Where Are The New Leaders?

I had an interesting experience at the week-end.  I was walking with a friend by the lake in Montreux (a small town near where I live).  As I walked past, I noticed that a bin was smoking - with a smouldering fire inside. I didn't have any water on me nor a container to carry water from the lake. So I tried to engage passers by to help.  

It was an interesting experiment... no-one was willing to help.  It is like it had nothing to do with them... and they looked at me as if I was very weird to even take it on ...

In many ways it was symbolic of what is going on at a bigger level in our world.

Greta Thunberg is calling for us to treat climate change as an emergency - like the world was on fire.  Looking at what is happening in the world around us one thing is clear...things need to change. The question is who will change it?

An interesting paradox...

It is like this paradox, we know things are not working. But for the most part we keep plodding on in our normal life - focused on paying the bills. And watching what is going on in the world like it was a movie.

It is like we can see the iceberg coming, but we think that someone else somehow is going to turn the wheel. We know that something needs to change, but we don’t seem to really own our part in the story.  

What if the cavalry was not coming?

One of the things that has been playing on my mind for a while is this... what if the cavalry was not coming, what if we are the cavalry?

What if each one of us is meant to turn a part of the wheel? Do our part in our own garden patch. Find a way to pour some water over the fire.  So that together we create something better.

There is a huge opportunity to evolve and reinvent things. What if it is up to us?  What if we are the ones we are waiting for?

Do we have the courage to go beyond the same old?

Recently, I have watched the new NZ Prime Minister redefine economic success to include overall well-being. She is inspiring new possibility by starting new conversations - taking us beyond our outdated models.

And that is what evolution takes...bringing new perspectives, becoming transformation agents.

The thing is that that means challenging the status quo. A bit like me on that path by the lake trying to get people to pay attention to that smouldering bin.

It involves having fundamental conversations and taking a stand on things that will be controversial.  And that's scary...

But I believe that that is better than ending up prisoners of a system that doesn’t actually work - even for us.  And definitely not for generations to come.

A call for new leadership

We need more leaders who are willing to bring new conversations into business, politics, health, schools... Conversations that fit the 21st Century and where we are going - rather than the post second world war period.

Same old is simply not going to cut it.  It is time for new leaders to emerge in all walks of life. Leaders that will inspire new possibilities and create new opportunities.

And so the real question is this... What would it take for one of those leaders to be you?

Money and Positive Impact

To embrace that call we need to shatter one specific belief. Somewhere along the line someone decided that there were two worlds. And that these were separate - the world of money and the world of making a positive difference.

The new starts by integrating the two. Let’s create careers where we have a meaningful positive impact and where we make good money. As leaders let’s free ourselves and start conversations that will benefit both our companies and the world.

I see so many people looking for meaning - thinking of starting their own businesses or working for NGOs.

But what if the place to start was actually by speaking up more about what you really believe where you are right now? And from there innovating new products and concepts? That could in turn lead to a whole new rebirth of our economies? 

What if the change starts with you?  What new conversation would you start?