If you see the conscious leader on the path – shoot her!

I’ve been reflecting on the self- help era we find ourselves in and the impetus to move away from ‘finding answers’ in organised religion or formal leadership. Self-help resources and gurus have encouraged individuals to become more self-reliant and find the answer ‘within’ as people face uncertainty and change.

In reviewing some of the books that line my bookshelves, I think about how I too am influenced by this notion of individual responsibility and how the metaphor of individual vs collective responsibility plays out in self-help perspectives. Here are some examples:

1) Martha Beck – finding true north

Essential Self vs Social Self

2) Martin Heidegger – Being and Nothingness

‘They Self’ vs Dasein and Authenticity

3) James – ‘As a Man Thinketh’

Positive thoughts vs Negative Thoughts.Personal Mastery vs Blame of Others

4) Martin Buber – I/Thou

I/It (objectification) vs I/Thou (phenomenological)

5) Sartre – Being and Nothingness

‘Bad Faith’ vs Authenticity. Fixed notion of reality vs Phenomenological

6) Traditional Leadership Theory. Follower vs Leader (traits vs circumstances)

The list goes on!

My view of conscious leadership is surely influenced by the zeitgeist of the self-help movement but desire is ‘how can I remain mindful of when I aim to relinquish seeming control to some dogma or belief system but ‘buying into’ another fixed reality of choice and freedom – i.e replacing one set of myths for another. This is the existential notion of sedimentation.

Conscious leadership for me rests primarily on personal leadership of my own self – like the essential self and in that in ‘leaping ahead’ I may open up the way to live with uncertainty and possibilities, encouraging others to likewise to become more personal leaders than followers of others – including me!

So if you meet the conscious leader on the path – don’t forget to shoot her!