Leadership in a Time of Crisis
Dr Stephen M. Whitehead
What is the earliest evidence of a single act of human leadership?
The building of Stonehenge, 5000 years ago? The creation of the first pyramid in Egypt, around 5500 years ago? Or perhaps the Necropolis of Bougon, circa 4800BC?
None of these, because there is one act of leadership which predates them all and that is the slaughter of a group of hunter-gatherers on the shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya, some 10,000 years ago. This is not just the first evidence we have of intergroup violence within human society it is the first evidence we have of leadership in action.
For one group of prehistoric people to attack and massacre another tells us that leadership was required. Someone (likely a male?) organised an attack and then carried it out.
That required thinking ahead, planning, intent, strategy, communication, and unity. It required the ability of a leader to recognise a threat, see an opportunity, and rationalise how to gain advantage from it. The leader then had to communicate intent to the community and enlist their cooperation, in this instance to the extent of putting their own lives on the line.
Is all this recognisable to you?
It should be because this is what you do most every day of your working life, though as a leader in international education you’re not generally expected to put your life, or that of your community, on the line, not even in the age of Covid.
While leadership as expressed through violence remains a major part of the human experience, we have become more civilised and sophisticated.
And in turn, so have our expectations of leaders evolved.
We cannot know how much emotional intelligence the leader of that prehistoric group of vicious hunter-gatherers had, but let’s assume not a lot. In that respect, the likes of Genghis Khan, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, William the Conqueror, Mao Tse Tung, Napoleon, Vlad the Impaler, Shaka Zulu and Caesar could be said to be his natural successors.
But do we need such leadership today? Not if humanity is to survive what is coming.
I claim no expertise in the field of science and much less in relation to environmental change, but I am convinced by what I see, what I experience, all backed up by evidence presented by experts from around the world. I imagine you are convinced too.
Let us therefore, not take the best-case scenario, let us act like good and responsible leaders and recognise the worse-case scenario, the threat:
1. More extreme weather
2. Devastating droughts
3. Disappearance of entire species
4. Severe heatwaves
If all that seems rather vague and remote to you, take one factor, the extreme heatwaves. It is predicted that by 2100 48% of the world’s population will be in danger as a direct result of deadly heatwaves if the current rises in carbon emissions continue.
That is over 3.7 billion people – all at risk of perishing in terrible conditions.
Many cities and major urban conurbations will become uninhabitable, such as:
Miami
Chicago
New Orleans
Dubai
Abu Dhabi
Jakarta
Shanghai
Beijing
New Delhi
Lagos
Bangkok
Dhaka
Again, this all may seem so remote to you. After all, we have our air-conditioning, swimming pools, fans, lightweight clothing. We spend most of our time indoors, not out in the blazing sun. Plus, we have our passports and can readily relocate somewhere cooler.
But let us put aside our immediate comfort zone, and think like leaders, facing the same existential threat as our prehistoric ancestors living around Lake Turkana, only we must multiply the threat by several billion.
By 2070, 19% of the Earth’s surface will be suffering extreme heat, affecting 3.5 billion people. The Middle East will become just one region where it will be too hot to live. That is not just a worst-case scenario it is already happening.
Perhaps, like me you not only don’t live in the Middle East but have no intention of ever doing so. Fine, but this will impact you and I, regardless.
Within the next 50 years, hundreds of millions of us will be living in areas too hot to survive. Where are these people going to go?
It doesn’t take far-sighted leadership to recognise what is heading our way, no matter where we live.
If you’ve felt stressed, disrupted, demotivated and overwhelmed by the covid-19 pandemic, don’t worry, that is merely a stroll in the park compared to what is just around the corner and fast heading our way.
What type of leaders/ship do we now need?
There is no shortage of research and data on leadership – these books and articles could (in fact, do) fill a number of libraries, and what this wealth of information tells us that there are many styles of leadership, encompassing charismatic, transactional, transformational, situational, authoritarian, contingent, and so on.
But allow me to reduce it down to just two very different types:
1. Unreflective
2. Reflective
The unreflective leader will be ego-driven, self-centred, narrow-minded, expect to have unquestioning and certainly uncritical followers, demand obedience, operate via a strict hierarchy, and will be defensive and prone to act aggressively faced with any threat. They will have absolutely zero emotional intelligence. They will expect loyalty based on fear as much as love. They will see themselves as the most intelligent person in the room.
The reflective leader will be inclined towards inclusivity, embracing diversity, developing relationships, empathetic, a listener, an enabler, considerate of others’ situations and circumstances, observant, quieter, watchful, meditative, strategic and preferring to devolve responsibility to others while ensuring they are supported and meet expectations. They will see themselves as contributing to the total intelligence of the organisation/community. Emotional intelligence is their biggest asset, their strongest skill, and they deploy it wisely.
