“As counterintuitive as it might seem, then, the best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present. The only visions that take hold are shared visions – and you will create them only when you listen very, very closely to others, appreciate their hopes, and attend to their needs. The best leaders are able to bring their people into the future because they engage in the oldest form of research: They observe the human condition.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2009, p. 21)
The authors of the Being A Leader Course (BAL) distinguish this term of art as something that is of fundamental importance, not something that we are afraid of or worry about.
My concern is that people have lives they love. As an expression of that concern I taught the Being A Leader Course in Ukraine to impact deaths by self-inflicted injury. The Slavic countries have extraordinarily high suicide rates, as does Japan. The transformational technology in the BAL course has a reputation for impacting cynicism and resignation. If a person’s future is bright they don’t commit suicide. I assert only when a person becomes cynical and resigned to they consider ending their life. Being cynical and resigned results from an internal conversation that a person is having with themselves. It is technically an occurring or seeming. It seems like life is not worth living. It occurs as hopeless or useless. That all happens in a conversation and it the conversation can be disappeared or altered; then the grip of their occurring world is lessened. Something else arises.
There is a way of listening which accomplishes this that anyone can train themselves. It is discussed here.
My concern for people living in the Slavic countries, of which Ukraine is one, is something of fundamental importance. This is also related to Being Up to Something Bigger that oneself.
Erhard, Werner and Jensen, Michael C. and Zaffron, Steve and Echeverria, Jeronima, Course Materials for: ‘Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model’ (October 4, 2022). Harvard Business School NOM Working Paper No. 09-038, Simon School Working Paper No. 08-03, Barbados Group Working Paper No. 08-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1263835 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1263835
Kouzes, James M. and Posner, Barry Z. 2009. “To Lead, Create a Shared Vision, Forethought”. Harvard Business Review, January, p. 21.