Provocation of the month:
"Some leaders should not succeed"
We want all leaders to succeed! Or do we?
How much should we support leaders? How much are we willing to support all kind of leaders? And if we support all kind of leaders, why do we do it? What is steering us? What is our driving force?
Thinking Outside-in and Inside-out
No organization has the right to exist unless it contributes to making our world, our common world, a little bit better. What did we learn about that at business school? The purpose of an organization is not to make money! The purpose of an organization has to do with how we can make our world a little bit better as our parents and ancestors have done. They made mistakes also and at the same time look at our improved quality of life today and the material things we take for granted. I walk into a room and flip a switch and have light. I turn a faucet and have water. I step into a plane and some hours later get off across the ocean and in another country.
We as human beings have a tendency, for good or bad, to maximize our own personal outcome in life. At the same time we know that we can achieve so much more when we work together and support each other. All of us should have good answers to the following questions: ”How do I/we want things to be in our world?” and ”What will I/we do in order to contribute to that?”
We all have a responsibility to think bigger than our own success
That is why we should not support all leaders if they cannot show that they are working for making our common world a little bit better. We have to also examine ourselves. Are we working to make the world a little bit better by our own contributions or are we working only for ourselves? In the long run we are all One and mutually interdependent.
All of this is ”nice words” and at the same time what is the alternative? We all know what the alternatives are. Destructive competition, wars, mobbing, starvation are just a few examples of what the alternatives are. It is time for us to learn from the past and take a personal stand regarding how we want things to be in our world and actively contribute to that.
Vision, Compensation ambitions and Ego traps
Vision is about how I want things to be in our common world and compensation ambitions are about what I personally want to achieve, not caring about the whole. The extension of compensation ambitions is that I will easily fall into my own ego trap and that is not a nice place to be for myself and for my surroundings. When you have fallen into an ego trap, the only thing that matters is your own satisfaction. Other people become tools to use to gain your ends.
The best is that we do not have to invent our visions. They have already been stated in a very, very conscious way, as visions and not compensation ambitions, “we do to other people what we want them to do to us”, or “a society where more people care more about themselves, each other and coming generations”.
Where do I end up with my reflections this time?
I should not support myself or other leaders if we are not showing ourselves and our world that we understand that we are all One and mutually interdependent (definitely in the long run).
We should support leaders that have a clear vision answering the question: ”How do I/we want things to be in our world”. We need to see how we/they want to make our common world a little bit better. We need to see that we ourselves and other leaders prove that we are actively contributing to that vision.
Here is a link to a video which can give you some new insights to our common world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
Warm greetings from Uppsala that is covered with snow again.
Hans
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