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My hypothesis is neither complex nor is it particularly original. It draws from a number of conversations that I have had with many people over the past few months and from a small percentage of the work that has been written on leadership over the past thirty years. What I find remarkable is how much of this work and how many of the people that I have spoken to have come to a similar conclusion.
It is generally recognised that the post-industrial age in which we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century is becomingly increasingly complex. We are continuously bombarded by advertising messages, emails and SMS text messages. There are more and more demands on our time in order for us to “do” and less and less time when we can simply “be”.
It is also widely recognised amongst those people who take an interest in the subject that we are facing a crisis of leadership in our institutions – in government, in business and in education. Our current education system was designed in the 19th century in order to produce uniform, standardised product as efficiently as possible. The system has continued largely unaffected by the realities within which young people are growing up today.
I believe that there is a pressing need to find and recognise young people who are potential bearers of responsibility, young people from all walks of life who possess the leadership potential that is latent to some degree in almost everyone. In the 1970’s Robert Greenleaf coined the term “servant-leader” to describe those who will seek to draw out, inspire and develop the best and highest within people from the inside out. We have a responsibility to find these young people, to provide special help in maturing their talents, and to coach them to fulfil their leadership potential.
We have the opportunity and the responsibility to develop servant-leaders whose emotional awareness is just as highly tuned as their creative or academic abilities. Young people who are highly self-aware and who are also keenly aware of their impact on others. People who have subordinated their own egos and who lead with reasoning, persuasion, kindness, empathy and trustworthiness, thereby creating moral authority.
The current education system was designed to create workers and academics. It is my belief that by and large the system favours academic learning and uniformity of output at the expense of emotional awareness, creativity and self-expression. This system trains young people in the external skills seen as necessary to get a job without regard for the internal skills which are essential for a successful leader in the world today.
My hypothesis is simple yet if true, critically important. I believe that without a new generation of fully three-dimensional leaders there is a real danger that the social problems we currently face will worsen and deepen and eventually overwhelm the economic machinery. We can either watch our children hurtle blindly toward globalisation, climate change and an ever-increasing poverty gap, or we can choose to do something about it.
Many people have been urging successive governments and heads of industry to act in this area however I would suggest that they are preaching to those unable to “see” the problems in front of them. At this point I do not advocate spending time and energy on trying to create a wholesale change in the education system. What I do suggest however is that there is space to create a complementary programme for young people already in that system in order to provide them with the internal skills needed to become servant-leaders. Over time the impact that these leaders will have on society could be transformational in government, in business and in education.
There is already much great work being done in transforming the lives of many young people. I have recently met with a number of inspiring and tireless workers who have devoted their lives to finding housing and jobs for young people from all manner of deprived backgrounds. There is a huge amount of time, energy and money being spent on dealing with the results of current social and economic conditions. What I am suggesting is a programme designed to address the root cause of these conditions – a systemic failure of leadership.
I do not pretend to be qualified to create such a programme. What I do have however is a track record in bringing diverse groups of people together in order to pursue a common vision. If these few paragraphs resonate with you then I am looking for a small group prepared to devote a fraction of their time to creating a leadership programme for young people. If you have the skills and experience that could add value to this project and would like to be involved then please let me know. If you simply support the ideas outlined above then please let me know. If you are aware of work that is already underway in this area then please let me know. And if you think this is madness and would like to be removed from this distribution list then I would like to hear from you too – any of the above, once you have sat with these thoughts for a minute.
John Keeling – March 2008
As stated earlier, the thoughts above are a result of conversations with many people over the past few months and also from the pioneering work done by Robert Greenleaf, Peter Senge, Stephen Covey, Joseph Jaworski, Daniel Goleman, Sir John Whitmore and The Coaches Training Institute amongst others.
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Partnership 
