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Leading in New Cultures of Caring

posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 01:25 PM

Some of you may know that I am an Ambassador for World Leadership Day (www.worldleadershipday.org).

We recently completed the publication of the WLD E-book and this article, is my individual contribution. I hope you will take some time to read and digest it.

God bless.

Our individual lives are impacted by our predominant culture which is one of conflict. What the world needs more than anything is guidance towards a Culture of Caring. This should first start with our care of our Selves.

For the first time in seven years at least, I have been significantly challenged to transcend to a place of ‘higher thinking’ in order to offer my contribution to this outstanding forum called ‘World Leadership Day’; perhaps in part because of the ‘Beyond the Surface’ sub-theme.

I think that even I did not really digest until recently, what superficial approaches had been applied by dominant leadership to the ‘problems’ that so many people have been giving their lives over to for an extremely long period. It has sneaked into my psyche in recent times, and isn’t going away, that the people who had the legitimate power to influence the degree and duration of destruction to so many different segments of humanity have been far more consumed with ‘impressions’ and ‘looking the part’ for particular constituents who were considered more valuable than others in their ‘big picture’.

My place as one of those persons whose efforts to live satisfactorily and was severely undermined by the ‘Old Boys Club’ approaches to business and politics, keeps coming back to my heart and mind since so very often, my self esteem and self worth were eroded as my feelings and what was important to me were cast aside and even joked at by the ‘patrons’ of (capitalist) society.

Ok. So I get that out of the way … then I ask myself in a very deep way, what it will require to take us all to a different place, especially now that it is crystal clear that the ‘powers that be’ are not in a place to lead a diverse, deep, multi-faceted human community, into growth and ideally of the flourishing kind.

And my introspection brings me to one key idea that I hope will transmit effectively to an audience of diverse positions… That is Cultivation of Gentility. Gentility, I interpret to not speak to pretentious or affected behaviours of wealthy persons of days gone by; but to how we will treat ourselves individually, as we attempt to lead in new cultures of calm and peace to our world…

You see, the dominant characteristic I have observed through all of my travels around the world and integration with people of all types, is the destructive features of ‘self-beat’ which we practise. It is expressed in our languages, in our primary activities, in our methods of relating to other people and groups… and of course it is very much indicative of our relationships with ourselves.

Even the very ‘strong’ persons in our midst are bound up in the Culture of Conflict which we have come through the ages with. I observe the need by the well intentioned to even compete in ‘helping the world’… who can do it better than the next…?

The most interesting component of this Culture of Conflict that I refer to is the almost expected life path of pain over enjoyment! The term ‘guilty pleasures’ is an indication of how this manifests itself in daily thinking… Our leaders begin every commentary with the sentence or its equivalent ‘This isn’t going to be easy…’, which of course sets the tone for a struggle to begin, in achieving the targets at hand.

If there is one activity that I feel we as would-be leaders [of ourselves and others] need to commit to, is to act intentionally towards bringing gentleness into our lives. There is no shortage of proponents of competition and aggression; but there is a dire shortage of advocates for day to day caring… and when we think about it, there is a critical need for this in our world right now and for people to see examples of how this is lived.

And so my ‘big’ suggestion to all colleagues in World Leadership is to start being gentle with yourself. Don’t set up deadlines or create rules that will hurt you; that will damage you or anyone else. Set out with actions that will soothe or heal and you will be beginning a brand new set of behaviours that with time, will become ‘normal’… new Cultures of Caring… Thank goodness, with the speed at which the world is turning over, this particular cultural change might see results in an incredibly short time, where cultures are concerned!

Is peace worth it? I think it is.

My simple desire for this world is that we become a common sense society; and common sense requires that we no longer participate in ‘self-beat’, so that we can calmly and peacefully release the potential that is within us. Have no more guilt for desiring to be calm or to be gentle with yourself and others. See time as with you and not against. Don’t be a hero except to your own Self… in fact, who needs saving the most in your world?

Let us lead by example to this world of Peace we are seeking.

Sherrilene M. Collymore
Founder, Human Quality Headquarters, Barbados
www.hq-2.com

P.S. I am brainstorming at present about activities for World Leadership Day, Barbados, if anyone at home would like to share their ideas.

Comments

Barry Crisp

Thursday, December 17, 2009 11:57 AM

Thanks Sherrilene! ; )