For 25 years or more I personally have sought to better understand this wake-up call. Can you hear it? Or are you hitting the snooze button? Anyone who considers themselves to be a leader is being asked, called, prompted, cajoled, maybe even forced into living up to that function from a higher vantage point.
Who or what is doing the asking? The planet for one, our home, the living entity with which we are called to live in harmony and cooperation. For those with eyes to see, it’s so obvious that we are out of harmony with our planet right now. Can we all say that we and our organisations are placing that at the top of our leadership agenda – truly? But also, our societies, communities and the people who work within our organisations are asking. Organisations can have a huge impact on human flourishing as we all know – not just in the presence of ‘well-being’ programmes which are a helpful start for sure, but through the fundamental values on which we base our way of being as leaders and as a collective organism. How the values truly live – how the rubber hits the road.
Secondly, reflecting on and from the ‘higher vantage point’ is so important. We can see the global destruction around us on every level. We know first hand the challenges everyone is facing to navigate the turmoil – economic, social and political – in how we lead and guide our organisations. It’s so important that really great organisations survive and thrive – they have an enormous impact way beyond the confines of what they produce or the service they offer and the people who do that. These concentric circles of impact are potentially massive and as leaders we have an enormous yet exciting challenge to expand our worldview and the impact of our work.
How do we best do that? Firstly, we have to lift our heads up and open our minds to embrace a wider perspective. Paradoxically this can be best done through active, reflective silence in which we place a big, hairy question such as ‘how can we change our products to be more beneficial to the planet?’
We also need to be willing to let go of what we think we know and open to the enquiry – be comfortable with not knowing and overcoming the temptation to rely on past experience to help us solve and respond to these bigger questions with bolder action.
We can also collaborate with a diverse group of others in exploring the questions and really hearing the answers – however diverse and ‘strange’ some may seem. Being open to possibility of breakthrough at another level.
Tools and approaches exist to help leaders and their teams to navigate this wake up call – we just need to decide it is our responsibility to wake up and not hit the snooze button.