Interiority, Faith, and Leadership

by Elmer S Soriano

Leadership in chaotic situations is not easy. In the midst of change or chaos, a leader has to be able to orient herself, connecting to a source of coherence and continuity from which to act from.

Different authors have referred to this as Source, True North, interiority, inner self, or spirituality. Regardless of what it is called, there is a recognition that leaders need to build up their capacity to understand themselves so that they too, can help others understand themselves and the complex work in the world that we all need to do.

On the other hand, there are hundreds of new leadership books published every year. How can one learn leadership without having to read up all the new concepts that describe this complexity. From Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to 21 Laws of Leadership to the Fifth Discipline, it is easy to gain textbook knowledge about leadership, but it requires deeper learning to prepare one for the emotional turmoil and ambiguity that accompanies the practice of leadership.

The Case in Point method pioneered by Heifetz allows learners to participate in a case group, which is a fractal that demonstrates the experience of leadership by creating such a leadership environment within the classroom. Scharmer in the video above, creates learning designs that allow learners to understand the psychology of leadership by first experiencing it.

The challenge is not just to help learners understand themselves. Leadership development has to take learners on a journey so that learners are able to: 1) diagnose themselves; 2) diagnose others, and; 3) guide others on a journey toward self understanding and understanding of the adaptive challenges that they face.