The 21st century model is all about, collective thought, invitation and relationship. It’s about trust, respect and optimism. It has everything to do with connections, whether they are visible or not, and a fundamental belief that all people, no matter who, can shape their reality and be leaders of, if nothing else, their own destiny.
Rutter in the quarterly journal “The Edge”, has the following to say about leadership…
“Leadership can be lonely. The very definition of the concept implies ‘being in front of’ – and often this means being on your own. John Mott, the American missionary statesman of the first half of last century, understood a leader to be ‘one who knows the road, who can keep ahead, and who can pull others after him’ – note not standing behind and pushing.”
This is a fairly widely accepted view of leadership and one may be hard pressed to find much resistance to it, if any at all.
I would however, like to suggest a completely different model of leadership. Even go so far as to suggest that what is written above is a model of leadership that belongs to the 20th century.
The model of leadership for the 21st century is not based on going out ahead, forging new paths and pulling people along. It has nothing to do with charisma, manipulation or charm. It is not about forcing, sustaining or motivating.
The 21st century model is all about, collective thought, invitation and relationship. It’s about trust, respect and optimism. It has everything to do with connections, whether they are visible or not, and a fundamental belief that all people, no matter who, can shape their reality and be leaders of, if nothing else, their own destiny.
If the 20th century worldview was dominated by Newtonian thinking, then the 21st century will get its cues from Quantum Theory. Newtonian thinking insists that the Universe is a giant machine, and everything it’s parts. One could therefore dissect each part to understand how it works, or doesn’t, what it does and it’s cause and effect. Everything is replaceable and nothing cannot be understood or quantified if dissected sufficiently. As Newtonians we could very scientifically understand, label and find a place for everything and anything.
Quantum Theory on the other hand suggests that the Universe is completely connected by invisible connections. One cannot, therefore, simply pull everything apart as if everything was merely a part of the whole. To remove one item is to remove everything. To dissect one you must dissect all.
It is no wonder then that the leadership model of the 20th century has evolved the way that it has. If one has a view of an organisation as a machine, then it makes perfect sense to find the most influential part and assign it leadership status. With the most influential part leading it seems obvious that the rest of the parts will follow? It’s from this position that maximum leverage can be applied. People who believe they have no ability to shape their destiny will take their cues from the strongest, most persuasive person available.
The most obvious question relating to this leadership style is, at what cost? There is no denying that this leadership style has served the world as we know it during the last century. One only need look around to see our great human achievements. They are many and impressive. Our skylines are populated by tall buildings, large industry and orderly communities. There have been great advances in medicine and science. We are now able to offer vacations in space to non-specialists, drive at the speed of sound, and instantly talk to anyone on the globe with no wires connecting us. This is a leadership style that gets things done. Efficiency and effectiveness are it’s keywords.
The other side of the coin is not as ‘shiny’. Welfare systems are stretched. Relationships between people are strained. We have for the most part created a world in which people feel increasingly powerless. They feel insignificant, unnoticed, as if they were a small part of a large machine. (Strange that) We have sayings like, “no one is indispensable!” Worse – we really believe them. Sayings like these exist because Newtonian thinking has invaded our minds and convinced us that we are not valuable, unique and more importantly, able to change our world.
The leadership model for this century is a far cry from its sibling. In his book Synchronicity, Joseph Jaworski has the following to say about the new leadership paradigm…
“The conventional view of leadership emphasizes positional power and conspicuous accomplishment. But true leadership is about creating a domain in which we continually learn and become more capable of participating in our unfolding future. A true leader thus sets the stage on which predictable miracles, synchronistic in nature, can-and do-occur.
The capacity to discover and participate in our unfolding future has more to do with our being-our total orientation of character and consciousness-than with what we do. Leadership is about creating, day by day, a domain in which we and those around us continually deepen our understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future. This, then, is the deeper territory of leadership-collectively ‘listening’ to what is wanting to emerge in the world, and then having the courage to do what is required.”
If we have a Quantum view of the world we are aware of the connections between all people, the collective mind, and the realisation that the universe is fluid and open. We have the ability to determine what it will look like in the future, if only we speak into existence that which we want to happen. The new leadership takes advantage of collective leadership and recognises that only when we are all leading do we have a truly powerful model and any real chance of affecting change in our world.
The challenge of the new leadership paradigm then, is to invite others to the task of leadership. By creating, as Jaworski puts it, “a domain in which we and those around us continually deepen our understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future.” This is the new model of leadership. Invitational Leadership.
