To be an exemplar
From the etymology, “To be a model, the original model of the universe in the mind of God, model of virtue.”
I might be naive, but I always thought leadership was to be an exemplar. To lead the way to do things. To be the example.
Yet around me I see leaders who obviously do not come from this worldview. They see leadership as something else entirely. Don’t do what I do. Do what I say you must do, no matter what I do. In other words the right to power, to dictate terms, rather than to lead by being the exemplar. And this not just in dictatorships, but in nations pretending to be democratic.
I have zero respect for this type of leadership. I care not how hard someone worked to get to their position. If they are not willing to set the example, to be the exemplar, then they are not someone I would follow, vote for, endorse.
To be an exemplar, to set the highest standards as the model, is leadership I admire. To fail, and admit to our failures, then get up and learn from them and do it differently the next time, this is admirable leadership.
We have been so broken down by the endless absence of the leader as exemplar that when someone steps up to the plate and says I will be the model for the world I want to see…we are not quite sure if we can trust them.
It is in the daily actions, the decisions, the consistency, the openness, the vulnerability, the sharing of infallibilities, the courage to face the mistakes, that we find leadership as exemplary.
The team designing the enterprise Syntropic World are committed to being an exemplar. This does not mean perfect…it means holding a very high bar, learning, growing, refining, making mistakes, repeat…holding ourselves to the highest level of account, far more than others might.
We intend to model being an exemplar, all the way up and down.
To our politicians and business leaders, a moral backbone, integrity, being your word, being the model, while this is not business-as-usual, it is business for a world with a future.
Photo taken March 30th 2021
