Defining yourself (South Africa) and staying in touch with others (global community)

Much of life can be described as the challenge to balance the need to be separate with the need to be close. We need to be separate (to be alone, to stand on our own two feet) and to be close (to be together, to stand hand-in-hand). The two forces are in tension and they produce feelings of anxiety. The art of living good, productive and satisfying lives in many ways has to do with the art of facing the two forces and managing the anxiety of being in between well. It is true for individual human beings but it is also true for communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world.

People are different but so are communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world. The way we differentiate ourselves from others is visible (apart from physical features) in our preferred language, our culture, customs and habits. At a deeper and psychological level we find interesting patterns of thought and preferences. Carl Jung developed the theory about four primary modes of experiencing the world (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting). Studies of the brain helped us to understand its four-fold nature: the left brain control logical processes (thinking), the right brain is more metaphorical in orientation (intuiting), the cerebral cortex is concept oriented (sensing) and the limbic brain is emotionally centred (feeling).

As we grow up as teenagers and young adults we develop our preferences in terms of experiencing the world and work more consciously on defining our identity. Again, it can also be said of the way nations develop and grow. South Africa, it has to be said, is a young nation. How young? As a democracy we have to say only 12 years. In the mix are the identities of various peoples. But as a new democracy and nation it is early days for the formation of an identity. How will South Africa differentiate herself? One way of doing it is to say we are not from the North, the West or the East. Ronnie Lessem in his book The Four Worlds builds on Jung’s model to show that the world broadly has four cultural forms. It can be described in a number of ways. One is -

The North represents the belief: I am because I think I am (Jung’s thinking)

The East the belief: I am because I renew/recreate (intuiting)

The West the belief: I am because I do (sensing)

The South the belief: I am because we are – ubuntu (feeling)


Clearly, no one value is more important than the other. Rather, in building our organisations, our communities and societies, we look for and learn from the scientific and analytical contributions from the North, the innovation and process perfection from the East, the practicism and value creation from the West and the humanism and sense of community from the South (The contribution from the South can further be described as a powerful sense of the past and a profound feeling for community; organisation is a story involving people and events; a sense of rootedness of belonging to the soil).

If the North values conservation, the East values catalyzation, the West competition and the South co-creation. To quote one more of Lessem’s descriptions of types that fit the cultures of the four regions, the managerial types would be the Herder manager for the North, the Gardener manager for the East, the Hunter manager for the West and the Steward manager for the South.

As South Africans and a very young democracy, we need to both define ourselves and embrace our cultural strength as a Southern region, and stay in touch with others (particularly in the 21st global village) by learning from the strengths of others. While we might be stronger in one particular area of human existence, we latently have the same potential to reason with the North, innovate with the East and compete with the West. In the process of building this new South Africa we clearly experience a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about our future. In leadership I believe that, similar to the way we raise our children, we need to lay strong foundations of identity (as we know and understand it today as Africans – irrespective of race - and not as Europeans) and allow for the evolvement of that identity as we eagerly learn more of the world we live in. As leaders we give direction, not only to be more successful, more competent and more prosperous, but also to build and leave a legacy of civilization, social and spiritual well-being for our children and their children.

African Renaissance

Mo Ibrahim, former CEO of Celtel, offers a $5m prize for Africa's most effective head of state. With over 10 million customers and sold for $3.4 billion last year, Mo (a former Egyptian) said at a World Bank conference earlier this year that Celtel is is living proof that you can do clean business successfully in Africa. The company’s overriding vision is ‘Making Life Better’. The award will go to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents. In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Mr Ibrahim, 60, said leaders had no life after office.

"Suddenly all the mansions, cars, food, wine is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital. That incites corruption; it incites people to cling to power. The prize will offer essentially good people, who may be wavering, the chance to opt for the good life after office," said Mr Ibrahim.

Whether this initiative will improve leadership and governance in Africa is an open question. However, I regard it as a good news African Renaissance story.

I trust you will enjoy a ‘good news’ November. End of November/December is a good time to consider your leadership plan for 2007. Since I’m not going anywhere during this time I would enjoy meeting with you and discuss future plans of development – just send me an email. Take a moment and visit my upgraded website www.neweraleadership.co.za.

Regards