ROW Episode 42

In this episode we discuss the challenge before us of reconceptualizing and reframing our concepts of power, authority, and leadership so that we can equip ourselves to elect leaders fit to address the pressing needs and challenges of our turbulent times.

Episode Transcript

Sovaida (00:08):
Hello and welcome to Reimagining Our World, a podcast
dedicated to envisioning abetter world and to infusing
hope that we can make theprincipled choices to build that
world.
In this episode, we discuss thechallenge before us of
reconceptualizing and reframingour concepts of power,

(00:31):
authority, and leadership sothat we can equip ourselves to
elect leaders fit to address thepressing needs and challenges of
our turbulent times.
Welcome to the year 2024.
2024 is a big year for the worldfor many reasons, not least of

(00:52):
which is the fact that we aregoing to have seventy, 7 0 that
is, national elections aroundthe world this year.
When we think about the factthat there are 193 nation
states, 70 of them are going tohave elections.
The outcome of these electionswill determine to a large extent
what the social fabric of ourworld looks like in the years to

(01:15):
come.
Now, our current reality is thatour world's leaders have by and
large failed us.
They have abdicated theirresponsibility for our well
being.
They seem incapable of meetingthe needs of our day.
Starting with the ability to endwars and to build countries

(01:40):
where the ruling principles oftruth and justice reign.
They have failed to give usequitable access in many
countries to health care,education, shelter, safety,
opportunity to make meaningfulcontribution and maintain
dignity through workopportunities.
They seem incapable ofaddressing the greatest

(02:02):
challenges of our day, includingclimate change and things like
pandemics and the nuclear threatthat hovers over our head, the
destructive wars, the humanrights atrocities, the
genocides.
They seem unwilling to betruthful and transparent about
the dangers that humanity faces,including, again, climate

(02:22):
change, the slow rolling orspeeding up disasters.
They're unwilling to be truthfulabout the true opportunities we
have, the various courses ofaction that are open to us, and
the real life consequences ofthe various decisions we make.
One thing that leaps to mind isBrexit, that the leaders on all
sides were not open andtransparent with the people of

(02:46):
Britain about the actualconsequences of Brexit; so they
were not capable of making aninformed decision when they
voted in the referendum to leaveEurope.
Our leaders also seem incapableof creating unity of thought or
a shared vision around sharedvalues, followed by unity of
action.
So again, we've been unable tocome up with an effective system

(03:08):
to combat climate change that iseffective, as opposed to a
voluntary system where countriesmake pledges and even those
pledges are insufficient andbesides which they're
unenforceable.
Once these leaders of ours arein power, we have tended to be
distrustful of them, for goodreason, making it even harder to

(03:30):
unify around a shared vision,which ultimately leaves us
fractured, fragmented,disunified, and unable to get
anything constructive done.
Now it's time for us to assumeresponsibility as a people.
The onus This lies on us toelect fit leaders.

(03:54):
One of the cardinal failures ofall our leaders, and something
we really need to fix byelecting ones that get it, is
their failure to recognize thespirit of the age and recognize
the oneness of peoples andnations.
This spirit of oneness, thisawareness of our oneness as

(04:15):
human beings and as nations isakin in the world of social
infrastructure, if you like, tothe law of gravity in the
physical realm.
Just as the law of gravityoperates on us and has an effect
whether we recognize it or not,so too the law of oneness has to
be taken in into account when webuild our systems of governance

(04:37):
and the way we organize oursocieties.
What can we do What we can do isto take responsibility.
What does this mean?
What do we practically need todo?
We need to adopt a new habit, anew habit of electing fit
leaders.
But before we can adopt a habit,we first have to figure out what

(04:59):
the outworn mindset is, what theoutworn assumptions and concepts
are that have underlied ourbehavior in the past, which is
electing unfit leaders.
Once we've brought those outwornconcepts to the light of
consciousness, then we canchoose to replace them with new,
more empowering, ways ofthinking about the notions of

(05:22):
power, authority and leadership.
And once that shift in thinkinghas taken place, then it becomes
a lot easier to move into newhabits of electing fit leaders.
So what I'd like to do today isto spend some time really
examining these concepts anddeveloping new concepts,
reimagining new concepts, waysof thinking about power,

(05:47):
authority, and leadership.
Let's quickly look at three oldconcepts.
We tend to have this idea thatthose in power seek to dominate
and control us and appropriateour precious resources for their
own selfish ends.
This is something most of ushave in the back of our minds
when we think of people inauthority.

