“When an individual is no longer a true participant, when he no longer feels a sense of responsibility to his society, the content of democracy is emptied.  When culture is degraded and vulgarity enthroned, when the social system does not build security but induces peril, inexorably the individual is impelled to pull away from a soulless society.  This process produces alienation - perhaps the most pervasive and insidious development in contemporary society.”  

- Dr. M.L. King

Apply these words to your context - home, organization, church, community.  How is your citizenship reflective of you as a participant that is responsive to the finite with motivations that reflect the infinite/Infinite?

What does it mean for us to be “in” with a group that we join?  What are the requirements for membership?  Is it that we bring something to the group that it values?  Are we important because of the past credit or the promise of future pleasure?  Is agreement to core ideas and behavior the portal for entry or is solidarity in lifestyle what really matters?  Is belonging an evolved need only after the satisfaction of more base ones?  Does life together exist only in the temporal idea or as universal and even timeless?   Am I more “in” as I am homogeneous or when I am diverse?  What is the importance of a larger narrative that I respond to while living in the temporal social networks created for safety, achievement, pleasure, or for the aesthetics of life together?  In our relationships with our neighbor, or employer, a team member, a spouse or child, what is the essential requirement?  Eric Fromm in the Art of Loving says that to love is to be practitioners of knowing the other, respecting them as they are and can become, responsibility to the relationships asks of us, and to care with depth, breadth and sacrifice.  To be “in” may have lots of different requirements, but worthy leadership of great impact chooses to offer the gift of love when taking on the privilege of joining with others.

Leading is a constant for all of us. The opportunity for leadership is ubiquitous not sporadic. Every time you behave or think, you are having influence or impact on yourself and those around you. We would like to think that leadership is something that happens occasionally, but it truly is a 24/7 event.  To accept the idea that we cannot NOT have influence means we are always responsible for our actions regardless of whether we are conscious of our affect, purposeful with our actions, or self-aware of our influence.  For most people, leadership is thought more of as an organizational matter not so much as personal.  The idea is that leaders are those people who have positional authority, are “up front,” and have information to distinguish themselves or bring unique value to the situation.  An additional matter and one far more insidiously embedded into the psyche of most individuals centers around the matter that most people are driven to avoid pain and difficulty than to do what is right, needed or best concerning the sitautional need.  It isn’t an easy task to face and accept the reality that being responsible is important and that response-ability is important all the time.  As leaders who are always leading, the challenge is for us to bring a quality of presence and attention to the moment; collaborate with others to hear what is essential; and then to co-create value in response to the critical need of people and organizations.

While few of us will ever know what it means to make life and death decisions for our team there are lessons we can glean from being decisive in the midst of a crisis. Retired Colonel Thomas Matthews discusses what it means to lead in the midst of a crisis through his experience in Mogadishu, Somalia.

‘The essential framework is known as “Be, Know, Do.” Leading hinges on the DO part, Matthews said. “In order to be a leader, you’ve got to do; you must act.” Words such as “loyalty” do matter. “We have a motto: NSDQ. It means, Night Stalkers Don’t Quit. That matters in time of crisis and [when] you’re under a lot of stress: Don’t quit. Persevere. Have the will to push through the problem.”‘

“Blackhawk Down”: Leading in Crisis

An interview with the co-founder of Adobe software, Charles Geschke.

Inspirational to read about the start-up and evolution of both the products and relationship between the founders.

PDF: Wharton Driving Adobe: Co-founder Charles Geschke on
Challenges, Change and Values

Awareness of the five forces can help a company understand the structure of its industry and stake out a position that is more profitable and less vulnerable to attack.

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, however, managers define competition too narrowly, as if it occurred only among today’s direct competitors. Yet competition for profits goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces as well: customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. The extended rivalry that results from all five forces defines an industry’s structure and shapes the nature of competitive interaction within an industry.