What about male leadership?

There is no doubt that not only women are ascending to power, but men are losing that power. There are many articles and essays on that, especially in United States and the reality is that a new paradigm is being created.

However, I was in a retreat on Leadership. My co-facilitator is an old friend, and one of her topics was female leadership. It was then I had an interesting realization.

First of all, she commented at some point that what is happening now is that women are increasing their status, but it shouldn't be that men lose theirs. It was then, I have started to look at the male leadership issue with different eyes.

Another point came from myself: leadership will be different performed, according to the person, his/her culture, the moment they are living, etc. So, why not to be a male leader?

First, let me clarify: female or male leadership does not have anything to do with gender, as we have seen women who were typically male leaders, and men who were female leaders. But, of course, it is easier for a man to be a male leader than a woman.

Male leadership stands for creation and creativity, zeal, enthusiasm, courage, energy, power, greatness, honor and all the things you have watched in old movies or read in books of such a times. Nowadays, what we see, is a travesty of that leadership where creativity destroyed nature, courage killed other people, power became a tool for self-serving, greatness turned into arrogance and, the worse probably, honor was lost forever.

To recover that kind of leadership will be a hard task, but my realization is that female leadership won't work without is counterpart - and possibly in the past, they were together providing the best from humankind to humankind.

It will require a new version of a man, a softer and firmer version, but I think it is really possible. It will require to see the world in a different perspective where violence does not have a place in a new society.

Back to the New Economy!

Hi, sorry for the absence. Sometimes, my trips take to places where using internet becomes a luxury in many senses, but I am back to my present base.

Some years ago, I've got very interested in the topic of New Economy. It seemed to me quite exciting, really, a nice alternative to the communism/capitalism antagonism the world lived for many decades.

Then, it seemed it just disappeared in thin air, just like any other fashion. So, imagine my surprise when I saw those terms again... but, after a while, they merged into my mind again. But I started to notice many things around me.

First of all the present contradictions. Yes, if you an economist you could explain to me WHY USA HAS BECOME THE PLACE WHERE INVESTORS SENT THEIR MONEY, when that country was responsbile for the last (and many other) crisis in the first place. But, beyond your explanation, the fact we are living in this kind of economic limbo of New Economy, give me a very powerful idea: WHATEVER WE HAVE LEARNT IN THE PAST IS NOT WORKING ANY MORE.

That means, we all must learn different things in a different way. In a very different way. Can you explain why one of the most horrible songs uploaded in Youtube has become one of the most watched videos? Things are foggy.

So, I invite you to learn and teach different things in different ways, so that our human brotherhood can thrive successfully through the sometimes-dark waters of change.

New Leadership

My thoughts on leadership have changed along the time. I think I went from a pure idea (what I call a "conceptual leadership") to a more pragmatic vision, a de facto leadership. What did not change was the idea that leaders are most needed in a time of crisis. Like the one we live nowadays.

In fact, not like the one we live, as we are living many different crisis (do we have a plural for crisis? there is one in Portuguese...). Probably, one way to see the need of leadership and the confusion at the time of applying it is the present case of Detroit Downsizing you can see in this video, or read in this article.

I was reading about that in an American magazine whilst crossing USA last March. There are so many questions about why they are doing that or even how, as I am no expert in these questions. But for me the main question is: what is the kind of leadership needed to reach a conclusion and solution like that?

It cannot be a political leadership - there is so much on stake! Neither can be a business leadership or architectonic leadership (just imagine that!) - it has to be a very broad kind of leadership as it has to take in account finances, politics, people, business, education, etc.

There is no simple solution, not a single answer for that. I am not sure if I applaud the decision of Detroit's mayor or if his people will do that. Probably, only History will tell us if that was a good idea or not, it the leadership in that case was correctly applied or not.

Can we wait for History? We should. But we can't. South America is blossoming (believe me!) in terms of Economy and the same for Asia, even parts of Africa. Is it possible that one day the anglo-franco part of North America and Europe will have to migrate towards better places? Well, they had to do it in the past.

If a better leadership does not emerge, it is possible the same happens again. It is time for a leadership with a depth, with a different sense of reality and a broad approach of the world, before the only we can do is downsize our cities.