(06:10):
We also have a second outwornassumption, which is that those
in authority are solely drivenby ego and motivated by self
interest.
And we've basically just come toaccept this as part of the
furniture.
This is what leaders do.
And when we go to elections,it's often the case of trying to

(06:30):
choose between the lesser of twoor three or five evils in which
all of them are driven by ego inour minds and motivated by self
interest.
And the third old concept isthat those in authority somehow
occupy a higher status orstation than the rest of us mere
mortals.
They're somehow superior to us.

(06:51):
You can see that these are notvery empowering ways of thinking
about power, authority, andleadership.
It's no wonder that we feel theway we do about our leaders.
We expect them to lie and cheatin order to maintain power and
influence and dominate andcontrol us.
We rail against them.
Once they come to power, wedistrust them.

(07:12):
Very often we're apathetic anddon't even show up for
elections.
The percentage of people showingup is declining.
Trust in public institutions isdeclining.
We need to do something becausethis is untenable.
So I want to propose a few newconcepts to replace these
outworn concepts that clearlydon't serve us.

(07:34):
So here we go.
I'd be very curious to hear yourthoughts and see your comments
on these.
The first is that power andauthority are not means for
dominating and controlling us.
Imagine if instead we viewedthem as being necessary elements
of organizing any society andthat the role of those in power

(07:56):
is to create the necessaryconditions that allow each of us
and allow us collectively tofulfill our potential.
That's actually a reallyempowering concept of power and
the role of leaders.
To create the environment inwhich we can actualize our
potential.

(08:16):
Now that's the kind of person Iwould want to go vote for,
right?
I'd be very incentivized to govote if I thought that there
were people I could vote for whobelieved in this concept of
power.
The second concept that I wantedto share with you is that power
is not a finite identity, whichis to be seized and jealously

(08:37):
guarded.
Rather, it constitutes alimitless capacity to transform
that resides in the human raceas a whole.
This notion was introduced bythe governing council of the
Baha'is in the year 2013.
They suggested that we start toassociate power with words such
as release, encourage, channel,guide, and enable.

(09:01):
Those are not words that we tendto generally associate with the
word power, right?
At this point, I want to sharewith you my favorite definition
of a good leader that we cankeep in the back of our minds as
we continue exploring some ofthe other newly imagined
concepts of what power,authority, and leadership

(09:21):
constitute.
My favorite definition by JimRohn, who was an American
entrepreneur and a motivationalspeaker.
He said that a leader is someonewho helps some others change
their thoughts, their beliefsand actions for the better.

(09:41):
So again, he starts with theroot, what we think and what we
believe.
What we can conceive and believewe can achieve.
Everything starts with thought.
Everything starts with the powerof imagining and the power of
thought, and perception.
And then from it flows behavior,which are habits that then
eventually when repeated over along enough period of time by

(10:04):
enough people become ourculture, become the social
fabric of our society.
The third new concept is that aleader's responsibility includes
to create unity of thought andaction.
Ken Blanchard famously said thatthe greatest leaders mobilize
others by coalescing peoplearound a shared vision.

(10:28):
It's the ability to mold publicsentiment.
And I love this quote fromAbraham Lincoln in which he
said,"In this age, in thiscountry, public sentiment is
everything.
With it, nothing can fail.
Against it, nothing can succeed.
Whoever molds public sentiment,goes deeper than he who enacts

(10:49):
statues or pronounces judicialdecisions." And one of the
greatest peacemakers of the 20thcentury talked about the
necessity of having a, quote,"unified public opinion and the
importance of"rightly focusingpublic opinion." The fourth
concept that I'd like tointroduce is that leaders merely

(11:13):
have the duty and privilege ofserving.
That's all they're there to do.
An analogy I like to use is thatof a waterfall.
For all the sound and fury ofwater crashing down at the top
of the waterfall, the mostpowerful place is actually the
reservoir, which is all the wayat the bottom, because it's
where the water actuallygathers.

(11:35):
And that's where the life givingwaters reside.
The station of humility, thestation of service, is really
the highest form of power, butthis is a newly conceptualized
framework of what power is.
Very different from what wereach for.

(11:55):
And again, to quote AndreMalraux, he said,"To command is
to serve, nothing more andnothing less." The fifth concept
of power I wanted to share isthat there is a difference, and
we need to be smart and learn todistinguish between, function or
rank and station.

