Harmlessness and the Leadership Spectrum

As one of us [WB] reflects on my own role as the leader of a graduate school of psychology for the past 38 years, I can take pride and pleasure in having had a significant impact on the lives of the 600 plus graduate students we have served for many different countries in the world. I hope that I have also treated our staff members, faculty members, and board members over these years in a fair and considerate manner.

I [WB] do know, however, that some members of my graduate school committee have been disappointed in my work with them and in my overall leadership of the school. Some even have left my graduate school with a great deal of hatred toward me. I have been described as a bombastic fool who should have retired many years ago. I suspect that this description is accurate—at least as I am perceived by some people in my community. I have indeed stepped on some people while traveling on my own road. I have not gently found a way to protect them or escort them off the path that lay in front of me. I have not been a Jain.

The other one of us [SP] takes exception with this self-portrayal by WB. She has known and worked alongside of WB for more than a decade and contends that WB is not only NOT a bombastic fool who should have retired many years ago, he causes harm to his legacy by entertaining the thought. Truly, WB is a generous, gentle, wise leader, who has made and continues to make a profound impact on the lives of many around the world.

What about the work being done by the other one of us [SP]? As an executive leadership coach for hundreds of corporate and government leaders worldwide over nearly three decades, I [SP] have observed the leadership transactional thinking that involves the calculus of trade-offs, strategic though they may be, that may cause harm as an unintended consequence. Is it possible for leaders to make tough leadership decisions that cause no harm? By our existence as humans on the planet we cause harm.

We breathe air, we eat food, we manufacture and wear clothing and we build…all of which, arguably, cause harm to the climate and environment. How can we develop leaders to have transformational, generative thinking that allows for both the desired business result and the opposite of harm? Not just doing no harm, but actually healing the planet. Helping the environment? Connecting the humans? Rather than the either/or, zero-sum thinking, we can generate both/and, possibility thinking in our leaders for a better future.