I recently toured Greece and was amazed by the natural beauty of the people and places visited there. The islands were full of awe inspiring evidences of human ingenuity and resilience created over centuries. Like many mountainous regions in Europe, the Greek peoples built their homesteads and villages on towering island mountain tops adjacent to steep cliffs and the rugged shores of the Aegean Sea. A truly incredible fact given the lack of advanced machinery or tools of the time.
It was not difficult to understand how the geography of Greece shaped the imaginations of the various philosophers, poets, and myth makers. The coastlines were scattered with hundreds of islands some populated and others wild. The story of the Odyssey came to life as I travelled by ferry from Athens to Mykonos.
The natural beauty of the place seemed to lull everyone into a calm and pleasant demeanor that fostered a climate where the imagination was lured with ease. There is no wonder how the rich body of Greek philosophy and mythology grew there.
The Ancients knew that people inhabited the different islands and that although separate, they had a lot in common and reasons to connect. It is in this unique place, where peoples separated by land and sea gave birth to democracy. Ancient Greeks created a system where people (demos) gathered to vote on matters of importance or power (kratos). Of course, ancient democracy was very different from modern democratic societies, but the fact that the Ancients understood the importance of sharing power with one another as a means to peaceful negotiation and cooperation was in part likely due to the many challenges created by their local geography.
During my time in Greece, I found myself reflecting on themes related to leadership, and how badly democratic societies and systems have suffered under bad leadership.
Since 2020, I have listened to twenty-two audiobooks on the topic of “leadership”. Most of these books were written by American authors with specific interests in executive leadership, workplace productivity, and the business of turning a profit.
For someone who had spent the better part of my adult life in public sector work, this new field of corporate leadership was truly fascinating. I was able to relate to the importance of leadership in workplaces where quality service provision was the primary goal.
Authors like Shoemaker, Cloud, Pendleton, Willink, Mattone, Maxwell, Izzo, Tracy, Smart, Scott, and Sanberg provide a variety of supportive insights into building successful teams, identifying key performance indicators, growing healthy communicators, inclusive offices, and clear processes that foster corporate success.
Executive Leadership literature integrates a lot of lived experiences, imagery and storytelling to elucidate leadership that works! I have come to learn there are many models of leadership and a variety of methods to grow leaders in the workplace. Some Americans authors who previously served in the army use a militaristic approach to leadership. They stress combative approaches to getting things done and use examples from war to demonstrate their point of view.
Other authors like Shoemaker and Maxwell centralize leadership attributes and processes in workplace success. They humanize corporations and give space and grace for aspects like purpose, integrity, and relationships in successful leaders.
I wonder about our current world of work where attaining success is viewed as a combat sport rather than an Odyssey of personal and professional achievements that deepen over a career-span.
Becoming a “subject matter expert” is not something that happens quickly. Instead, in my view, it is a journey of growth and adventure that involves an incremental mastery of skills, contacts, and knowledge that enhances how and what you do to meet your professional goals.
Good Leaders grow experts and enjoy doing it! They do not stifle, tackle, hold back, suffocate, silence, or intentionally abuse or hurt people at work. Good Leaders foster climates of growth, care, decency, and open communication. They take time to listen to ideas, encourage and strengthen profitable ones, and give credit and praise where it is due. They do not steal the ideas of others, fail to acknowledge the hard work of people on their team, or unduly punish people for exercising their personal agency to do the right thing even where this falls short of workplace expectations.
In my own experience, I recall receiving a five day suspension without pay for not requesting permission in advance to attend a professional conference and to put my name forward to serve on a popular safe schools community based organization.
I was serving as the Chief of Service for a large urban school board at that time managing a fifty plus department of master level social workers. I was never advised to seek permission to attend this conference in advance and there was no process to appeal this “suspension”. It was one of the only times in my professional career, where there was no way to “talk” this through.
As a clinical social worker, this loss of voice and process was truly traumatic to me. I was not asked to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and I have not received this loss of this income in return.
I am now able to look back at this horrendous event as an example of bad leadership. Sadly, there are many directors of education in Ontario who may have histories of excellent teaching, but truly are bad leaders. Most do the best they can, but in truth they are not suited to lead such diverse groups of professionals.
There are many professional groups that work in education, and teachers have no idea about the work others do in the system. For the two years that I served as Chief Social Worker, I was never once asked to render a formal professional opinion despite years of direct service with students and families. I remain unclear to this day what the role of a Chief of Service is when never engaged.
Renewing Grecian Inspired Leadership today would require a retrospective look back to perhaps a more simple notion of democracy as developed by the Ancients. This revived sense of democratic leadership would foster healthy forums to “talk” through differences of opinions before taking the power to decide back to the people in the form of a vote.
In a corporate context, democratic leadership would also foster honest and open check-ins with team members aiming to build buy-in, cooperation, and consensus. Teams that feel heard will be more likely to share openly and grow best ideas together.
A Grecian Inspired Leadership is founded on the belief that human imagination when allowed to roam freely will create the space to innovate, build, and grow in ways that may inspire for generations to come!
I think it’s time to re-imagine democratic leadership.
What do you think?
By: Lisa Romano-Dwyer MSW, PhD, RSW Founder, Lakeside Wellness Therapy Affiliates
