Day #738 - Limits of Leadership

Sunshine and Shadows

Themes of safety and trust are running through this week: our capabilities and responsibilities to others.

Sometimes I run into this when talking to groups about trust: to consider who we lead for. Those that we trust, or everyone? Is ‘trust’ essential for leadership and effectiveness? We generally believe that we cannot ‘trust endlessly’ - that there is some breadth or limit on our ability to do so meaningfully, and yet our formal leadership carries us beyond these boundaries.

Similarly, we know that social currencies like ‘kindness’, and even ‘fairness’ are not equally available to everyone, so how do we make our choices, and where does our responsibility lie?

Sometimes people do not like this conversation: we tend to believe that we are fair and good, without limits, but of course we all recognise that the systems we inhabit are variable. In a space like this, in a dialogue with our practice, and against the backdrop of the Organisation as Ecosystem, we need to be clear about both the good that we do, but also the shadows that good people cast.

Use your sixty seconds today to look at yourself in the landscape of your culture: where are you looking, and where do the shadows lie?

As we say in the Quiet Leadership work, nobody alone can tend to the whole ecosystem, but by being interconnected, and creating common narratives, we can ensure that everyone can find safety and be heard.

This is an imperfect view: part of a continual reflection on the nature of the Social Organisation.