Dear friends,
Thank you for all the contributions regarding leadership. Let me say to
begin with right away, that I find the clinical and hypothetical
discussion style of Hitler's "merits" as a leader very offensive. I am
also sure that it was not meant in this way, but I imagine what this
discussion must do to somebody who lost her family members in the
holocaust, when I notice what it does to me. I will explain more about
this near the end of this post. Hitler, from any perspective possible,
was a disastrous failure as a leader. The horrors he and those around him
created for others will undoubtedly be one of the major events that will
be remembered about this century in the millenniums to come and he will
remain the world's leading example in sociopathic leadership. In this
sense, he also was the biggest PR catastrophe that history ever produced.
All of this alone would be more than ample reason to disqualify him as an
even hypothetical example of good leadership on this string. However, in
addition, he led his nation into a psychological disaster and cultural
near suicidal situation. Less interesting in this context, but worth
mentioning, was his complete failure as a military, economic, political
and spiritual leader, which resulted in a total and complete destruction
of the German nation as a respected political entity, multiplied its
initial economic problems, not only created a collapse of the army, but
left its psychological marks on it for centuries to come. If it wasn't for
the allied nations being farsighted and generous in their response, the
Marshall plan, etc, which followed in many points the below mentioned
leadership principles, Germany would have been ruined for generations.
Anybody who has ever worked in Germany understands how hard it is to
identify oneself proudly as a German and the pain that still comes today
when one says one is from Germany. I am Swiss by birth and American by
choice, and love working in Germany, which I do on a regular basis. I
notice that most people are surprised when I say that, especially Germans.
Saying that he was able to gather people behind him (through manipulation
and systemic misinformation using painful political presence and past) is
as logic as saying somebody who breaks into a bank in the middle of the
night can be seen as a specially devoted employee since he works overtime,
the only problem he has is that he payed himself too much for it.
In terms of the discussion around leadership, I for one believe that we
are discussing several issues at once, some of those are separate for some
of us but connected in the view of others.
In the view of the model (Arnold Mindell's Process Work) that I am using,
cutting edge leadership is a project, that requires simultaneous awareness
of several processes. If you miss one, the whole project is endangered.
Among those, though not exclusively and not necessarily in that order,
belong
a) diversity: consensus reality is a virtual reality, depending on race,
culture, gender, age, class and privileges that come with them. etc, etc..
With it goes the insight, that neglecting the relativity of an experience,
theory, philosophical systems, etc, is not only erroneous in terms of the
multitude of realities that exist, it is also inflammatory to those who
belong to another segment of the group and have been oppressed by the
virtual reality of the first segment. To them, the unconsciousness will
appear as an act of aggression. Example: stating that European logic is
the only failsafe mechanism against abuse of power and misguided
leadership, will be seen as an act of agression by the majority of people
of this planet who suffered from colonialization and "Europeanisation".
b)consensus: leadership that is not built on consensus is not sustainable,
since those parts that are in silent or open opposition will either
passively or actively boycott any decision. Anybody whoever worked
practically with a change process knows everything about that.
c)signal awareness: the ability to differentiate between content and
communication signals: pauses, tone of voice, body postures, delay in
answering, silence, etc, etc indicate future problems, that if ignored
will turn into crisis.
d)noticing hotspots: hotspot is a term, that we frequently use in my
working modality, when facilitating groups. It originally was used in
geology where you can see "heated" areas that indicate increased
probability for volcanic outbreaks. Similarly, emotional events in groups
like Maggi's farewell remarks indicate a possible future crisis that a
community needs to go deeper into. Noticing hotspots allows prognosis and
preparations of a crisis that is coming, frequently making it possible to
prevent it.
e)eldership: thinking of the whole of an organization, what would be best
for everybody, all parts. Noticing that everybody and everything
contributes to an outcome, protection of the weakest part. Wisdom,
personal mastery, experience, heartfulness, love for those that you work
with, humor and detachment, service, peace making are characteristics of
eldership. But also honesty, integrity, loving ruthlessness in
confrontations where they are needed while remembering to avoid public
shaming, and self denial in a self-loving way belong also in here.
f)innner work: being able to notice your own personal stuff projected onto
others, realizing that everything that you have a problem with in the
outside world, you also have a problem in your own inner world, and if you
don't come to terms with that on the inside, you will not be able to lead
on the outside, since you will be pushing your own inner agendas, instead
of what is best for the whole
g)sustainability: how will the decisions and processes that happen "under"
your leadership affect the immediate group, the larger society, and the
human community as a whole in the years to come.
h)systemic thinking on a community level: if part of community is not in
agreement with the direction that another part takes, it must be
negotiated or processed, in order to reach balance: this includes
affirmative attitudes towards conflict, insubordination, rebellion and
disturbance as carriers of vital information, understanding them in terms
of chaos theory etc.
i)vision and spirituality: the ability to form a vision that is based on
eternal human values, that is innovative, progressive, and inspires others
to follow and is consistent with the glue that held {wo)mankind together
since its beginning, therefore sustainable.
h)historical and political knowledge: understanding people, their
backgrounds, their history of development and empowerment, their values
and visions, and the struggles that they fought over them and the meaning
it has in their lives.
i)competence of field: professional knowledge: German "Sachkenntnis",
in-depth understanding of the technical aspects of the field in which you
are leading
k) courage and accountability: courage in the sense of after having
considered all of the above, to take actions that are still risky, meaning
they are innovative, beyond something that you already know from
experience, and knowing that if you fail, you will hurt and damage people
and organizations, and that you will have to be accountable for it
l) understanding abuse and public humiliation: noticing when one's action
is oppressing others. This includes but is not limited to realizing that
discussing abusive situations clinically and theoretically, without
relating to the feeling of pain that the situation caused, is recreating
the abuse. Example: if I discuss cooly and clinically the process of rape
in front of women who have been raped, I inadvertently deny the pain
around the topic and recreate involuntarily an aspect of the rape. If on
top I mention that the decisive action of the rapist, his ability to go
forward when everybody else says stop, is something that would make him a
powerful leader, I add insult to injury. In the same way, discussing
Hitler in terms of his leadership qualities will be rightly seen by those
affected as an unconscious anti-Semitic activity.
Who is able to follow all of these points? I think nobody. But accepting
them as the basis of leadership will open you up to learning, criticism of
others and help you understand "resistances", thus creating the ground for
interactions around your leadership that can become a community learning
process. Failing in these attempts, and learning how and why you failed
with help of others is part of the sharing of your leadership.
thanks to those who made it till here
Love
Max
Dr.Max Schupbach
2049 NW Hoyt Street # 3,PORTLAND,OR,97209
Phone/Fax (503)223 6548
Fax (801)365-9064
www.max-jytte.com email: max@max-jytte.com
--"Max Schupbach" <max@max-jytte.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>