Leadership CrisisPublished: September 17, 2011 NYT

“As the economy faces the risk of another recession, and the

2012 campaign looms, President Obama has been

groping for a response to the biggest crisis of his career. All

he has to do is listen to the voters.”

What if the leader’s direction is wrong?

What if the vision is the product of delusional thinking?

What if the leader seeks to manipulate the people for his own nefarious

purposes? What if the people become unhealthily

dependent on the leader and fail to develop their own capabilities?

What if the people yearn for easy answers and painless solutions, and reward

charismatic, answer-giving demagogues with power?

Given these possibilities, we

need a fresh understanding of

what it means to be a real and

responsible leader—one that does not

see leaders as separate from the dynamic of leader-follower and goal

but the dynamic of leadership-group

and reality.

Source: Jacob Grimm, Mythologist

The mythological Odin was deeply concerned with the issue of real and responsible leadership. Odin

was god ofthe gods—the chairman of the board—a powerful

authority figure who could use his power to create or destroy. He was also known as the god of magic, poetry, wisdom, and battle. He was not omniscient or omnipotent. Odin was a flawed god. He knew his

knowledge was incomplete, and therefore he actively sought to learn more about the world so

that he could do a better job of being head god. He put himself through terrible situations to acquire

knowledge including willingly sacrificing his eye, to acquire sufficient wisdom to lead. His quest for insight led him to the World Tree, the center of

creation. The World Tree represented the physical and moral laws of the world. He was informed that

in order to gain enough wisdom to actually help people, he would have to hang on the World Tree

for nine days and nights.

Unfortunately, outside the realms of religion and folklore, the concept of wisdom seems to be on the decline. We talk easily about intelligence, information, and knowledge, but wisdom seems to be a quaint, antiquated, outdated notion. Wisdom, as it pertains to real leadership, does not mean having all the answers. It requires pursuing the truth with fervor and passion, being sensitive to the context in which the problem resides, and holding the question in each context, “What will make our work worthwhile—to our lives and the lives of others?” Even if one is accustomed to top-down management, one needs to understand the relationship between wisdom, power, and real leadership.

Wisdom is not an arrived state of being

but a continued process of applying correct information

to one’s development.

Enron’s chairman and CEO,

Kenneth Lay.

1999 Market Capitalization of

$65 Billion.

$82.00 per Share.

In a society which trades information as a commodity, not as a right, the leader is usually someone who has information or access to information, which, inevitably, they use to give them an advantage over the rest of us. Any information which is

likely to threaten their position, even where it would clearly increase the power of the people, would be kept from the people. It

should not be surprising that cabinet meetings, executive meetings, "high level" negotiations and other such conspiracies are all secret affairs which always exclude the people they are supposed to be about. Anyone who will only discuss your business

in your absence is not dealing with your business in your interest.

Describes how effective, heroic people

acknowledged and faced both the darkness and

the light.

They learned to acknowledge both

realities as part of the whole. But, as Campbell emphasized, “Although

they stand at the neutral point between

darkness and light, they always leaned into the

light.”

We are always authentic to our present state of development. We all behave in

perfect alignment with our current level of emotional, psychological, and spiritual

evolution. All our actions and relationships, as well as the quality and

power of our leadership, accurately express the person we have become. Therefore, we conclude that we are

“authentic,” because we are doing the best we can with the information

and experience that we have at this time.

How does one person represent

the views and aspirations of a

disparate mass of people whose

leaders, academics, and intellectuals

themselves do not have a common view of what a leader is

or should be.

?

Supreme Court Justice Byron White

U.S. President Barrak Obama

The reason why we cannot find

leaders who can represent our

interests is that on the issue of Self-determination, the

interests of the "leader" are essentially

incompatible with the interests of the

people.

One sign of an effective leader is their ability to lift up the masses of

those who are following them in such a way that

there is no longer a need for them to

serve as leader.

What makes a person want to be a

And why would anyone want to be a

POWER• POS

or

• POO

or

Both

“There is nothing noble

in being superior to your fellow men, true nobility is

being superior to your former

self.”Lao Tzu

We are disillusioned

and disappointed

with our leaders

because what we expect of them can not be delivered.

Fundamentally, it is about ensuring

that whatever gets generated is

inclusive, not exclusive; ismoral, not immoral; is

constructive, not destructive; is

sane, not insane.

People must learn why they are in a particular condition in order to

make & implement plans to go forward that will

produce genuine progress, as opposed to hollow and temporary

gains. If people refuse to face hard truths, are weak at

learning, or learn the wrong things, then their problem-solving capacity will suffer, and they, their

group, or culture may wither and die.

Why?

Where are you

going?

Who are you?