For me, this is a simple division, a persuasive binary. From my experience of life and work, you are most likely to see one or the other type of leader prevail. Both types of leaders can be driven, passionate, determined, enthusiastic, highly intelligent and garner supporters. But one relies solely on him/herself while the other relies on themselves and their team.
Examples of unreflective leaders: Trump, Thatcher, Putin, Bolsonaro, Duterte, Johnson, Modi and all the male leaders I listed earlier.
Examples of reflective leaders: Biden, Arden, Tsai Ing-wen, Merkel, Solberg, Marin, FD Roosevelt, JF Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi.
As you see, and as I explain in my forthcoming (co-authored) book on inclusivity in organisations, it is not simply about men and women leaders, it is very much about masculine and feminine styles of leadership.
The old (prehistoric) style of leadership, the ‘my way or the highway’ approach, backed up by aggression and violence, will be a disaster for humanity faced now with its greatest-ever existential threat.
We need leaders, across politics, industry and commerce, who are not following the traditional style – independent, aggressive and irrational. We need leaders who are emotionally intelligent, who put other people’s safety before their ego and face, and who are brave enough to see outside their particular cultural bubble.
But for this change in leadership to happen we first need a change in ourselves.
This point is made by Dr Alice Evans, a sociologist at Kings College, London:
“As the world prepares for future catastrophes, a more empathetic leadership style could be the way forward. What we learned with COVID-19 is that, actually, a different kind of leader can be very beneficial. Perhaps people will learn to recognise and value risk-averse, caring and thoughtful leaders”
When Dr Evans talks of ‘people needing to learn’ she actually means schools like yours needing to teach it.
Your Responsibility
There are legions of international schools claiming to ‘create the next generation of global citizens and leaders’. And given the fees they are charging, who can blame them for a bit of rhetorical posturing?
But if such statements are to be more than marketing soundbites then these schools, and indeed all educational establishments concerned with leadership, need to clearly define just what type of leaders they are intent on creating.
The starting point must be the development of emotional intelligence in all the students because the ability to be calm, considerate and reflective begins and ends with EQ. Okay, that sounds straightforward enough. But here is the rub, you have to approach the development of emotional intelligence differently with males than you do with females.
This is not because of sex biology it is because of the way gender identity gets socially defined, influenced and expressed.
This is an area that you need to understand more fully before you or your teachers plunge into trying to create ‘emotionally intelligent boys’.
So, to aid you in that endeavour I offer two handouts (here and here) both of which I have created for professional development programmes for international schools concerned to develop and understand gender identity work in their students.
What you are aiming for here is in fact a different type of masculine identity in boys. In short, you don’t want to be encouraging traditional masculine subjectivities, you need to be encouraging progressive masculine subjectivities. For more on this distinction see my latest book, Toxic Masculinity; curing the virus (AG, 2021).
Progressive masculine identity is the only masculine performance that can fully express emotionally intelligent leadership: empathy, sensitivity, compassion, inclusivity, and appreciation of diversity – all backed-up by a reflective approach which is fair-minded yet self-confident and determined. It is most definitely not a masculinity that seeks self-validation from, for example, expressing homophobia, racism, sexism or aggression. It is not a way of being a boy/male/man which gets validation from feeling superior to girls/females/women.
It is your responsibility to ensure this happens. Because this is what it now means to be an international educationalist in the 21st century.
Summary
This is a short article, less than 2000 words, but basically it summarises the challenge facing humanity and facing international educationalists like ourselves.
It is not enough to recognise the environmental and existential crisis heading our way, we professionals must be clear about how we intend to meet this problem head on.
There is a real urgency here because you and I well know what could well happen once global society’s infrastructure starts to collapse under the intolerable pressure and overwhelming needs of billions of climate refugees. We will be quickly back to the type of leadership expressed by our prehistoric ancestors, 10,000 years ago: violent, aggressive, discriminatory, brutal, all driven by fear and loathing.
This type of leadership hasn’t disappeared over the past 10,000 years. It is still very much with us to this day. Just look around you.
But as we’re now also seeing around the world, better leaders are emerging, both women and men, and who demonstrate the traits and skills required for true global and social leadership during a time of crisis.
These enlightened and emotionally intelligent leaders are the ones your school needs to focus on, encouraging your students, male and female, to recognise as role models and aspire to emulating.
The environmental crisis won’t simply be about cutting carbon emissions, it will be a test of humanity’s willingness and ability to be better than it has been. And that transformation cannot happen without schools and educators helping to make it happen.
If you would like more information on how to introduce progressive masculine identities and inclusivity into your school and classroom, contact Stephen at stephen@totalinclusivity.com (www.totalinclusivity.com)
LEADING AN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL?
International Schooling: The Teacher’s Guide is an excellent resource for staff induction and PD. Chapters cover TCKs, EAL, the skills needed to succeed internationally and, more critical than ever, advice on how to manage change.
See www.teachabroad.ac for more details and to order copies for your staff.