FW: New Era Leadership: The illusion of security

Security is when everything is settled. When nothing can happen to you. Security is the denial of life

- Germaine Greer

 

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing

- Helen Keller

 

Since my last communication a number of dramatic things happened in our world. I’m thinking of the split in the ANC and the resulting announcement of the new political party COPE, the election of Barack Obama as America’s first black president and the ongoing instability in the financial markets with fears of worldwide recession. Many things in our country and our world interfere with our sense of security. For many people a grim economic outlook translates into certain levels of anxiety and depression. Unpleasant surprises in life will always be … unpleasant surprises. What really matters is how we can respond to those challenges. As we know as individuals, as families, as organisations and as nations, we are only really tested in terms of our quality, our character and our resilience when the going gets tough. When unpredictable and far-reaching things happen in our lives, we are not so much tested in terms of our talent, our skills, our image, our reputation, our wealth or our resources and connections as we are challenged in the inner theatre of our thoughts, beliefs, values, principles, wisdom and character. If we cannot rise to the challenges we experience at the core of our existence, the attack on our minds and our spirits where fear and disappointments can rob us from all meaning and purpose, then all the rest counts for nothing. If we feel unable to cope in a world of disappointments and a world of instability, we become cynical, indifferent and unhappy – and we want others to feel the same. The problem is that in the kind of world that we are living in today much emphasis is placed on the amount of energy and time one needs to invest (and the discipline one has to apply) to build a successful exterior, but we seldom hear or talk about the sacrifice and discipline needed to build the more important inner strengths. It is how we live in the good times that determines how we respond to the challenges of hard times.        

 

As surely as the year 2008 will come to an end, our earthly lives will also come to an end. This is a much needed perspective if we want to live the meaningful lives that we know we all want to live. If we don’t remind ourselves of this fact – which is the only earthly thing we can know for certain about our future – we could so easily be deceived into a lifelong strive for the illusionary absolute security. In reality it is more fighting life than living life. It is like swimming against the stream. Think for a moment how much of your dreams and planning is driven by the desire to secure a comfortable and stable life. As the two quotes above want to remind us, we often might come close to denying life and nature as it really is. Rather, we should embrace life as a daring adventure. More daring than doing extreme sports or explorations is to follow a calling to make a difference in the lives of others. Albert Einstein said only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile and Norman MacEwan said happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

 

With 2009 on our doorstep I hope I can inspire you to live life not in fear but in faith. Go where your faith will be strengthened. Spend time with people who not only share your faith but help you to grow it. Read what is uplifting, experience what is pure and natural and find it in yourself to thank and appreciate others and life in general. Then, in 2009, lead with that faith, build others up when they are down, reach out to those that suffer, make your best contributions to your work organisation with heart and spirit and face the challenges courageously. Elie Wiesel said the following wise words:

 

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

 

Leaders never allow themselves to become indifferent. They care, they inspire and they find the passion in their souls. Henry James said: ‘Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.’ As Stephen Covey also reminds us, whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.

 

My best wishes for the rest of 2008. Have a blessed Christmas and very special 2009.

 

Gerhard

 

FW: Leadership and gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I see the Pope says it’s time for the world to wake up and put its faith in the right place. To put your faith in the financial markets and for that matter in money, is like building your house on sand – it is unstable and cannot weather the storms of life. Whether you are Catholic or not and whether the Pope said what he said or not, I’m sure you will agree there is something to learn from the turmoil and instability in the world economy - the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, they say. Listening to CNN and the comments and analysis of the Americans, it is interesting how the word ‘greed’ suddenly became an accepted word to describe the root cause for the ‘credit crunch’. Before, it was probably viewed by many as the only defense losers have in the modern world’s success game – to accuse the winners of greed. It is also interesting how ‘trust’ and with that the integrity and trustworthiness of financial institutions became key issues to prevent the financial systems from freezing and collapsing. As I see it, suddenly, all the complex workings of the financial world became simple matters of human values and morality. Not that money is unimportant, but to what extent does it determine our happiness and appreciation of life and does it make us compromise more important values and moral beliefs?

Isn’t it true that as we put all our efforts into trying to be successful in what we do, into obtaining what we don’t have and into becoming recognised for something more than what we are, we can so easily loose sight of what we have and what we can celebrate? Not that we need proof, but psychologists in recent years researched the role of gratitude in people’s outlook on life and their conclusion is that it is one of the most neglected emotions and one of the most underestimated of the virtues (The Psychology of Gratitude - Edited by R. A. Emmons & M.E. McCullough). Why is it neglected? Why do we almost resist the idea of gratitude? We do not like to think of ourselves as indebted and would rather see our good fortunes as our own doing - whereas the losses and sufferings are not our fault. Robert Solomons in the above mentioned book suggests that gratitude lies at the very heart of ethics and that it is more basic than even duty and obligation. Can you relate to this view? How much are you driven by a sense of duty and obligation in comparison to a sense of gratitude? And to add to the mix, the pursuit of success? Which of the three potential drivers of your actions, commitments and hard work, (obligation, the pursuit of success and gratitude) offers the most to the quality of one’s life? Dietrich Bonhoeffer maintains that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.

