This week i’ve been sharing some new work on ‘The Moral Leader’: it’s very early stage and imperfect, but that is, itself, the nature of this work. Imperfect leadership within imperfect systems.
We often talk about ‘leadership’ as something of an ideal: something we can learn to do perfectly, something that ‘works’. But what if it isn’t? What if leadership is always simply a navigation of complex choices within imperfect system, and is itself, hence always imperfect. What if ‘success’ means not achieving perfect outcomes, but making considered choices and having a clear view of your impact, both in the light and the shadows?
This may sound defeatist or mundane. Why shouldn’t we strive for excellence?
Well: perhaps imperfect leadership is excellent, because it’s about doing out best when neither we, nor our collective systems, are perfect. Because we are human.
All of the choices that we make will have an impact, and many of them will impact both positively and negatively: they will give something to someone, and take it away from someone else. Not because we make bad decisions, but simply because we have to make decisions.
Give one person an opportunity and you cannot give it to someone else: so how would you decide what’s fair?
The framework in use it this work - which is still very poorly developed - is to seek out ways to understand how our ‘compass’ works, what the ‘maps’ look like, the impact of our ‘communities, and the overall nature of the journey that we make. Because most of these things - our moral compass, our understanding of choice, our communities, our maps of what is right and wrong - most of these things are socially constructed and imperfect in themselves, or at the very least are highly contextual.
So to consider the ‘moral’ leader is not an absolute measure: morality, in these terms, is about mindful action, and a deliberate effort to be cognisant of context and impact.
The Humble Leader
The first print run of ‘The Humble Leader’ is almost sold out: there’s still time to order a copy, but under 100 left. You can find details here, for delivery anywhere in the world.
The Moral Leader