A Little Less Fear and Loathing

An excerpt from Chad’s book “Thinking Aloud: Reflections on Ethical Leadership”. We hope you enjoy the essay – and perhaps introduce the questions below as a way to start conversations with your teammates. – ELA Team

A Little Less Fear and Loathing

When I was growing up in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, Star Wars was playing at the Cooper Theater. Forever. It was the perfect venue for that film, featuring a huge screen and great audio combined with spacious surroundings, even a smoking lounge. It was a place of great, retro class. Today that land is occupied by a brand-new, snazzy mixed use development. There is a bar named for the old theater.

Star Wars lives on, a media juggernaut that includes some now-old-fashioned DVDs. We’re watching them now, in order of release. My kids had not yet seen them, and we’re all enjoying them a great deal. On one level, the series stands as a history of late 20th century special effects. At a deeper level, I am taking curious comfort in the story: good and evil are clearly delineated. In a fantasy world, long ago and far away, Evil wore predictable costumes and was audibly enrobed in recognizable musical themes.

The real world is much more complicated, of course – unless you believe the political ads that mercifully ended with yesterday’s election. These ads depicted monsters and madmen, all bent on destroying civilization as we know it. The tenor, and often the content, of our political rhetoric have transcended even Star Wars melodrama. Unlike the movies, this isn’t good, clean fun. Venom and lies obscure reality and prevent leaders from making sound policy decisions. This talk scares me.

I see no signs of change, so I’m done looking for it around me. Instead, I commit to change myself. Beginning now, I will listen to those with whom I disagree, seeking truth and wisdom in their statements. I will look to improve my perspectives and opinions by listening to theirs. Absent compelling evidence to the contrary, I will assume that those with whom I disagree still want to implement the right policies for the right reasons.
A note of caution and clarification is in order. Some ideas are wrong, even harmful. Some people are ill-intentioned, even bad. I am not advocating stepping back from critical thinking or suspending our values or principles. Rather, I am arguing that we can still think critically and stand up for our beliefs while we open our minds and engage respectfully, even with adversaries.

These ideas are not new, and they are not mine alone. Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits include seeking to understand before we seek to be understood. We’ll see if I can practice this habit without my head exploding.

At Ethical Leaders in Action we believe that most, if not all people, can develop themselves to play leadership roles in many different spheres both large and small. The foundation of this development process is a short but powerful list of virtues which can be developed and improved through conscious effort. For more information feel free to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) which breaks these virtues down into features that can be individually developed. The results of the VELSI come with a quick reference guide to help you understand how the virtues and their individual features fit together. https://ethinact.com/velsi/

See a list of other posts in this series at Blog Post Series

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