Sublime

The Observer’s Insight

Without realizing it, too many leaders assume that the role of leadership is to control. They espouse Plato’s “division of labor,” which, according to social thinker Hannah Arendt, has influenced government and military structures for thousands of years.

For this reason, when two or more people are in their boxes toward each other, mutually betraying themselves, we often call it ‘collusion.’

“So if we are going to find lasting solutions to difficult conflicts or external wars we find ourselves in,” Yusuf said, “we first need to find our way out of the internal wars that are poisoning our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes toward others. If we can’t put an end to the violence within us, there is no hope for putting an end to the violence

Constructive, humane behavior cannot be achieved by external force. It arises from within. It can be educed, but cannot be compelled. It is a rare leader who understands this simple fact, let alone puts it into practice.

“There is no solution to the problem of lack of commitment, for example, without a solution to the bigger problem—the problem that I can’t see that I’m not committed.”

A company in which people are evaluated based on clear performance objectives—not their performance relative to one another—minimizes mimetic rivalries.