We are a free, sovereign, and ambitious country.
We are masters in our own home.
At the same time, Canada must be looking elsewhere to expand our trade, to build our economy, and to protect our sovereignty.
Canada is ready to take a leadership role in building a coalition of like-minded countries who share our values.
We believe in international cooperation. We believe in the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas.
And if the United States no longer wants to lead, Canada will.
The above pretty much reinforces the different type of leadership and the different type of mindset needed for this VUCA world we live within today.
One that is radically different than how conventional leadership would react.
One that recognizes the existing reality but doesn’t waste time fighting it directly or conventionally but instead puts its energy in building a new, unified reality instead, as noted in my previous post.
The Heroic leaders who dominate our institutions today have four fatal flaws. First, they tend to be over-confident in their opinions. Secondly, they tend to lack empathy towards others. Thirdly, they tend to be inflexible. And finally, they tend to deny the existence of uncertainty. These are the four pillars of the Heroic leader. This isn’t, though, the fault of the leaders themselves; most of our leaders are the victims of outdated systems of leadership that were built for simpler times. Indeed, our leaders are very often doing their best in very difficult circumstances.
Many of today’s issues are not like the complicated technical problems of the past; problems that could be addressed by smart people working hard. Our densely populated, hyper-connected, interdependent modern world is throwing up seemingly insoluble issues: ‘wicked’ issues.
These ‘wicked issues’ require a way of thinking that technical experts and senior leaders rarely have. They require a more open and inquiring mind that can see patterns, understand, and even integrate, the multiple frames that different people and cultures have. This is not some high-minded ideal, but a description of real people who are already creating real change in institutions and communities across the world. We call these new leaders ‘Anti-heroes’. We call them this not because we believe heroes are bad, but because these ‘Anti-heroes’ are in many ways the antithesis of the single strong heroes who alone, ‘save the day’. Anti-heroes tend to be defined by five characteristics: empathy, humility, self-awareness, flexibility and, finally, an ability to acknowledge uncertainty.
Richard Wilson, Anti-Hero
