Einstein and Leadership for a New Era

When someone, in casual conversation, suggested that, “it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that out” I might have been offended if I were not amused by the irony of his reference to Einstein. We had recently used an Einstein quote in a thought piece called Leadership for a New Era (attached below) written by the Leadership Learning Community (LLC) team. “You cannot solve problems with the same level of consciousness that was used to create them.” This quote expressed the impetus we felt to ask ourselves and our community a related question, “What in our current consciousness and approaches to leadership development must change if we are to provide the scope and quality of leadership needed to address the significant social inequalities?”

Now here comes the irony part.

As we have begun to dig into this question, based on our 10 years of experience evaluating leadership program efforts, scanning the field and mining the learning of hundreds of leadership development program staff and researchers, we are growing increasingly concerned about the dominance of a heroic, yes “genius” model of leadership, that focuses heavily on the spectacular feats of individuals. We have identified the need for a much broader and more culturally inclusive approach to cultivating and sustaining leadership that focuses on nurturing and supporting teams, networks, and communities; and prepares individuals to lead collectively with others whose leadership cultures and practices differ from their own.

We believe that there are costs to maintaining the status quo in our approaches to supporting leadership. LLC held a number of learning sessions on the status of people of color in leadership positions in the nonprofit sector. We heard that often, when leadership is exercised in alignment with different cultural traditions that are more collective it is not recognized or rewarded in a culture that values directive leadership. What happens when leadership programs single out one individual for achievements that are the work of many?

There is good news though. The election of Barack Obama has pulled us into a new leadership landscape. The massive mobilization using decentralized self-organizing strategies and social technologies fostered unprecedented levels of civic engagement and the election of our first African American president. These events demonstrate the possibilities of a more democratic approach to leadership with the potential to unleash the power of networks, communities, social movements and ordinary individuals connecting with others to take action on the things they care about most deeply. So when it comes to social change, I guess it doesn’t take an Einstein, it takes all of us.