Brian, Thank you for your excellent (and refractive!) perspective. I have not clicked on a single one of your embedded link references (yet), but I want you to know that you seem to be on a fruitful path. The voice that I hear in my ear upon reading your blog entry (my sister Ann's voice), however, is that (we) privileged white males need to take a back seat to others - especially people of color - who have been perpetually wounded and inhibited from having their say for hundreds of years. So leadership by her definition might mean biting our tongues, listening carefully, and following instead of activating any of the six leadership styles. My guess is that you've written about this angle elsewhere, and I just haven't seen it yet. I've been meaning to respond to another one of your recent posts (in which you opened up your personal vulnerability) talking a bit about your partner relationship. You have reminded me to dig that out and reply. Again, thank you for your profound scholarship and sharing. -- Jim Schulman, AIA, Executive Director, Alliance for Regional Cooperation; JSchulman@ARCdmv.org {I'm a friend & colleague of Brandon Dube'}
I don't think there's nothing inherently wrong with power or hierarchy (Rich Bartlett has a couple of great posts about that).
For me some of the discomfort with formal power comes from the fact that in most of it's forms it is inbounded in scope and time.
The WBW/Zappos piece above offers an interesting solution: when power comes from a constitution and democratic selection for a limited time, rather than from the founder/source. And there are systems of checks and balances (like the separation of powers in courts, congress and president) in place. Power feels less uncomfortable to wield
Brian, Thank you for your excellent (and refractive!) perspective. I have not clicked on a single one of your embedded link references (yet), but I want you to know that you seem to be on a fruitful path. The voice that I hear in my ear upon reading your blog entry (my sister Ann's voice), however, is that (we) privileged white males need to take a back seat to others - especially people of color - who have been perpetually wounded and inhibited from having their say for hundreds of years. So leadership by her definition might mean biting our tongues, listening carefully, and following instead of activating any of the six leadership styles. My guess is that you've written about this angle elsewhere, and I just haven't seen it yet. I've been meaning to respond to another one of your recent posts (in which you opened up your personal vulnerability) talking a bit about your partner relationship. You have reminded me to dig that out and reply. Again, thank you for your profound scholarship and sharing. -- Jim Schulman, AIA, Executive Director, Alliance for Regional Cooperation; JSchulman@ARCdmv.org {I'm a friend & colleague of Brandon Dube'}
Brian, I deeply appreciate the reflection. There's another lens that you may want to consider: https://link.medium.com/ih5tNITcRdb
I don't think there's nothing inherently wrong with power or hierarchy (Rich Bartlett has a couple of great posts about that).
For me some of the discomfort with formal power comes from the fact that in most of it's forms it is inbounded in scope and time.
The WBW/Zappos piece above offers an interesting solution: when power comes from a constitution and democratic selection for a limited time, rather than from the founder/source. And there are systems of checks and balances (like the separation of powers in courts, congress and president) in place. Power feels less uncomfortable to wield