(12:16):
We often conflate the two andit's a huge mistake.
We become a cause of test to thepeople, who have power because
they somehow think they're veryspecial and they have a very
high station in life, which theydon't.
They're merely there to fulfilla function, because they happen
to be, hopefully, the peoplemost suited to fulfill that

(12:38):
function for a given period oftime.
And that's all it is.
And when that period passes,other people may then have the
skills, unique abilities,competencies, qualities of
person that are necessary tofulfill this function.
We could save ourselves a lot ofhassle if we stopped conflating

(13:01):
these two ideas and were able todistinguish.
When we die, who knows who hasthe highest station in terms,
say, the highest spiritualstation, or who is truly the
greater human being who hasimpacted people's lives and
transformed them.
They may never have held anyoffice.

(13:23):
They may never have had anystatus as we think of it.
They may never have had labelslike partner or, I don't know,
Chief Executive Officer orwhatever, and yet they may have
been incredible leaders in thesense that Jim Rohn spoke about
it, in that they helped manypeople change their thoughts,

(13:44):
beliefs, and actions for thebetter.
It may be some person whoresides in a village in a far
flung corner of the planet thatyou and I have never heard of
and will never hear about.
We can detach our egos from thisconcept of power and authority
and the role of leadership whenwe start to truly understand

(14:04):
what matters in life and whatthe role of leaders is.
New concept number six is that aleader has to have the ability
to take the long view and beproactive.
In other words, have the abilityto address problems before they
become emergencies.

(14:24):
Can you imagine if we had heededthe warnings of scientists
before COVID, over years, thatwe were due for a pandemic that
would be caused by an airbornevirus that traveled from animals
to humans, and they had calledfor the creation of a global
virus surveillance network.

(14:45):
These calls were ignored, andthe excuse was that it was too
expensive.
Nobody wanted to fund it.
And yet the cost would have beenapproximately fraction of what
it ultimately ended up costingus.
We're still spending on thepandemic, which is still with
us, even though we've chosen toturn a blind eye to it.
We just pretend it doesn'texist.

(15:05):
It's now become an endemicdisease.
The next concept, actuallyconcept number seven, is"the
ability to take people wherethey don't necessarily want to
go, but ought to be." I lovethis quote.
It's from a woman, RosalindCarter.
And it's so true.
Think about climate change.
Our leaders should have beenable to bring humanity along, to

(15:30):
change our habits, to stopburning fossil fuels, to step up
radically the creation ofrenewed systems of energy, clean
energy, and we should have beenfar further along than we are,
but they, as I started offsaying, that our leaders have
really spectacularly failed usin many critical respects.

(15:54):
It is important to direct publicopinion to whatever is important
and meets the needs andchallenges of the day, including
by using proper arguments andaddressing clear, comprehensive
and conclusive proofs.
This is the business our leadersshould be engaged in.
They should be able to persuadeus by engaging our hearts and

(16:18):
our minds.
Examples are in the field ofclimate change, nuclear
proliferation.
We need to eliminate our nuclearweapons.
There are compelling reasons whywe need to do this.
The risk of nuclear war is atits highest since the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
This is something,unfortunately, we're not even
talking about and not even awareof for the large part.

(16:41):
And this does not bode well.
The last thing in terms of newideas of thinking about is that
a good leader should be able,yes, to get results.
I've been hearing a lot inelections speak around the
world, some people saying,"Oh.
A good leader is just somebodywho gets things done." That's

(17:01):
not enough, because the way theyget things done is as important
as what they get done.
The means they use should be asworthy as the ends.
This is a really critical point,that the ends do not justify the
means.
Ever.
This is how we get ourselvesinto a lot of hot water.

(17:23):
The means should be as worthy asthe ends.
Imagine us adopting this set ofeight new ways of thinking,
reconceptualizing what power,authority, and leadership are
really about.
Then we would find ourselves, ifwe did that, wanting to elect
very different kinds of leadersfrom the kinds that we have been

(17:45):
used to electing.
We would seek leaders who had acertain set of qualities of
character.
And the second criterion wewould demand are certain
motivations.
I'm not going to spend a lot oftime on this latter part, but I
just wanted to highlightexamples of some of the
qualities, I think, if we wereto adopt these concepts that

(18:08):
I've shared.
These are some of the qualitiesthat we would be demanding, not
just looking for, but demandingin our leaders.
Honesty that is displayed in allaspects of their lives and how
they treat their families andhow they treat their business
partners and how they treat theelectorate.
Secondly, freedom fromprejudice.

