We can return to the African Savannah in seeking to better understand and appreciate the nature of Azure Blue leadership. Anxiety can be alleviated not only by fight, but also by flight. The neurochemicals and hormones that prepare us for fight also prepare us for flight. We can run away from the attacking lion or threatening tribe. A nearby tree might help us escape from the lion, and a bit of appeasement might help to reduce the damage done by a strong human adversary. We give our enemy something. We hope that they will leave us alone. Unfortunately, these strategies of flight and appeasement don’t seem to work very well in our contemporary world. We don’t have any trees to climb when an imaginary lion or enemy attacks, and we know that initial appeasement usually requires additional appeasement. And our individual and collective soul is torn apart when we have run away or sacrifice our integrity to avoid being hurt or overrun. We are psychologically harmed when seeking to avoid physical harm. Flight creates harm.
Golden Yellow
From one perspective, it seems that the Jains are most closely aligned with the Golden Yellow perspective on leadership. Both the Jains and Golden Yellow leaders are inclined to step back and not engage actively in the world of organizational decisions-making and action. There is a tendency on the part of both to observe from a distance and sound alarms regarding the inhumanity being perpetrated in the communities in which they live (though might not engage).
The alignment stops here, however, for the Golden Yellows do eventually have to enter the complex and often unpredictable world of the organization – especially if they serve in a leadership role. The Golden Yellow leader might try to sweep the pathway in front of them – but it usually is not a successful strategy: there are too many critters (mostly people) on the path, and to much movement of these critters to be successful in sweeping them aside or avoiding them. Life for the Golden Yellows must be lived with inevitable impact on other people – both helpful and harmful.
While Golden Yellow leaders can be of great value to any organization with which they are affiliated—providing a dose of reality, a moment of reflection on underlying assumptions, and a glimmer of rationality, they can also bring their organization to a grinding halt. The organization might spend too much time collecting information regarding each of the possible pathways they might take. As a result, no pathway is ever taken.
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