Over the course of a seemingly interminable lockdown in Singapore, I was alerted to the Drucker Challenge Essay Award and persuaded to enter when told that this would probably be the last time I could qualify under the “young” category of anything.
In part fuelled by that existential dread and in part by sheer grinding boredom, I dusted off my essay writing skills and proceeded to rip leadership a new one. The last thing I expected was for that polemical piece to place in the Top 15 of the Managers/Entrepreneurs category, and as ever, Asian Mothers put you in your place by responding to the news with a huffy “Why tell me if it’s not first or second place?”
“How to foster critical thinking skills in critical times” is the articulated culmination of years of frustration at the mechanistic, reductionist, production-line scam of an educational paradigm, a paradigm of the post-WWII global order championed by and successfully implemented by the West.
I am also deeply wary of the term “leadership” shilled with the arrogant abandon of pre-2008 subprime traders. “Discover the leader within you!” “Everyone’s a leader!” “Women in leadership!” “Masculine vs feminine leadership!”
God help us, because we can’t seem to help ourselves. *makes sign of cross*
Current leadership paradigms evolved from hierarchical, militaristic command and conquer/control (sure, I guess you’re a good leader if you won because your side killed the most people). The heart of these paradigms are intersect with gender and class, and often, race. Women who are socialised in these paradigms often end up wanting to out-man the men.
Beyond fostering critical thinking skills, is there an alternative to “leadership” that doesn't fall back to gender rhetoric or “collaboration”? I’d hate to think that humans have lost the capacity to evolve into our full potential, beyond societally gendered norms. We also need to confront the fact that most humans are barely capable of leading themselves, much less others, and certainly not organisations of humans.
I hope you enjoy reading the essay as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here’s to co-evolving the meaning of this fractious, elusive quality.