The ability to express gratitude and to cultivate an attitude of gratitude is not only a virtue but part and parcel of living a good life. It is not just an acknowledgment of debt and an expression of humility but is also a way to improve one's life. It is more than just a positive view of life. It is a way of putting one’s life in perspective. Experiences and expressions of gratitude shapes identity. The grateful person is inclined to dwell on the favourable rather than the regrettable, to notice the good in situations rather than the bad. He/she is therefore better able to think and act pro-actively and creatively. Compare this with contrasting feelings of resentment, regret and envy and their effects on a person. Certainly, there are times when we feel resentment or regret but we also know that those feelings keep us from moving on with our lives. It makes us depressed. Envy implies not only dissatisfaction in general but dissatisfaction with oneself. It is a form of self-alienation. It implies that good can only be found in a situation where I am superior to the next person. Chances are not good that an envious person will experience many moments of true happiness. The test of all happiness, said Gilbert Chesterton, is gratitude, and all goods look better when they look like gifts.

We all need ways and reasons to transcend many of the circumstances that disappoint, frustrate, and anger us. Focusing on the reasons why and to whom we can be grateful to, as a habit in our lives, enables us to transcend our circumstances and live with bigger vision and perspective – particularly if we reflect on the gift of life itself. (Even Nietzsche in his meditations asked himself: How could I fail to be grateful to my whole life?) Gratitude can be seen as a positive emotion and as such it generates ‘an upward spiral toward optimal functioning and enhanced emotional well-being’. Gratitude broadens a person’s mode of thinking and action, the ability to cope and to be resilient. Depressing and negative thoughts have the opposite effect. It narrows us down to specific and often isolated situations and it drains our energy.

Now, as you know very well, the mood, attitude and worldview of leaders is not irrelevant to the organisations they are in. The positive emotions of the leader, fed by deep feelings of gratitude, are contagious and create positive, productive and pleasant atmospheres. Sometimes it’s obviously harder to have and show those emotions, sometimes it’s easier. In tough times don’t forget to work harder at cultivating your sense of gratitude – that is, take time out to see the bigger picture of life and its Giver. In good times don’t forget that the delight with your success is incomplete if you don’t express gratitude to those who helped you to make it possible.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow - Melodie Beattie

 

Best wishes

 

(Expect my next and last letter of the year at the end of November)

 

Gerhard

Leadership and Honesty

What value does a thought have, apart from the truth it contains or seeks after? – Andre Comte-Sponville

 

What attribute do people look for most in a leader? Competence? Charisma? Intelligence? Research done by the University of California is confirmed in my own surveys as I asked the question to many different groups in SA companies. Top of the list is honesty. Amazing isn’t it? What has honesty to do with being a good leader? It is fundamental! When a group of people get lost somewhere in the bush and they are looking for a leader to lead them back to safety there could be a number of volunteers for the role. ‘Know-how’ will obviously be key. All the volunteers would however claim that they have the ‘know-how’. But who can I believe? Who can I trust? Who do I know is honest with him/herself and honest with others? Who lives with integrity?

 

We live in a world full of deceit, pretense, so-called ‘white lies’ and dubiousness. In our daily interactions people say things and promise things. We hear but we have learnt to believe only what we see – we’ve become cynical of what people say. In our cities we can, for a large part, live anonymously. We can get away with being dishonest. Where previously in smaller, closer and more homogeneous communities we were held accountable for what we say, today we don’t expect to be held accountable and we have given up on trying to hold others accountable (try holding a call centre consultant accountable for his/her promises). It is a sign of our times that we almost desperately look for leaders whom we can trust; leaders who talk and act in good faith. Good faith goes beyond sincerity. Sincerity means not lying to others; good faith means lying neither to others nor to oneself. Lying or not lying to oneself is the ultimate test of moral character and moral character is essential to leadership influence. Can we ever get it perfect? Not in this life but we can make it our goal and strive to do better.

 

When, in what situations, do you feel tempted to lie? I cannot think of an exception to the ‘rule’ that one feels tempted when, in some or other way, one feels that telling the truth could directly or indirectly harm oneself. It could be harmful in material terms, or in terms of our comfort, or it could be harmful in terms of loss of respect, esteem or admiration. It relates to selfish or ego needs. (I guess lying over time can become such a habit that people can lie for the sake of lying – not really knowing anymore why they feel compelled to lie). Comte-Sponville explains good faith or truthfulness as loving truth more than oneself. That is a tall order! Ultimately I feel I must be able to see that holding on to and living by the truth, even though it could have temporary negative implications for myself, will in the end be for my own good. If God is your truth then acting in good faith (being truthful) means loving God more than you love yourself. Since God loves us, I can feel secure in the knowledge that living the truth will take me to what is good and eternal. There is then no need to deceive, no need to pretend or twist the facts. To be honest though, we have to admit that as human beings we struggle every day to get it right.  

 

‘Must we therefore always speak our hearts, give voice to every thought and every feeling? No, because we cannot. There is too little time, and decency and gentleness forbid it. Sincerity is not exhibition­ism; it is not tactlessness. One has the right to remain silent and indeed quite often one must. Good faith forbids not silence but deception ...’  (Comte-Sponville). As a leader one is often confronted with a situation where telling the truth blatantly could have disastrous results for people and/or for the cause of the organisation. As much as a leader has to be truthful, he/she also has to lead with discernment. It is the combination of the two that earns trust and respect. A truthful person then is someone who loves truth and consequently refuses to lie, whether by over­statement or understatement, fabrication or omission. As Comte-Sponville says, better a true sadness than a false joy.

 

The quality of our thoughts determine the quality of our lives and our leadership. As leaders we have strategic thoughts, analytical and problem solving thoughts, innovative and opportunistic thoughts, and many other kinds of thoughts. As we think, reflect, prepare, make our plans or even construct our responses in conversations, it will do us good to keep the question in mind: What value does a thought have, apart from the truth it contains or seeks after?   

