“By definition, leadership is needed when something has to be done that has never been done before. Meeting unknown circumstances requires rapid and spontaneous learning. In the case of today’s leadership needs, that learning is mutual.”
“Leadership Within the Paradox of Agency” all quotes from Nora Bateson (2016) Small Arcs of Larger Circles, Triarchy Press.
1. “Leadership does not reside in a person but in an arena that can be occupied by offerings of specific wisdom to the needs of the community.”
2. “Leadership is produced collectively in the community, not the individual. The individual’s responsibility is to be ready and willing to show up, serve, and then, most importantly, stand back.”
3. “In the ecology of the interdependence of our world, the individualistic idea of leadership is wildly out of sync.”
4. “The illusion of leadership as a singular and linear causation distracts from our ability to perceive the larger interactions in context.”
5. “Our evolution is only in our mutual contribution and learning. Leadership, as such, must be reimagined as an evolving process embedded in interdependency.”
6. “Leadership for this era is not a role or a set of traits; it’s a zone of interrelational process. Step in, step out.”
7. “In ecological terms, leadership is less about the individual and more about the environment where collective need and possibility align to produce new paths.”
8. “The health and vitality of leadership lies in the relationships and mutualities, not in the isolated hero’s story.”
9. “Mutual learning is only possible when all participants are willing to be wrong, to explore the unknown, and to go off the map together.”
10. “Good teachers and real experts are not leaders. They are fertilizer, tending to the soil from which growth emerges.”