I remember how startled I was when I first heard my grandparents casually blurt out phrases that were \u2018out of step\u2019 with my current views on topics (think racism). I was just coming to that age where I understood that different generations bring different perspectives on the world, and that we are collection of generations, genders and cultures all perceiving the same ideas, but from very diverse perspectives. This phenomenon is what helped me to frame Annabel Beerel\u2019s analysis of a number of active theories of leadership, which have what she characterizes as \u201cshortcomings\u201d for today\u2019s complexities [1].<\/p>\n
Rethinking Leadership : A Critique of Contemporary Theories <\/em>was written by Beerel during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only to explain the leadership theories at play, but to mine them for qualities and capacities that underpin them [2]. Beerel is a South African-born American consultant and educator, as well as a former business executive, who holds degrees in philosophy and leadership. She is well versed in the theories of leadership. I will focus on her emphasis on ethics in leadership, to which she devotes a whole chapter [3].<\/p>\n For Beerel, morality is being concerned with maintaining rules and norms, while ethics is about making wise choices for the wellbeing of many. Her claim that \u201cwe want leaders to be ethical\u201d[4] not merely moral, seems far from a universally held ideal. However, I want<\/em> it to be true.<\/p>\n Beerel\u2019s point is that \u201cEthical thinking draws a person into greater cognitive maturity\u201d [5]. She is building on the schema developed by Lawrence Kohlberg (1927\u20131987), a Harvard psychologist. In Kohlberg\u2019s stages of moral development, reasoning for right and wrong involves higher levels of complexity [6]. <\/span>Beerel also weaves in Abraham Maslow\u2019s \u201ctranscendent pull towards \u201cgreater self-actualization\u201d, indicating that these higher levels of ethical thinking become more concerned about <\/span>being<\/em> values rather than doing<\/em> values \u2013 such as wholeness, justice, beauty, goodness, and truth (Maslow, 2014, p.75) [7]. Eve Poole in her work, Leadersmithing,<\/em>\u00a0aligns this with character, in which she builds on the <\/span>Aristotelian idea of person-centred, not just action-centred \u201cvirtue ethics\u201d [8]. From this, it becomes clear that ethical thinking draws leaders into practices of self-reflection, and higher levels of consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n In spiritual leadership terms, leaders are invited not simply to enforce the Law, given through Moses (Exodus 20), but to deal with the deeper ethical matters raised by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Here, Lee <\/span>Bolman and Terrance Deal explain that the intersection of ethics and spiritual leadership is where [leaders]<\/p>\n help people find meaning, hope, and <\/span>faith <\/span>in work and help them answer fundamental questions that have confronted humans of every time and place: Who am I as an individual? Who are we as a people? What is the purpose of my life, of our collective existence? What ethical principles should we follow? What legacy will we leave? [9]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Applying some hybrid of adaptive leadership, neuroleadership, transpersonal leadership is good, but without ethical thinking, it can easily become fixated with a new kind of doing, criticizing former methods or schemas, and miss the deeper wholeness of persons, systems, and our world. \u00a0And I am not likely to get it all right. Now that I am the grandparent, I wonder about how my children and grandchildren will process the values and ideas I uphold, and how foreign they possibly feel to them. I simply hope that by embedding the capacity of ethical thinking, it will offer a leadership example that will enable others to, in Beerel\u2019s words, \u201clead with both head and heart and who will help shape a more sustainable world \u2013 a world of balance and harmony and a world filled with meaning and hope\u201d [10].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ______<\/p>\n [1] Annabel Beerel, Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories<\/em> (1st ed.), Routledge, 2021), 374-375.<\/span><\/p>\n [2] Beerel gives this fulsome outline in the intro: \u201cChapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 lay out the foundational themes of the text. <\/span>Chapters 8-14 describe specific leadership theories and critique their effectiveness. It is important to note that many leadership theories overlap. They are not as self-standing as presented. <\/span>Chapters 15 and 16 discuss the ethical aspects of leadership, while Chapters 17 and 18 review gender and leading a multigenerational workforce. <\/span>The final chapter synthesizes the themes and the capacities needed to be an effective leader\u201d Rethinking, <\/em>6. <\/span><\/p>\n [3] Rethinking, <\/em>Chapter 16.<\/span><\/p>\n [4] Rethinking, <\/em>326.<\/span><\/p>\n [5] Rethinking, <\/em>326.<\/span><\/p>\n [6] Rethinking, <\/em>327.<\/span><\/p>\n [7] Rethinking, <\/em>386.<\/span><\/p>\n [8] Eve Poole, <\/span>Leadersmithing: An Apprenticeship Approach to Making Great Leaders<\/span><\/em> (London\u202f; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business, 2017), 51.<\/span><\/p>\n [9] Lee G. Bolman, and Terrence E Deal. <\/span>How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing<\/span><\/em>. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand, 2014, 184.<\/span><\/p>\n [10] Rethinking, <\/em>387.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember how startled I was when I first heard my grandparents casually blurt out phrases that were \u2018out of step\u2019 with my current views on topics (think racism). I was just coming to that age where I understood that different generations bring different perspectives on the world, and that we are collection of generations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3422],"class_list":["post-40479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03-beerel","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40479"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40522,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40479\/revisions\/40522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}