 

I trust you will enjoy a wonderful spring!

 

Gerhard

 

Humility is the virtue of a man who knows he is not God . it means loving the truth and submitting to it - Andre Comte-Sponville

I am sure you would also like to be seen as humble and yet assertive and confident as opposed to arrogant or timid. Is it possible to balance the two sides? Are they two sides? Can you confidently say that you are a humble person … and then be humble? In fact, we all know that to pride oneself on one’s own humility is to lack it. To say ‘I lack humility’ and mean it, on the other hand, is a step towards humility. In my view both humility and assertiveness are key characteristics of a good leader and they do compliment one another.

 

To think that one is simply born or not born with the perfect personality that includes humbleness and assertiveness as characteristics, is a misconception. If Comte-Sponville is correct – as I believe he is - in saying that humility means loving the truth and submitting to it, then it is obvious that humility will be the outcome of a lifelong commitment to and pursuit of the truth. It necessitates application, focus and the willingness to learn – particularly about oneself in relation to the world. It is therefore not a genetically determined personality trait but an attitude and approach to life. It is an attitude and approach one can choose to have. It is the same attitude and approach to life that I believe can grow assertiveness and confidence if it is accompanied by the willingness to risk the unknown.

 

Humility should not be confused with lowliness. Being lowly, says Comte-Sponville, means ‘forsaking one's true worth, underestimating one's true value, to the point of not allow­ing oneself to undertake any higher action, which one assumes to be beyond one's capabilities’. Lowliness and lack of confidence and assertiveness therefore goes hand in hand. Humility, understood wrongly, can lead to lowliness. Humility understood correctly, goes hand in hand with mercy. There is a need to be merciful toward ourselves, since perfection is not achievable in this life. If we can’t be merciful to ourselves we can’t be merciful to others. A further point is that our ability to love others is also related to the humbleness of our spirit. Without humility ‘the self comes to occupy all the available space and sees the other person as an object ... or as an enemy’. The acknowledgement that my view about myself is always potentially full of illusions leads to humility and it creates room for the other person.  

 

So, how important and how relevant are the above views to the work environment and our effectiveness? VERY important. Our effectiveness and influence are determined to a large extent by others’ perception of how well we have our ego’s in check as well as how assertive and convincing we come across.  Do you wish you could be more assertive and find the ideal, effective way of speaking your mind? Do you perhaps have the suspicion that your colleagues or some of them think you are arrogant and that while they won’t challenge you openly, they also don’t support you when you need them to do so? From other people’s perspective they would like to see you share praise with them when it’s due; they would appreciate your encouragement and support of their development; they would like to see that your status doesn’t stand in the way of being economical and being human and they would like to see that whether you are dealing with powerful and influential people or conversing with them socially, you are the same person. When they see and experience the opposite, they know that you lack humility.

 

At the same time, others wouls like to see that when you speak, when you share your views, when you listen to what others are saying, when you respond to criticism or questioning, that you do so with assertiveness and healthy self-esteem. As with humility, this is not something we can fake. We either have it or we don’t. If we don’t and we know the situation requires it, we over compensate and appears to be arrogant. Else we are seen as timid and lacking influence. When we overreact to something that’s been said and that implicates us in a negative way, when we don’t come forward and volunteer for a task that others know we can and actually would like to do, when we appear to be in need of status symbols, when we play down other people’s successes in life ... others know that we lack assertiveness and self-esteem.      

 

So where do we buy humility and self-esteem? Clearly, it is not something one can set as a development goal in life. The quote above points us in the right direction. ‘Knowing that you are not God’ will humble you. You will know that while you do have a role to play on this earth, it is the role of a human being with limitations, with fears and with many different and volatile human emotions. At the same time, if you can believe that you are His creation, you find your true worth from that believe. A worth that is not dependent on others’ views, our life histories, our performances, accomplishments or previous failures. That believe empowers me to risk the unknown, to have the courage to test my limits and accept failure as part of my growth and development process. That believe empowers me to face severe criticism with my inner being, my self-esteem, intact and secure. That believe gives us the proper perspective about ourselves and our relationship to the world.  

 

I wish you the very best for August and hope that you can move closer to the realisation of your dreams.

 

Best regards

 

Gerhard

 

 

For any organism to survive, its rate of learning must be equal to, or greater than, the rate of change in the environment - Reg Revan

Let’s think of the South African nation as an organism and then apply Revan’s wisdom to it. For the South African nation to survive, its rate of learning must be equal to, or greater than, the rate of change in the environment. How are we doing as learners? Since the rate and quality of change and growth in our institutions (which ultimately goes a long way in determining the quality of life in modern societies) are largely determined by the leaders of our institutions, how good are our leaders as learners? Reading or listening to the news about Zimbabwe, Hiv-Aids, the crime situation, accountability in governments departments (budgets not spent), the brain-drain and more, we often feel very frustrated about the seemingly unwillingness from leaders to learn from the past or from others’ advice. What seems to be obvious to the outsider, is for some mysterious reason not so obvious to the key decision maker. Is the situation more complex than what we assume, is it nothing but hidden agendas of personal interest, or is the leader a slow or unwilling learner?  

 

Even in the most forgivable scenario – assuming moral character but complex challenges with good arguments on both sides – the real test is the willingness to stay open to new insights and new wisdom. Good insights on one day can be bad ideas on another. If a leader is not willing to learn, he can quickly change from a good leader to a bad one. No good leader is born with all the right answers and solutions to the world. It will always be a learning process for a good leader to find the best responses to the challenges of the day.

