Omer, Kabbalah, & Leadership Lessons - Week 3

I hope you had a chance to read the first installment in this Omer, Kabbalah and Leadership series, which explored leadership lessons from the sefirot of Chesed and Gevurah. As we move into week 3 of the Omer, we turn to the sefirah of Tiferet. Tiferet is associated with harmony and balance, in part due to its location on the mystical “Tree of Life” depiction.

My dear friend, Dr. Rachel Barbanel-Fried, shared a framing for the concept of balance that really struck a chord with me. She reminded me that achieving balance is not a one-time state; it’s a process you maintain that requires frequent adjustment.

Think of a moment when you had to physically balance, maybe on a seesaw, on tiptoes, or crossing a rope bridge. Your body is constantly making small shifts and corrections to stay steady. The balance is not static; it is actively sustained. The same is true in our lives and our work.

This idea applies broadly, but I want to focus on one area that may not be the most obvious: our internal bias. How do we balance our actions and reactions to account for our default thinking, our natural leanings and inclinations?

This form of balance starts with self-awareness. The work is to notice your tilt and adjust in real time, making those same kinds of adjustments, shifts, and alignments that we do when physically balancing. Developing that awareness and learning to compensate for default responses is how we strive to embody Tiferet.