Jay’s thoughtful comments on “The Practice of Leadership” post reinforce my deep conviction that leadership represents an evolutionary aspect of consciousness. “Gradations of leadership awareness” seems to me to be absolutely accurate. But the question is, how can we describe this so that it is easier to see the path we are walking? In this regard I want to propose a kind of continuum that might be a further catalyst for dialogue. It’s a really simple model on one hand, a difficult one on another — I’ll say more about that in a moment.
A ————————B————————–C
A = “Dense” leadership B = “Self-conscious” leadership
C = “Transparent” leadership
A. Dense leadership is the kind provided when for whatever reasons a person has been able to achieve power or influence with others but doesn’t have much actual interest in what leadership is about and doesn’t see the connection to self-knowledge. This is an individual for whom the term “leadership journey” or “leadership mind” sparks a look of apathy or a “Say what?” kind of response. At its worst, dense leadership suggests an interest in control or domination along with a lot of unconsciousness and denial as to the effects on others. We have all tasted these effects in our lives and we all have images of certain people in our minds — dictators, “bosses,” parents, clergy, etc. when they have operated in this way. The one thing that dense leaders have in common is that they wound us personally and collectively.
B. A person may begin to move into self-conscious leadership when for whatever reasons he or she becomes dissatisfied with personal impact. Perhaps it is the discovery of an important cause, ideal or vision; perhaps simply the frustration of not doing meaningful work; maybe a crazy or discrediting situation at work. I believe we really make the move into self-conscious leadership when we can actually sense our unconsciousness and begin to see how our dense leadership aspects are now serving as barriers to getting what we most want in our work and our lives. We realize that there is a gap between inner and outer realities and that this gap has something to do with the relationship of self to the world. Suddenly, we do find ourselves on a journey — toward a destination, a “destiny” of which we have been unaware. The gap haunts us and we try to find words that define what we are moving toward. A new kind of social consciousness, of relationships and environment, of the world can begin to take shape, and terms like authentity and community can become compelling measures of the gap still being experienced. Self-conscious leadership demands we examine our psychology, our society, our spirituality and in doing so layer after layer of old identities drop away. In the Practice of Leadership entry I have tried to articulate a few of the more common aspects of this work.
C. Transparent leadership is the state of having reached an “endless beginning” for work in the world. We operate spiritually and practically at the same time. We are no longer striving against the world or trying to control others, and our presence becomes both gently and fiercely affirming of human possibility. When I think of this type of leadership, the same names Jay mentioned come to mind, particularly Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (now called Myanmar) whose leadership of the National Democratic Party is characterized by both tremendous conviction and consummate modesty. Her book, Freedom from Fear, is one of the finest descriptions of a authentic leader’s emergence into the world. Transparent leaders are selfless (though human) and their work is a gift to humanity.
If you are reading this, you are probably a self-conscious leader, somone on a journey. You are particularly sensitive to dense leadership, whether you see it in others or yourself, and you are drawn forward by a voice not unlike Krishnamurti’s when he declared that “Truth is a pathless land.” That’s where I am, too. What is easy about the model I’ve presented here is that it suggests movement toward something really wonderful, though if you know the lives of famous leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi or Nelson Mandella or a host of others then you know that their lives were not at all easy, fraught with the deepest possible emotional challenge. That’s the difficult part. And you also know that it is not a linear journey, because as people we are often dealing with all three selves — an unconscious, dense one; a self-conscious one; and a selfless one — all tied together in a single personality!
And so one vital question is: Do I have the stamina — is my heart large enough to sustain — the journey? Which means to live through and beyond the aspects of me that are dense and unconscious, anxious, blaming, uncertain, addicted, self-punishing, to find that which is beyond and that which in fact is larger than ‘me’? “What is my gift to mankind?” could be thought of as the prototype for all really good leadership questions for those of us somewhere in the “B” domain.
I am reminded of the story of the discovery of runes, as a metaphor for self-conscious leadership as it moves into transparency. Runes are those angular shapes that could be found carved in wood or stone by the indigenous peoples of northern Europe. Some consider them magical or prophetic, a portal into the secrets of nature and human life. As described by writer Kenneth Meadows, the myth of the discovery of these shapes was recorded in a collection of Old Norse poems and songs from the Vikings who settled in Iceland around 800 AD. One poem expresses how Odin (the runes’ discoverer, already a deity or someone who was later deified) experiences a self-imposed ordeal in an attempt to gain something of value for mankind. Pierced by his own spear, he hangs upside down from a tree for nine days and nights without food. During this time he loses an eye but in doing so also “spies” the runes in another dimension of reality.
Down to the deepest depths I peered
I know I hung on that windy tree,
Swung there for nine long nights
Wounded by my own blade
Bloodied for Odin.
Myself an offering to myself
Bound to the tree
That no man knows
Wither the roots of it ran.
None gave me bread.
None gave me drink.
Down to the deepest depths I peered
Until I spied the Runes.
With a roaring cry I seized them up
Then dizzy and fainting I fell.
Well-being I won
And wisdom, too.
From a word to a word
I was led to a word.
From a deed to another deed.
To me these words represent one way to describe the essential journey of discovery that leads out of the self. May yours (and mine) be much easier than Odin’s!
Dan, I am still catching up on your past writing, and I like this post very much.