 

To be a good learner as we age, apparently does not come naturally to human beings. A child asks on average 125 questions per day. An adult only 6. It is a clear indication that we tend to slow down dramatically as learners with age. Learning is hard work. It is harder work to give an hour’s full attention to another person than to spend 10 hours at work attending meetings but never giving full concentration to what people say – in writing or orally. It is also harder work to reflect on and to integrate one’s own beliefs and values with creative strategies than to argue from a well-known point of view that one simply adopted from others. As Scott Peck maintains, laziness is the original sin and it is our laziness to do the hard work of giving attention, of risking confrontation, of committing and of giving love that leads to evil.        

 

We need to fight our laziness to learn – even more so as we get older. What keeps us from learning broadly falls into one of four categories:

 

Not so say what we think

 

By not saying what we think we not only keep others guessing our thoughts or views, but we never learn to be fully accountable. We keep a backdoor open through which we can escape when things get rough or uncomfortable but we also aren’t going anywhere. The fear of being wrong or saying something unpopular inhibit our learning – we will forever wonder what the value of our thoughts are. We will not learn. We will not grow.

 

Not to do what we say

 

As they say, the proof is in the eating. Talk is cheap and we at best learn a few cheap lessons by talking about what we plan to do. It is by following through with actions that we make the useful discoveries about what work and what not, what is beneficial and what not. It is also by following through on our ideas and visions with actions that we learn more about ourselves -  our resourcefulness, our courage, our skills, our inner strength etc.

 

Not to see what we do

 

To be blind about the effects of our actions is another learning impediment. Even when we reflect on what we’ve done and do some introspection we can still miss important learning from our actions. We need others to help us. We need to trust some people to help us with their feedback, their observations. 

 

Not to recognise what we see  

 

The hard work of learning includes the application of our analytical abilities to what we see. The more we practice mindful observation the easier it can become to recognise what we see when looking at a situation. But often it is only after long and hard contemplation that the underlying patterns that will help us to solve the problems we face, become clear.

 

Lifelong learners are people we recognise as thoughtful and wise. They are scarce. So are good leaders. The reason is probably that we need the peculiar balance of maturity and childlike naivety. A good learner will be someone who is mature and emotionally healed enough not to feel that he needs to compensate for earlier wounds of his ego and at the same time have a childlike hunger and eagerness to learn more about a world that never stops to fill him with awe and wonder.

 

I hope I have given you some motivation to embrace lifelong learning. I hope you can find some applications of the ideas that will make a significant positive difference to yourself and others.

 

I close with some of Peck’s views of the work of attention.

  

The work of attention – Scott Peck

 

True listening, total concentration on the other, is always a manifestation of love. An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker's world from the inside, stepping inside his or her shoes. This unification of speaker and listener is actually an extension and enlargement of ourself, and new knowledge is always gained from this. Moreover, since true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the other. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will feel less and less vulnerable and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the duet dance of love is again begun. The energy required for the discipline of bracketing and the focusing of total attention is so great that it can be accomplished only by love, by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth. Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listen­ing very hard, what we are usually doing is listening selectively, with a preset agenda in mind, wondering as we listen how we can achieve certain desired results and get the conversation over with as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us.

 

Till next month, best wishes.

 

Gerhard

 

 

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough - Og Mandino

If we look back on what we view as our successes in life, we know from own experience how true Mandino’s statement is. The more satisfying, the more significant, the more life changing our efforts in life, the deeper we had to dig for that little extra endurance, determination, ‘vasbyt’ or inner strength to come through with success. If I could listen to your story of the most significant challenges you had to overcome, I know that it will have a unique quality about it. Even though there might be similar stories, the uniqueness of being you comes through precisely in those times when it seems as though the whole universe has turned it’s back on you. Success, therefore, should be seen more as a state of mind than the external criteria that we sometimes use to describe success: wealth, qualifications, power, influence etc. We will find much more direction by remembering how we worked our own way through tough challenges than by trying to follow others’ definitions of success.   

 

I think the same applies to becoming a ‘successful’ nation. Failure will never overtake us if our determination to succeed is strong enough! Imagine the sum total of the stories of determination of the different peoples in our nation. As is the case with individuals, the different groups of people in our rainbow nation had unique challenges at different times in their past. Together, since 1994, we had unique challenges. There are many reasons to believe that we can work through our current ones. However, the determination to succeed has to be a collective one.

 

If we are success driven by the rules of external popular criteria, it will inevitably lead to more competition amongst ourselves for more status, more wealth, more recognition and more power. We will only be effective in dividing our nation into winners and losers, have’s and have not’s. Failure, says Mandino, is man's inability to reach his goals in whatever they may be. As a nation, we no doubt would want to work towards the goals of higher standards of living for every citizen, respect for all people irrespective of race, gender or social status, increasing opportunities for previously disadvantaged people, increasing constructive influence in the world and particularly African affairs, decrease in all violence, crime and corruption, and a general environment of harmony, peace and prosperity for all. A strong economy will help, foreign investment will help, good governance, democracy and economic stability in our neigbouring countries will help, but ultimately success will be determined only by our collective determination to be successful and our commitment to the attitude and habits needed to get closer to our goals.

