Kosmos Journal

Dear Friends of Kosmos,

Sometime ago my son asked, “Mom, what kind of leader do you think you are?” I was taken aback as I had actually never thought about myself in this way. I automatically began thinking about political leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Kofi Annan, or business leaders such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, or media prophets such as Bill Moyers, or religious figures like Christ and the Buddha. All of these leaders held positions of power in their respective fields and had significantly influenced world society. As my son prodded me more, I began to realize that I was a leader, but an entirely new kind of leader. I thought of myself more as a server, dedicated to making a better world—perhaps a visionary leader of the emerging future that C. Otto Scharmer speaks about in his fascinating article, or that John Schmidt describes in his integral article on Living Leadership, or perhaps an authentic and intimate leader that Victoria Wilding portrays as vulnerable and powerful at the same time; a new kind of leader motivated not so much by the need to control, but more by the power of attraction.

I thought about how situations and life conditions evoke different types of leadership and about the kind of evolutionary leadership practiced throughout the ages; tribal leadership by elders, heroic power-driven leadership when danger is imminent, authoritarian leadership for law and order, the leadership of the entrepreneur, group facilitation for consensus, leadership based on competency, macro-leadership that mobilizes the global world, and inner guidance of the subjective worlds of our interiors. It seems that the most effective new leaders are resilient, able to change leadership styles according to the needs of the moment, present to the complexities of the age—surfing on the crest of the wave of the emerging future.

My son's questioning opened up an expanded vista of possibilities to me as I began to explore hard and soft power—one based on force, command and control and the other based on the power of attraction. Mikhail Gorbachev says that politics is lagging behind other institutions in meeting the realities of the 21st century and that it needs the soft power that global civil society offers in order to heal humanity's divisions. Gareth Evans, an authority on international crises, says that ineffectual leaders are one of the major causes of global problems. Leadership requires being at the edge of the wave and knowing what needs to happen next, he says. Who are our leaders as we stand at the dawn of an emerging complex world civilization? A few things that come to mind are those that serve the needs of the times, harmonize different value systems, develop interior balance, facilitate resilience to change, practice both hard and soft power, and lead with authentic being and sustained will and purpose.

Perhaps leadership is not what we think it is. Perhaps we have chosen our leaders for a past era rather than for the needs of the present. Nothing could be more important for the welfare of society than the people whom you and I choose to be our leaders. Kosmos is sending out a call for visionary leaders to step forward.

Nancy Roof
Editor & Publisher