Azure Blue
There is a different kind of harm that comes with an Azure Blue form of leadership. It often comes as a surprise to learn that this benevolent and inspiring form of leadership can be harmful. This, after all, is leadership filled with vision. Azure Blue leaders are looking up at the sky and pointing to the heavenly state that can be achieved if everyone will gather in their loving hands. How could any harm come from such a person? There are certainly many benefits to be derived from this form of leadership (just as there are with Ruby Red leadership). Those who follow the Azura Blue leader can find purpose and direction in their work; they can find support and encouragement, as well as receive healing attention from other members of the Azure Blue culture when they are wounded.
However, there are actually quite a few ways in which one can be harmed under this form of leadership. First, there is the matter of appeasement. Azure Blue leaders often seek out the approval (even love) of those who they consider their current (or even potential) followers: you tell me which path to take. As a result, the Azure Blue leader is often changing their mind and promoting the pathway promoted from the latest person to enter their office. We don’t want to stir things up and certainly don’t want to make anyone displeased. The result is not displeasure, but rather disappointment. The Azure Blue leader is no longer trusted. There is nothing but fluff and P.R. in what the leader is now promoting.
Even when the Azure Blue leader remains consistent in the vision they are promoting, this vision is often unrealistic. Rather than linking the current reality (the ground on which the organization is sitting) with the desired state (the sky above the organization), the Azure Blue leader is inclined to point only at the sky and ignore the ground. Here is the path for us to take – don’t pay attention to all of the thorns on this path. Or don’t worry that this path doesn’t seem to lead anywhere—just notice how beautiful the path is itself.
The harm being done might not be as noticeable as that done on the battlefield of Ruby Red leadership, but it is just as damaging at a psychological level. Hopes are being dashed and leaders of all kinds can no longer be trusted. There is a pervasive sense of alienation, with work no longer being engaged for a real purpose. While those following the Ruby Red leader might continue to be employed out of a sense of loyalty or a sense of security and livelihood, those who are following the Azure Blue leader remain committed to their organization because of the inspiring vision of this leader. When this vision is discredited, then the followers have no reason to remain actively engaged in the organization. They either leave the organization or (more often) remain at the organization, but without any remaining passion, energy or sense of empowerment. There is the wounding of dreams.
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