The meaningful distribution of power does not happen by trying to be leaderless, but by working on becoming leaderfull. 

Conventional models of leadership are dominating, top-down and exert power over.

The way we organize is a fractal and a remnant of the systemic of our inherited ways of working - and is a fractal of systemic structures of domination. 

However, removing bosses does not rid us of this legacy.

The goal is rather to learn to work with power dynamics in an explicit way, so that we can acknowledge how these play out, change them where needed to enable us to leverage energy, leadership and decision making powers consciously and dynamically.

Those in traditional positions of leadership  must first acknowledge at a deep level that the way we are working currently isn’t working

As a leader, you have a choice. Do you believe that:

• Our actions and openness set the example for how we want to work and be together in our teams

• Our teams are inspired and enlivened and are able to make decisions and move forward in alignment with our shared vision

• Our teams are able to see complex problems as opportunities for learning and growth, to listen to one another, to hold disagreements, to collaborate seamlessly

• Our teams are able to see and sense the tensions that we are facing, address and work through them, and deepen our relationships with one another through those tensions

If you do, you can start practicing now!

• (Active) listening for potential, not just for solutions.

• “Stay curious a little longer”

• Appreciation for multiple forms of leadership

• Complementarity > we don’t have to do it all, just do it together.

• Followership as well as leadership

• Naming things for what they are. 

• Being ok with not having the answers 

• Asking for help & vulnerability

Look at yourself.

We need to look at ourselves, get to know our strengths more deeply and tensions more intimately. From there, we can begin to see and change the organizational systems we are operating under, to create environments for our teams and organizations to thrive. 

*this essay and the following 4 are distillations of Greaterthan's Pillars of Self-Management. Thanks to Kate, Elena, Sarah, Fran and the entire team for their contributions to these principles.