 

Does the last part sound easier said than done? Indeed. Even when we have all the commitment and determination we need, we sometimes feel at a loss when there are so many different perspectives on how to solve the problems we encounter. This is where success as an individual can be easier than success as a society - I know what I think and what motivates me but how can I know what others think and what motivates them? We then need exceptional quality leadership. Michael Armour and Don Browning wrote a book Systems Sensitive Leadership. Based on the theories of Clare Graves they explain how the "systems within us" have an immense bearing on the "systems between us." Differentiating eight different systems of thinking they give insight into much of the dynamics we experience daily and see the sometimes tragic, sometimes frustrating and often confusing results of in our newspapers. Where for some the quest in life is mostly about safety (systems 1 and 2) and the most elementary needs of a human being, for others it is about power (system 3), for others about truth (system 4), others achievement (system 5), others intimacy (system 6), and others holistic solutions (systems 7 & 8). Imagine the conflict of opinions between system 3 thinkers and system 6 thinkers.

 

Two key things emerge from the above. We can never stop sharing our determination to succeed as a nation and secondly, we can never stop learning (in the business organisation as much as in other types of organisations) the sensitivity and skill to lead well in diversity.   

 

Warm regards and nights in front of the fireplace.

 

Gerhard

 

Society is undergoing a fundamental shift from "mate¬rial want" to "meaning want," with ever larger numbers of people reasonably secure in terms of living standards, but feeling they lack significance in their lives - Gregg Easterbrook

 

Do you think people in South Africa, on average, are happier today than fifty, hundred, or two hundred years ago? Are you as happy as you hoped to be when you were younger and dreamed of ‘one day’? What, ultimately, do you think determines a person’s happiness? Can one live a fulfilled and meaningful life without necessarily being happy most of the time?

 

You might think the questions above are at best interesting for philosophical debate. Happiness is subjective and contemplating the subject doesn’t lead to anything. But perhaps there is something to learn about our modern lives and the set of assumptions that most people seem to have about the preconditions for happiness. After all, people would often say ‘I just want to be happy’ and they therefore plan their lives according to what they believe will make them happy. It is what drives them, and ultimately it plays out in our culture – the things we value, work for, plan for, dream and talk about. As always is the case, leaders have the responsibility of evaluating the direction we are going, charting the course and of influencing for a better future. Are we leading in the right direction?

 

According to Gregg Easterbrook (The progress paradox) life is getting better but people are feeling worse. If you consider the hardships that people lived through four generations ago and compare it to, let’s say, the typical life of a Westerner today, you might agree with Easterbrook when he says that our great-great-grandparents would have thought that we live in utopia. One example of progress is that in 1900 life expectancy in the United States was forty-one years, while today it is sixty-six years for the entire world. For essentially all of human history until the last few generations, the typical person's lot has been unceasing toil, meager living circumstances, uncertainty about food, rudimentary health care, limited education, little travel or entertainment; all fol­lowed by early death. The typical 21st century person today can enjoy a life of abundance and comfort compared to the past. The irony is however that people feel more depressed today than in previous generations and what’s more, they believe that life is getting worse. ‘The condition in which a person simply always feels blue, is today ten times as prevalent as it was a half century ago…We live in a favoured age yet do not feel favoured.’

 

It is not uncommon to hear people aspiring to more wealth with the expectation that it will increase their happiness and enjoyment of life. The vision is about all the things rich people can do that others can’t. The truth is however that the list of experiences rich people can have that the average person cannot, has shrunk steadily through the past century. By the standards of history, the differences between rich people’s lifestyles and the lifestyle of a typical person are nothing compared to previous chasms in food, shelter, health care, and education. Yet, if you ask an American how much he must earn to ‘live well’, regardless of how much he is earning currently, he will tell you that he needs twice as much. Clearly, at some point in our so-called progress, greediness takes over.

 

In his book Easterbrook analises various aspects typical to modern, in particular American, culture that help to create the impression of things getting worse. One of them is the role of media. ‘Western life is methodically made to sound perilous or precarious by media spin, which emphasizes the negative aspects of developments while downplaying the positive.’ By obsessively focusing on smaller and smaller risks like brain damage from cell phones, extremely rare allergies or toxic drinking water, they create anxiety. We have our own, uniquely South African, examples.    

 

One message we get from a study, such as the one by Easterbrook, of the apparent contradiction between scientific, material and technological progress together with the advantages of market economies on the one side and people’s inability to live satisfied and fulfilled lives on the other, is the need to constantly put things in proper perspective. However, psychologically we find it very difficult to do once we get used to living with an attitude of entitlement and once we start justifying why we can never forgive others for the harm or injustices they caused us. Even religious people, if they are honest with themselves, find it very difficult to live with gratitude and forgiveness in their hearts. The fact of the matter is that those two key virtues do not come automatically or as a once-off inspiration. They are things we need to practice consistently and consciously for as long as we live. The one (gratitude) ultimately implies to be open to God – how else can I be grateful for the beauty of nature, for the gift of a grandchild or the blessing of good health? The other (forgiveness) implies acceptance of forgiveness, forgiving oneself and then to live as a matter of principal from a basis of love rather than fear and retaliation.    

 

If Easterbrook is correct in stating that society is undergoing a fundamental shift from ‘mate­rial want’ to ‘meaning want’, then it is time for leaders to truly value the importance of and responsibility they have to see people and organisations holistically. People won’t respect a leader who sees them as no more than an economical asset. There is an obvious challenge, namely to create workplaces that people experience as meaningful to them. Emphasis on gratitude for what we have and the willingness to forgive would be a good start.     

