Leadership
What do Great Leaders and Roberto Assagioli Have in Common?
A number of years ago, while living in the USA and working for one of the Virgin companies, I had the pleasure of meeting and observing Sir Richard Branson. I also had the pleasure of sitting with Branson for 1-on-1 chats on four different occasions. His presence and style of leadership left a lasting impression on me.
During the course of my life, having worked in Australia, New Zealand, England, Taiwan, Canada, and the USA, I witnessed the same leadership approach on two other occasions only; once in Australia, and the other in England. These three company leaders all had one thing in common that made their leadership styles unique, making them leadership exemplars. They were not followers masquerading as a leaders, as we too often see in modern times, with many leader want-to-be individuals confusing their ego with their ability.
Branson, as the other two, is the archetype of a leader, and has demonstrated that genuine leadership does not come from a college degree, nepotism, or carpetbagging. However, there is a stand out characteristic amongst them though, and I would speculate that is more an intrinsic quality than an acquired quality.
F--- Golf! Do the Work YOU Need to do!
While an MBA, or any degree, will add worthwhile tools and skills to your array, it will not make you a great leader anymore than possession of a driving license makes you a great driver. And just as you can dress in the most beautiful clothes you want, or impress your friends and colleagues with your golfing skills, if you’re not the leader of your inside world, you will never excel as a leader of your outside world.
If you desire to be an effective, respected, and successful leader, and there is a shortage, explore and address your inside world first. You’ll need to do the internal work first, because great leaders know their baggage, and check it at the door.
Assagioli said, “there is no certainty–there is only adventure”. Surely then, the greatest adventure is exploring and discovering who we really are, thereby allowing us to forgo our masks and become a unifying center. Thereby, and more significantly, allowing others to forgo the masks they wear for us.
Have you contemplated the essence of your leadership behavior? What internal work have you completed as part of your process? If not, what is your facade of choice?
When genuine leaders embrace their leadership persona, they temporarily discarded all other personas, thereby keeping there leadership persona free of contamination from personas that are incidental to the leadership role. Very few individuals understand this leadership necessity. Of those that do, fewer are able to embrace it, and master it. Consequently, Western societies remain deficient of genuine leaders.
Modern Western society struggles with this basic leadership skills because the culture embraces individualism, and is consequently ego orientated and self-centered. The result is highly dysfunctional leadership due to the leader positioning his or her own desires, goals, or needs, above those of the collective; often to the detriment of the collective goal.
In contrast, numerous indigenous cultures demonstrate far superior leadership qualities. They do so because their culture embraces the collective, and no individual is above the collective goal—survival of the people. Significantly, these cultures embrace nature as part of the collective also. Of little surprise it should be therefore, that animals often demonstrate better leadership qualities than modern Western society also.