Green Shoots: Uncertainty is where leadership begins — not where it ends

Green Shoots: "Uncertainty is where leadership begins — not where it ends."

Uncertainty and the practice of embracing my not knowing have become great companions in recent years. One day I will write the story of how the organisation I now lead emerged from a place of not knowing, of eschewing the certainty of pre-determined results and outcomes. Instead of setting deadlines for new constitutions and all the things that usually accompany setting up new institutions, we allowed space for the wonderful process of discovery to happen as we explored what could be possible.

It is a fundamentally different approach to life, to problem solving, to the search for a better world. It enables creativity and authenticity, and the need for performative behaviour is diminished – you know, that urge to do things that show off how good you are rather than solve the problem.

To forego the comfort of certainty and knowing requires a fair deal of courage. The comedian John Cleese talks about how his creativity is strengthened when he remains in the discomfort of not knowing for a little longer, ignoring the natural urge to find an answer and ease the mind. It takes time, and I am still to master the art. I like to think I am improving, and hopefully helping the people I live and work with to join me on the journey.

This is the role of the leader, is it not? To show the way to something different, something that will improve our lives, our practice, our politics. Leadership is about so much more than the position bestowed on you by virtue of your education, your social status, your political trajectory. You do not become a leader just because you are made the CEO or President, or priest. Leadership demands substance and mettle in your person. 

To be clear, I am talking here about good leadership, the type that enables an improved coexistence. I am not confused by the rabid leadership of megalomaniacal men who have blighted the history of humanity – Hitler, Mussolini, Verwoerd, Netanyahu, Trump.

To lead is to take the first step that encourages others to follow into places they would not ordinarily go. Its about the ability to see beyond the present, the now, to not let the quagmire of our current situation define and limit our agency to act. To lead is to see that there has to be something possible beyond the immediate present. We may not know what it is, but we know that it can be reached.

To lead is to show others what is possible, and to persuade them to join in the journey towards that. In sport, the captain will have you dig deeper into wells of energy and strength you didn’t know you had in order to triumph. In politics, they will show you by how they behave that a better society is possible. In families and households, sound leadership will build the fraternal and sororal bonds that constitute the social fabric of strong communities and societies.

This type of transformative leadership demands a value system that is rooted in humanism, and a love for humanity and the earth. You cannot lead if you are browbeating people into following you by manipulating their fears and insecurities into adulation of the leader as saviour. Instead, this type of leadership requires relationship – the connection between people at a fundamental level, and between people and their environment.

Nurturing these relationships takes time and commitment. The leader needs to support their community to make the changes that are needed if we are to progress, to embrace the creative power that comes with rejecting certainty. It needs a questioning attitude to replace the dead end of uncritical acceptance that we have the answers to things. The latter is a road to stagnation.

There are too many examples of bad leadership in my life at the moment. I watch how eloquence and cultural pride is wasted on whipping up anti-migrant sentiment. I watch how innovators in corporates and public institutions are sidelined and their skills lost because the ‘leadership’ don’t believe they are a fit for the organisation. I see too many young families reinscribe trauma in their children because that is the way they were raised – there was no leadership to help them see beyond what was happening then. 

I am inspired by the idea of servant leadership. The challenge to us in our homes, our places of work and education, is to strive for this ideal and see how we can lead in our spaces with kindness and vision, compassion and diligence, inspiration and work ethic, and to have fun doing it, finding time for both rest and hard work.