(18:29):
People who are not interested insowing this division, but rather
are unifiers.
It's easy to find out people'srecords on this front thanks to
the internet.
It's not hard to figure out whatpeople's records have been.
Courage is another one.
The willingness to do what isright for the collective whole,

(18:51):
regardless of what's in theirbest interest.
Also the courage to speak thetruth about the difficulties
that we're going to face withclimate change, for instance,
and the steps that we need totake.
Freedom from corruption.
That is another quality ofcharacter that we need to be
looking for.
And leaders who are willing tosacrifice and give of themselves

(19:12):
and who are content, forinstance, with modest incomes
and are not out to gouge us alland treat our national resources
as though they are their ownprivate resources.
Leaders who have basiccompetence.
You can be a lovely human beingwith beautiful qualities of
honesty and lack of prejudiceand yet not really be competent

(19:33):
to govern.
There must be some skills there,some governance skills.
Willingness to listen in aspirit of humility.
That is a key characteristic ofa good leader.
Someone who is fair minded andwise, who is compassionate and
empathetic.
We found during COVID thatleaders who were more willing to

(19:53):
listen, be compassionate andempathetic,--and by the way, all
of-them were women leaders--their nations did better during
COVID.
So it's not just a soft skill.
This is a critical skill in adangerous world.
Leaders who are interested inseeking ends through means that
are equally worthy and who seekthe broadest diversity of input

(20:16):
possible before making decisionsand who are willing to evince
transparency.
So they're not being secretiveof what about what's going on
because they're there in serviceto their people.
So bringing the people along.
I would mention that One pitfallI think we fall into is that we
tend to elect people on thebasis of platforms rather than

(20:39):
qualities of character.
I would highly recommend that weflip this, that we guard against
putting the cart before thehorse.
In other words, focus oncharacter and skills and
competence.
Then, trust to their goodwill,skill, conscience, and ability
to consult.
Give them the opportunity to beagile and adapt to realities.

(21:01):
Abraham Lincoln famously said,"Inever had a policy.
I have just tried to do my besteach and every day." Find that
very interesting.
When we look at it, we see thatthe reality on the ground is
that despite all the promisesmade by candidates and the
platforms, reality kicks in oncethey get elected.

(21:24):
Famously, a former British PrimeMinister, Harold Macmillan, was
once asked what was likely tothrow a government off course.
And his response, in typicallyEnglish fashion, was,"Events,
dear boy, events." Think aboutBoris Johnson's tenure as Prime
Minister.
The guy was elected to getBrexit done, right?

(21:45):
That was the platform on whichhe ran.
That was the mandate that thepeople of Britain gave him.
Nobody expected that what hewould have to primarily deal
with was a pandemic, an economicrecession of great magnitude,
and answering for historicalracism.
It just goes to show thatelecting people just on the

(22:07):
basis of platforms and promisesmay not be the best approach.
And the second criterion, thething we must demand, is pure
motives and motivation.
We should be smart aboutassessing the motivations of
people who run for office,asking ourselves, Are they
interested in money, status,influence, and power?
Or do they desire to take intoaccount the collective interest

(22:30):
not only of their own nation,but of all nations, because we
live in a world that is sointerdependent and
interconnected and has become asingle organism.
The last point I want to throwin--that we're not going to
explore, but I'm going to referyou back to episodes 16 and 17
of this Reimagining Our Worldseries-- is that another skill

(22:53):
we all have to hone in order toelect fit leaders is this
essential skill of theindependent and unbiased
investigation of the truth.
Covered this in great detail intwo episodes, so again 16 and
17.
Go back and take a listen.
If you'd like more to delvefurther into the topic today and

(23:16):
some of the concepts I'veraised, check out the chapter
called Leadership Shift and inthe latest book I published

called The Alchemy of Peace (23:23):
Six Essential Shifts in Mindsets and
Habits to Achieve World Peacethat's available on Amazon.
Okay, that's it for now.
It's delightful to be back withyou all and I look forward to
seeing you in March, next month.
That's all for this episode ofReimagining Our World.

(23:46):
I'll see you back here nextmonth.
If you liked this episode,please help us to get the word
out by rating us and subscribingto the program on your favorite
podcast platform.
This series is also available invideo on the YouTube channel of
the Center for Peace and GlobalGovernance, CPGG.