Global Leadership Fellow on Philosophy and Leadership
By Fernando Gomez*
As part of the Forum’s Global Leadership Fellows programme, we spent last week at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, working on persuasion and influence as an essential part of leadership. Following a week of training at Columbia University, our work once again at a partner academic institution allowed us to explore leadership from unconventional angles…and the journey is amazing.
A few days after invoking scientific positivism as we debated the role of research universities in shaping public policy, we found ourselves quoting Aristotelian empiricism in our discussions on challenging models behind organizational processes. Encouraged to search for those concepts, we increased our self-awareness and reinforced our commitment to leading change in a creative way.
Following our philosophical debates, we stared into a camera and with the help of a teleprompter were ready for our session on leadership through public speaking. But instead of following an experiment in crafting artificial sound bites, we were again encouraged to appeal to our inner self to communicate with authenticity and coherence to the logos, ethos and pathos of our audiences; a scheme is just as essential to effectively inspiring and leading others as the actions we take.
We leave Wharton thankful for the experience, up for the life-long experiment of refining our leadership style, and looking forward to better serving our teams – the communities in which we operate – and society at large.
The challenges we face today (and the ones we'll find tomorrow) are a strong call for leaders to appeal to their passion, integrity and charisma. Understanding a few fundamental principles of human behaviour becomes necessary to influence and inspire others. In a world where the isolated leader has become a rare exception and connectivity rules, there is no choice but to connect genuinely.
*Fernando Gomez, Community Manager, Chemical Industry, and Global Leadership Fellow, World Economic Forum
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