens when I feel like a victim of the change and not at cause in choosing my own life course? What about the "simple" problem of decision-making in the context of complexity?

The courses that we offer, together and individually, for embodied practices in conflict resolution and collaboration are an expression of our personal journeys. We are both professionally qualified and experienced lawyers and mediators. We share a deep love of dance. We also share experience in bridging differences related to cultural, linguistic or professional barriers. We both appreciate how essential it is to honor a person's story - their narrative - in support of understanding, growth, and healing.

In offering emBODY-INg CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION, we choose not to pose as experts in negotiation, mediation, somatic learning, or organizational development. Instead, we prefer to guide a journey for learning and connection to the participants' own inner experience and insight. ...
Lead. Collaborate. Grow. ... to Thrive!