by Dan Schwab
Leadership Challenge Certified Faclitator
As we head into a new political era, it is appropriate to take stock of the world our new President will be leading us into. It is clear that economic and political dynamics have changed in fundamental ways, and that the landscape we are entering is entirely different than it was even a few years ago. These three authors put some of these changes into a useful perspective, and help frame our work as trainers and mentors to the leaders of the next generation. They provide a valuable road map for the realities and the hopes of the next few years.
New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman in Hot, Flat and Crowded frames the future—actually, the present—as being dominated by three factors that together present the most compelling challenges: climate change, the leveling effects of technology and expanding populations. Friedman asserts that America’s big problems of a souring economy and declining world leadership can be met in part by our developing our own green industry and then exporting this expertise to the rest of the world. If we don’t lead here, we’ll be out-competed, as potentially massive markets go to those with the vision to identify opportunities, and the ability to mobilize people to seize them.
In The Green Collar Economy, Van Jones, like Friedman, urges us to reinvest in American entrepreneurism through the development of a green economy—one built primarily on investment in low-tech energy technology. The key insight Jones offers is that the dark side of the current international economic system is apparent not just in the third world, but here in our cities as well. A proponent of creating jobs from the bottom up, Jones asks us to combine innovation, environmental stewardship and social justice into a new movement that lives his motto of "jobs not jails."
Alex Perry, in Falling Off the Edge, Time magazine’s former Africa bureau chief, has assembled a sobering portrait of globalization’s dark side. He reminds us of the reality of millions of people who are losing under this new paradigm. Indigenous people, slum dwellers, impoverished farmers and factory workers worldwide are often pushed aside by the rush to development as they are thrust into a new economic reality for which they are not prepared.
Perry provides us a sobering counterpoint to Friedman’s practicality, graphically portraying parts of the world where population outstrips resources, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few is dooming millions to poverty even while giving the illusion of progress. It is convenient to ignore.
Developing an effective response to the challenges facing coming generations requires considering all of these factors. What makes these three books worth reading together is the composite view they give not just of America, but also of the world of 2009 and beyond. We gain insight in part due to the fact that these books are reporting, not theory. As reports from the field that are wide, deep and compelling, they help us assemble a mosaic of the difficult and exciting road ahead of us.
Throughout all three books, the link to leadership is clear. Meeting the challenges of the world as it is now, and as it will become, cries out for effective leadership everywhere. We will never be able to manage our way through what is coming at us. I suggest that leadership provides the platform, the master framework, for the human development needed to craft strategies that will “build a better world one leader at a time.” Indeed, this is the central imperative of our time.
Can you think of a current public figure that is a better exemplar of leadership than President Obama (at least to far)? His LPI (Leadership Practices Inventory) scores would appear to be high, as he is exhibiting a strong personal example, a compelling vision, a call to answer the challenge of the day, realized through enabling and encouraging. The Five Practices in Kouzes/Posner’s The Leadership Challenge are all evident. With our new administration, we as a nation have an entirely new operating system--or perhaps have just been reminded of who we have been all along. I predict a big uptick of interest in leadership as people ask, “What is it that he’s doing?” We can be there with the research and the programs that say we know, and we can teach you.
As leadership trainers, there is at least one thing we can be sure of--we need to accelerate our application of outsight in understanding this new world that cries out for effective leadership. Develop the profile of the “common leader” needed to take on our daunting problems during Obama’s first term. Look everywhere for the information and perspective we can use to help them succeed. These three books present good opportunities to help you do that.
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