 

I wish you a happy month of May

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard

 

New Era Leadership April 08

We now can do what we want, and the only question is what do we want? At the end of our progress we stand where Adam and Eve stood: all we are faced with now is the moral question. – Max Frisch

 

In recent months two beautiful and talented young women, both acquaintances of my family and on occasion visitors at my home, were attacked by robbers. One was killed and the other one paralysed (fortunately she is making good recovery). At the funeral of Estee van Rensburg, my son’s partner at his matric function a few years ago, there were no words to describe the utter sadness and grieve over the loss of a beautiful life full of joy, love and potential. Talking to my sons about these tragedies I am also at a loss of words to describe or give any meaningful perspective on what is happening and what is still to come in our country.   

 

I share this with you because it has become so much part of South Africa’s reality and the society we are part of. There is a good chance that you can tell similar stories from your immediate circle of family, friends, community or colleagues. What is the crime and violence in our streets and homes of recent years doing to our psyche? Apart from the natural response to look for more and better forms of security (including the option of leaving the country), apart from praying for God’s intervention, apart from demanding action from government, how do we respond internally? Can we still take on the roll of ‘dealers in hope’ as Napoleon described the role of leaders? Can we still do so responsibly or is it a matter of blind faith in the future?

 

Let us for a moment look at the bigger picture of man’s efforts to find solutions to the challenges of life. Even though there is a mixture of pre-modern, modern and postmodern mindsets in South Africa, I think most of us are somewhere between the modern and postmodern mindset. As such we struggle with the after effects of the modern mindset while new ways of thinking are almost forced upon us. Collectively we suffer today from major disappointment and disillusionment if you consider the following explanation of the typical modern project:

 

The modern project postulated the possibility of a human world free not only from sinners, but from sin itself; not just from people making wrong choices, but from the very possibility of wrong choice. (Zygmunt Bauman)

 

Relying on scientific solutions, ways of control and our reasoning abilities we believed that legislation and the design of ethical codes for society will prevent evil. Morality will be secured by the law makers, law enforces, state institutions and experts.   In effect, the focus of moral concerns has been shifted from the self-scrutiny of the individual to the philosophical/political task of working out the prescriptions and proscriptions of an ethical code. Moral choice is simplified to the straightforward dilemma of obedience or disobedience to the rule.

 

As we know today, the national and modernist project in South Africa during the apartheid years was in more ways than one also a cover-up operation of evil. (As Bauman says: ‘Modernity did not make people more cruel; it only invented a way in which cruel things could be done by non-cruel people. Under the sign of modernity, evil does not need any more evil people. Rational people … well revited into the impersonal … network of modern organization, will do perfectly). Transformation in South Africa in 1994 and onwards, apart from a new political dispensation, also introduced a major shift from controlling choices to freedom of choice. Are we better off now? More specifically, is there more or less morality? Probably the best answer is yes and no. Yes in some respects and no in other. In whatever way you feel to answer the question, with South Africa’s transformation, we are for all practical purposes increasingly confronted with a postmodern situation.  

 

Amongst other things you will recognise it in the sense of a world that seems less solid than it used to be (or than we thought it to be). It has lost its apparent unity and continuity - when various aspects of life could be tied together into a meaning­ful whole, and what happened today could be traced back to yes­terday's roots and forward to tomorrow's consequences. In this world it would appear as though morality is privatised – no-one is looking over your shoulder to see if you are following the agreed set of moral rules. But does it make sense? Doesn’t morality imply concern and care for others? Bauman asserts:

 

‘To take a moral stance means to assume responsibility for the Other; to act on the assumption that the well-being of the Other is a precious thing calling for my effort to preserve and enhance it, that whatever I do or do not do affects it, that if I have not done it it might not be done at all, and that even if others do or can do it this does not cancel my responsibility for doing it myself ... To be a moral person takes a lot of strength and resilience to with­stand the pressures and the temptations to withdraw from joint re­sponsibilities. Moral responsibility is unconditional and in principle infinite - and thus one can recognize moral persons by their never quenched dissatisfaction with their moral performance; the gnawing suspicion that they were not moral enough.’

 

It implies involvement and commitment – qualities that are not typically postmodern. The moral question is not going away however and in a sense it is the main question that we are faced with today  - as in the quote above: We now can do what we want, and the only question is what do we want? At the end of our progress we stand where Adam and Eve stood: all we are faced with now is the moral question.

 

It is a question that everyone and in particular leaders need to face with all sincerety and dedication. What is my moral responsibility in this country? What/who sets my moral radar? How do I make sure that my moral conscience is alert and reinforced? What is my responsibility to alleviate poverty? What is my responsibility to criminals? What is my responsibility to fellow citizens who are in dispair?

 

At Estee’s funeral her parents appealed to everyone to donate to six different organisations fighting crime against women and children. One of them is ‘Alpha for prisons’ (peters@alphasa.co.za) , an organisation who claims that their program succeeds in bringing the percentage of criminals who again do crime after jail down from ± 80% to 15%. I applaud all the wonderful people in South Africa who have committed themselves to make a positive difference. Can we do more? Surely, there is much more that can be done.

 

I close with an excert from Dave Knowles’ (principal of St Stithians High School) speech that is circulated for its inspirational message:

 

Finally, here is my resolve and my truth:-

·         To be positive

·         To stop whingeing

·         To stop blaming

·         To ignore the doomsday jokes sent out by people who want you to feel as bad as they do

·         To read the Good News website regularly

·         To join the "stop crime, say hello" campaign

·         To find goodness in people

·         To commit, regularly, to this beautiful country of ours

·         To believe in God's plan for us

I know this – that if I do not work to create the life I want, I will have to endure the life I get.

