We need wise leaders instead of smart managers

Crises carry an invitation to do things differently. Embracing this opportunity full-heartedly, requires an overhaul of what is considered ‘leadership’ throughout society. We need to up our game. What we need are masterful warriors with a crystal clear vision, and the gift to empower and incite the necessary inspiration, creativity and faith that catalyses transformational change. We need leaders committed to purposeful and sustainable conduct, with an ability to tap into and mobilise the huge amounts of human potential that lie wastefully dormant. Society yearns for wise leaders instead of smart managers.

A full leadership reset

Working with leadership teams of leading global corporations, it became clear to me that our system is NOT geared towards developing/nurturing true leadership. Instead, we have become reliant on the pseudoscience of management, which we turned into a tool for profit optimisation and labelled it ‘leadership’. Dominated by our linear economic model and restrained by our over-rationalised societal ethos, we lost the true Art of Leadership. This has resulted in our current global leadership amnesia. What we need is a full leadership reset.

The search for a new perspective led me to some of the oldest surviving communities in the world

For 25 years I have been pushing the boundaries of leadership development, relentlessly experimenting with new approaches and unorthodox pathways. My quest for a new perspective on leadership, rooted in wisdom and sustainability, led me on a five year journey. Together with my family I broke away from society to live and study with Native American and other tribal leaders and their communities around the world. This journey is documented in the award-winning film DOWN to EARTH. Fascinated by their way of being and their profound wisdom, I discovered strong parallels in their underlying leadership principles, which are now more relevant than ever for our modern world.

Leading from within

Over the course of the past seven years I have been incorporating these powerful universal principles in my work with leaders and their teams, moving from a knowledge-based ego-building externalised ethos to a wisdom-based awareness-building internal ethos. Witnessing the powerful impact on the communities and organisations of those leaders who have embraced this transition to lead from within has left me with no doubt about my mission: To help develop and nurture the authentic wisdom-based leadership the world so desperately needs.