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Leadership by Soul
Regular reflections for leaders who want to make a lasting difference.
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"Jonathan nimbly blends philosophical insight with practical solutions." -
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"He built his talk to such a powerful crescendo, with such quiet and graceful ease"
Jonathan's Speaking -
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"Not many great speakers on leadership can draw on their experiences living in the centers of conflict in Africa and growing up in tribal New Guinea. The audience was mesmerized ... and fundamentally changed by the experience."
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What do you care about most?
What are you doing about it?
Leadership begins with vision. Vision arises out of the collision between what you know matters most, and what’s not right with the world around you — whether what’s not right is structural, technical, methodological, procedural or ethical.
Leadership ends with legacy. Between vision and legacy is unrelenting action — acting on your vision, again and again, day after day, with resolute focus, with dogged determination, relentlessly, for years. All great achievements — the building of value-creating companies, the abolition of the slave trade, the ending of Apartheid — were the result of what the philosopher Nietzsche called “a long obedience in the same direction”.
Action that builds legacy is shaped by purpose, discipline and trust. What drives it is soul — that clear-eyed understanding of what the leader knows is utterly important, and what he or she is uniquely qualified to do about it.
Leadership by Soul™ is where I explore, with you — through blogging, videos and public speaking — how we can make the difference that lasts.
Thank you for coming here. Welcome to the journey!
The Trust Deficit
The trust deficit, however, is a clear indication that Capitalism is not so much bad as it is broken. Those who influence the direction of the marketplace have shown themselves to be, to one degree or another, unsafe, unreliable and/or incompetent. But rather than gripe and tweet about the failings of big business and government policies, for you and me to act as leaders in this situation we have to take responsibility for the condition of our marketplace and do something about it. Within our own sphere of influence – with our colleagues, employees, customers and other stakeholders – we need to build our businesses on foundations that, over time, will be proven trustworthy.
Clear-Eyed and Calm: Leadership in a Time of Crisis
Issue 5.12 | May 2020 In this Article: how to make good leadership decisions within the confusion of a crisis. [ … ]
Read MoreIn Search of Stable Ground: Leadership in a Time of Crisis
Issue 5.11 | April 2020 In this Article: How to provide stable leadership when everything around you is unstable and [ … ]
Read MoreLeadership in a Time of Crisis
Dear Readers, It is a season of fear, but it doesn’t need to be. A measure of fear is [ … ]
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