11 June 2009
Transformational Leadership
Posted by Admin under: Forum .
The Sustainable Leadership Forum is a non-profit, membership-based organization that supports the highest level of transformational leadership for a sustainable future. At the core of the organization is an inquiry into the nature of the change that is needed, and how to bring it about.
Our programs are a reflection of this inquiry. We hold regular meetings to discuss members’ projects and initiatives, and day-long trainings to deepen our awareness and understanding of the challenges and opportunities of our times.
Our organization is designed to evolve, and draws on a variety of organizational models that have proven successful in other fields. Members invest time and money that is deposited to their account, and can be spent, loaned, or invested in member projects. The Forum is a hub for member initiatives, and a vehicle for cross-fertilization.
Special projects at this time include a youth leadership initiative and a career transition program, both carried out in association with partner organizations.
So what is leadership, and what is transformation? We throw these words around easily, but what do they really mean? For most of us, we usually operate on the “we know it when we see it” model, and it’s easier to provide examples than adequate definitions.
The latest example – that will probably resonate with most of us – is Barack Obama. There is no question about his “leadership,” having come pretty much from nothing (a frequently displaced childhood, an absent father, a funny name) to become the first African-American President. He projects a calm, thoughtful, and balanced approach to a vast range of complex issues. He explains things clearly and speaks the truth in an inclusive manner, addressing even those who disagree with him with respect. He balances vision and pragmatism; and provides inspiration, acknowledgement, and a vision of what’s needed and what’s possible, whether he’s speaking about expanding health care at home, or bringing peace to the Middle East.
But what makes him an effective leader is that what he says, and the way he says it, does resonate with us. He speaks to the concerns of a majority of people; he appeals to their hopes, their aspirations, and their higher nature. “Leadership” is not a quality that exists by itself; it’s a social phenomenon, that is revealed by “followership.” Leaders are those we and others will actually follow. It can be used for good, as with Gandhi; or for evil, as with Hitler. The key is that it strikes a chord that moves people to action.
Obama is also an example of “transformational leadership” – he is about change, and about change in some of the fundamental ways that many of us have come to recognize as needed.
But it’s hard to see how we can distill this, and transfer it to ourselves and others; so we need to go beyond this, and dig into what makes ordinary individuals capable of extraordinary actions. That’s what the Sustainable Leadership Forum is about – can we awaken the leadership in ourselves and in others, to transform our world into an ecologically sustainable, just, and harmonious one – without deluding ourselves as to the realities, which are often messy and confusing, and most certainly have “a dark side” that cannot ever be entirely expunged? (It is why the yin yang symbol combines light and dark, and each side has an element of the other present in it.) We are not talking about utopia (which literally exists nowhere), but about what’s truly viable.
This is what the organization is about, and we constantly need to ask ourselves if we are truly keeping our eye on the ball, and moving it down the field, knowing that the goal is not so much “winning the game” as keeping the game going, and adding others to the play.
One Comment so far...
Admin Says:
12 June 2009 at 5:06 am.
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