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard

 

_________________________________________________

Gerhard van Rensburg (Phd, MCom leadership)

Leadership and Executive coach

Cell: 0834556513/Fax: 0865016020

Email: gerhard@neweraleadership.co.za

Website: www.neweraleadership.co.za

 

New Era Leadership -

Unlocking potential through leadership

and organisational development

 

 

Golf, success and surrender

Yesterday, as part of a team building weekend, I had the opportunity to play a round of golf. The parallels between golf and life were once again highlighted for me. The analogies are countless. I can quickly think of the following as examples. Even though you have people around you, participating in the same game, you are ultimately on your own. I mean this in the sense that you obviously cannot blame other players on the golf course for how you played a particular hole – which doesn’t exclude that you sometimes wish you could! In truth, it is all up to you. On the other hand, even if you are perfectly happy with your strategic thinking (choice of club, kind of stroke etc.), your setup and your swing, you still cannot predict with hundred percent certainty that the outcome will be a perfect one or even one that you will be satisfied with. A gust of wind can blow your ball in a different direction, a small stone can influence the bounce or, to be fair, sometimes one’s judgment can be influenced by an optical illusion which is forgivable. Life is no different. When things don’t go well and we feel the pressure, we look for others to blame. Sometimes we feel that we have done everything right, yet we don’t get the results we hoped for or feel we deserve.

 

Furthermore, it doesn’t help you one bit to walk there on the course wishing you had the natural talents of Tiger Woods and cursing your genes. What is happening and what is going to happen for the rest of the game, all of it, comes down to that moment of impact between the club that is in your hands and the ball that lies motionless and innocent on the ground. As long as we play the game it will be our own choices and actions that become the story of our round of golf. What is behind us, is behind us. What we can take with us forward to our next shot as learning we must take with us and apply or else expect the same results – with perhaps a bit of luck here and there. Lastly and most importantly, the amount of enjoyment we get from playing is determined by our attitude to the game. And this is true for Tiger Woods as much as it is true for the weekend golfer as much as it is true for life in general!    

 

Scott Peck wrote a book worth reading even if you are not a golfer, Golf and the Spirit – lessons for the journey. In the book he takes the view that there are a lot of spiritual lessons to be learned from the game of golf. In one illustration he speculates that the intense attraction we feel to the flight of a well hit ball (golfers will understand this!) can be explained as a taste of glory – ‘not the false glory of the world but that which can only be an attribute of God’. He also quotes Arnold Palmer who said: ‘Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly compli­cated. It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening...’  Is it not true of life as well? Life can be so simple and naturally flowing when you play with your children or grandchildren, admire nature or something that is created beautifully. It can be so satisfying to the soul to do your own creative work in something that you know you are good in and is an expression of your genius. But then it can be so complex, so difficult, frustrating and maddening if you try to make things work for you and your family while there are power cuts, traffic problems, annoying colleagues, criminals and murderers, all threatening your life and well meant efforts. Yes, life can also be sheer agony and hardship.

 

Life is paradox, but can it be that we can get more enjoyment and fulfilment out of life if we don’t allow ourselves to get stuck in the rough simply because we want to force and power our way forward with some idea of success as the goal? Is it not possible that life can be very different if we are prepared to surrender to an unplayable lie, take the penalty and make a fresh beginning? Lloyd Reed in Success to significance wrote: ‘For most of my first half of life, it did not matter how I felt about my work; what mattered was my effectiveness. While I happened to love the strategy and creativity of developing real estate, I had not searched for what made me passionate. At the end of every day and every project, I benchmarked myself not on how enjoyable the experience felt, but solely on my productivity. I did not understand that the two are inextricably connected.’

 

The problem is that our passions can be buried so deep after years of striving and struggling for success that we don’t know what our passion is anymore. Bob Buford suggests that in life we go through four phases if we indeed grow to a life of significance: The first phase is one of struggle which is trying to be successful, however you form that in your mind. The second is success, which is that you’ve indeed reached that point – something most people can achieve through focus, effort and determination. The third is significance which is using your experience and knowledge to be helpful to others. Then there is a fourth phase which ironically is the opposite to the first phase. No more struggling for personal success or even significance but surrender. To surrender means to admit defeat – like declaring your golfball unplayable. ‘I cannot control life’; ‘I cannot control relationships’; ‘I cannot please everyone’; ‘My idea of “the ultimate” and my idea of victory was stupid and empty of meaning’; ‘My need for acceptance and recognition was petty and narrow-minded’. It is at this point that a person can experience a spiritual encounter, a new calling to his/her life and rediscover the true passion and meaning in his/her life. Peck relates the story of Jacob of the Old Testament in this context.

 

The most critical moment in that story comes when Jacob leaves his family for a little peace and quiet and goes to camp out alone for an evening on the other side of a river. In the middle of the night, however, his peace and quiet are shattered as he is accosted by a stranger for no apparent reason. He wrestles with the stranger hour after hour in the

darkness. The stranger seems to have almost superhuman strength.

Nonetheless, just as the first faint light of dawn is coming over the hori­zon, Jacob feels that he is gaining the upper hand. He throws his last bit of energy into the fight. But at that moment when he feels closest to victory, the stranger reaches with a little light touch and yanks Jacob's thigh right out of joint and breaks it.

