A systemic leader knows how to wield the sword. Not for themselves – then it is a gun! But for the whole.
Wielding the sword for the whole is a clear intervention, that will initially cause tension and then relaxation. Relief, even.
Wielding the sword is often about ending something. A relationship, a behaviour or a reality that was there. It is about giving words to something that has long been felt but never expressed as a decision. That movement sets free tremendously. And vice versa: when you do not do it, you stay stuck in entanglement.
It takes courage from the systemic leader to wield the sword. To speak the unspeakable, at the risk of one’s own life! But by saying what needs to be said, with decisiveness and without self-interest, you give space to the potential.
Compare it to dry needling. By placing the needle in the right place with precision, the muscle relaxes. Or with a mechanic, who gets the engine running again with one blow in exactly the right place.
It looks simpler than it is. Because how hard or how long should the blow be? Or how big the sword? That quest is up to the systemic leader, to gauge what the whole needs.