Personal Development and Europe’s Leadership Crisis

Leadership and Statesmanship
The nature of personal development that belongs with civil servants gravitates around one word: Service.

True Service, Not Self-Serving

Serving profound causes that live beyond self-serving interests; beyond the capricious needs of ego-centered personalities; beyond personal needs; beyond power games; beyond vested interests; beyond the idea that misaligned individuals may determine the fate of the multitude. Serving causes that promote fair-play; sustainable ways of living; the well-being of the people; the happiness of the nation; decency and collaboration in the context of working together to secure a bright future for all who wish to work for a bright future. Sounds like a utopia in today’s world but this is what statesmanship is all about in the first place.

Transparency
The concept of transparency is central to leadership. It is not what you do but the reason why you do what you do that counts in the real worlds. Do you really care? Are you mindful of the real needs? Are you fiercely passionate about making a difference in the most constructive context? If you want to know what drives a person, ask them why they do what they do. Listen, feel and trust your instincts and common sense. Don’t be timid – keep asking why until the reason reveals itself in fullness.

The Reason Why You Want To Lead Reveals Your Fitness
The most challenging question of all: Why do you want to lead others? What are your reasons? What makes you fit for this demanding task? Again, we are talking here about statesmanship, not leading a business, although some corporations are so big as to require their leaders to come close to needing to demonstrate the qualities and character of a statesman/stateswoman. The common answer is that if people follow you then you are a leader – the more that follow, the greater the conviction. This argument is fundamentally flawed. History proves that the crowd can follow just about anyone who mesmerizes it.

Europe’s Problem – And Not Only Europe’s
Europe’s – the world’s – leadership crisis is underpinned by the presence of some ‘leaders’ that are lacking the personal development to be impersonal enough to collaborate in creating a collective vision that will usher a new era of spiritual and material prosperity. As we very well know, at these levels even one person can derail a critical process due to his or her lack of development.

Again, it’s about the nature of personal development that belongs with statesmanship which is very different than that which belongs with running a business or leading an army.

Times Of Transition Are The Most Challenging To Live In
Here is a crucial leadership awareness: Tomorrow’s world is not a direct follow-on of that of yesterday. We are born into a time of radical change and transition. Throughout history such times always present great challenges and today, here  and now, we are facing the greatest and by far the most complex challenges ever.

Arguably the greatest challenge facing us is the looming unknown that goes with the emergence of a new world in the making. It’s a state of affairs that magnifies the original purpose of leadership and its many critical skills: To facilitate processes that unify people in a collective mission and to enable them to collaborate, cooperate, explore, discover and create.

Humans are multi-talented genius creators of their own future. Leadership is the process facilitator that knows how to inspire people and engage in realizing what they already are.

One of Europe’s leadership challenges is that those who are trying to pioneer the new world are constantly interfered by those who are stuck in the ways and habits of the old world. This is Europe’s greatest challenge.

The New In Danger Of Being Hampered By The Old
The now emerging new world presents some awesome challenges. Arguably the greatest challenge for now is to perceive the fact of it and the new opportunities and possibilities therein. There lies our salvation, as the solution to our many seemingly insurmountable problems live inside of enlightened ways of thinking that need us to let go of obsolete paradigms.

One of the symptoms of the new world is the emergence of the info-age of instant connectivity, where people from all around the globe can find each other, make new friends and exchange in the borderless media called the Internet – ‘the eighth continent’ – that provides individuals with instant access to vital information and powerful means of self-expression. Another is the explosion of new scientific discovery and new technologies of the last 100 years, which is yet in its infancy.

The Other Side Of Crisis Is New Opportunity
Like the magnificent orchid that grows out of the swamp, if it can gather its best efforts, Europe is now in a pole position to usher in a new era and pioneer a new way forward. The other side of crisis is fantastic new opportunities. Can you feel it in the air…? Do those who are in the lead have the will-power to unite and create the desperately needed bridgehead that will pave the way to the beginning of a new Europe?

David Gommé
World Copyright 2011 © David Gommé

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