At this point Jacob clings to the stranger - not to continue the struggle, because by now he knows he is totally defeated, but because he realizes he is in the presence of divinity. “Don’t leave!” he pleads. “Don’t leave without giving me your blessing!”

The stranger not only obliges but renames Jacob, saying, “Hence­forth you shall be called Israel, meaning ‘he who has wrestled with God.’” The stranger then vanishes, and Jacob, wounded and defeated and broken, limps off into the dawn to become the father of a nation.

 

Does the above have any relevancy for the challenges we face as a nation in 2008? I believe so. As far as I can see the group of pessimists about South Africa who are singing along with the Rapport newspaper’s heading this past Sunday: Ons is op die Zimbabwe-pad, are growing. In golf terms they are on the fourth hole and they believe that an ever strengthening wind will blow against them for the rest of the tournament. We can look at the wind and decide it’s a lost cause or we can focus on doing the best we can with our next shot – determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. What is behind us, is behind us. The test is the quality of leadership we respond with to what has happened in the past. Nothing is so discouraging as leaders who constantly deny responsibility and try to put the blame elsewhere. The moment leaders begin to qualify their responsibilities they become political. They become rulers rather than leaders. They try to force their way through the rough and would not accept an unplayable lie. They try to save their reputability by concentrating on the power of their positions. If they fight the idea of surrender deep within themselves, they will not learn from their mistakes, failures or indiscretions and they will repeat them again.       

 

May we all grow the character strength to admit to our failures and human limitations. This in itself will give hope. May we then have the will and wisdom to apply the lessons from the past … so that there will be light!    

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard

Who is the better leader, Thabo Mbeki or Jacob Zuma?

In the beginning of this new year, few things are probably as topical as the different styles, qualities, track records and prospects of the leadership of Thabo Mbeki and the recently elected ANC president, Jacob Zuma. We al have our views, opinions, doubts, hopes and fears with regard to the most powerful leadership position of our country and the possible effects that a new president will have on the future of South Africa. I’ve heard (or read) many people say they definitely are going to leave the country if Zuma becomes the president. Apparently, whilst they are already very unhappy with the crime situation in our country, Mbeki’s leadership in a number of cases and the overall performance of the government, they will loose all faith in South Africa’s future if Jacob Zuma becomes the president. Why? Obviously because of his questionable character after the earlier rape charges and ongoing charges of corruption and fraud.

 

However, since it became clear that ANC members are frustrated with Mbeki and were starting to place their hope in Zuma to bring the changes the majority wants to see, there suddenly appeared a lot of articles in the media suggesting that Zuma could possibly after all be a better option than Mbeki. Why? Because Zuma according to these accounts has a democratic leadership style, is willing to listen to arguments that challenge the status quo and has proven in the past that he can lead well in situations of conflict. He is a man of the people and will take better care of the issues of the people.    

 

To me, all of the above only indicates how clueless we are in the absence of knowledge of the truth and how dependent we are on the media’s reporting and perspectives to grow our knowledge and insight. It is frustrating because one always suspects, in fact one knows, there is more to the stories than what we read and can understand. This frustration often leads people to stubbornly stick to their perceptions of a person irrespective of new developments or knowledge. Another effect of our frustration is to fall back on general beliefs we might have. Such as a belief that Africa, in any case, is doomed and incapable of getting out of the morass of corruption, poverty, incompetence and poor leadership. Neither Mbeki nor Zuma is able to change that fact.    

 

Perhaps the more intelligent and useful response, rather than having endless debates about our limited perceptions, is to go to our direct area of influence. Firstly to do a self assessment: How trustworthy am I? What is my character and moral strength in perhaps more difficult situations with more temptations than what I am experiencing at the moment? Furthermore, how conscious and aware am I of the quality of relationships with all the stakeholders in my life? How well am I listening to what others are trying to tell me? And what am I really prepared to do about it if I realise that my attitude and behaviour is not what it should be – if I realise there’s a good chance that my poor relationships or ignorance can come back and bite me when I least expect it or can afford it. Lastly, rather than out of frustration, disappointment or fear, threaten every time things go wrong to leave the country, rationally consider when, in what circumstances, will it be the right time for me to make such a drastic change.

 

Since I asked a question about leadership – who is the better leader? - I would like to point out that an increasingly common position, encountered in both scholarly and popular literature, is that the essence of effective leadership is ethical leadership. Of course, there are many dimensions to ethical and moral leadership. Where transactional leadership is all about the cooperation between leaders and followers on the basis of self-interest in pursuit of mutual gains, transformational leadership seeks to rise people to higher levels of motivation and morality, beyond everyday wants and needs. Transformational leaders aspire to reach more principled levels of judgment in pursuit of end values such as liberty, justice, and self-fulfillment. John Gardner, in The Moral Aspect of Leadership, argues that leaders should "serve the basic needs of their constituents," defend "fundamental moral prin­ciples," seek the "fulfillment of human possibilities," and improve the communities of which they are a part. To Gardner, like other contemporary commentators, men such as Hitler and Stalin can be considered rulers but not leaders.

 

Who is the better leader, Mbeki or Zuma? You be the judge. Fact is that I do not really have a choice in who will be our next president. I can however pray that his strengths, whoever it is, will have the optimum positive effect on our country and that he might overcome his weaknesses. Hopefully we will have a real leader and not merely a ruler. As for myself, I can keep on working on my contributions to a better society and country by demonstrating solid, trustworthy, insightful and ethical leadership.

 

I truly wish you a fruitful, healthy and peaceful 2008. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to meet and synergise our efforts to build something significant.      

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard