Chiaroscuro of Leadership

One of the things I've grown to understand over decades of studying leadership is that recognizing the chiaroscuro of leadership is essential. It may seem odd to use the term chiaroscuro but it captures the problem beautifully. Chiaroscuro involves highlighting contrasts of light and dark, a technique used by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio. At an earlier point in studying leadership, I was inclined to see only positive engagement (bringing light) as leadership and attributed examples of negative engagement (bringing darkness) to the destructive imposition of authority and power. Years later I came to accept both the dark and light of leadership and the necessity to accept that both exist and that some acts of leadership can actually involve both. Further, the reality of our world is that the darkness of humanity frequently is what calls forth light-giving leadership.

Six quotes that might be useful in exploring the importance of chiaroscuro in leadership:

• "Our community will work toward change that will result in this tragedy being a 'distant and unimaginable past'" - Boulder, Colorado, mayor's statement after mass murder, March 23, 2021.
• "We will lead not by the example of power but by the power of our examples" - Joseph R. Biden Presidential Inaugural Address, January 20, 2021.
• "Muddied water left to stand becomes clear" - non attributable.
• "May your heart be pure and your will firm" - Jamil Karam, Eid greeting, 2021.
• "Hallelujah, whatever" - Van Jones, Juneteenth coverage, 2023.
• "Faith is not bound by what I don't know but what I do know" - Van Jones' guest during Juneteenth coverage, 2023.

How do these fit together to inform our understanding of both negative and positive in leadership? In the first example from the Boulder mass murder at a grocery store, the mayor proclaimed to the community that they had been challenged, and must respond to, the heinous act by working together to address all sources of potential violence - creating a distant and unimaginable past. In the second example, following the incredible January 6 attack on the Capital of the United States and all is institutions and safeguards, President Biden declared that wielding power remedies little but that acting in faithful and concerted unity can restore when all else seems to have collapsed. The unattributable quote reflects that easily discernible solutions to complex problems are elusive (muddied waters) but that left to settle, pathways toward resolution can emerge. The fourth quote was offered as an Eid greeting by a former Qatar colleague and admonishes that we can make a difference when our hearts (e.g. motivation, intent, purpose) are examined and clarified, which then allows for the will to remain resolute. During discussion on air covering the 2023 Juneteenth celebrations around the U.S., Van Jones characterized the day as confirming a common African American belief - "Hallelujah, whatever!" The meaning here was that, although the journey of African Americans across generations of enslavement to Jim Crow to the present has been extraordinarily difficult, celebration of the journey and progress that has been made is essential. And, finally, an artist Van Jones was interviewing described his ambivalence regarding faith over his lifetime by saying that "Faith is not bound by what I don't know but what I do know." This last quotation guides me to confirm the faith I have, letting go of doubts that will surely persist throughout life, as well as leaning into what we know about light-giving leadership instead of being confounded by what we don't know.

Purposeful and courageous response to trauma, perseverance in the face of significant problems, examination of one's own purposes, celebrating all gains as they are achieved, and relying on what we know rather than what we question - these seem to cover some essential elements in the chiaroscuro of leadership.

Komives & Owen - A Research Agenda for Leadership Learning

Staying on top of trends and innovations in leadership research can be challenging. The recently released A Research Agenda for Leadership Learning & Development through Higher Education (Komives & Owen (Eds.), 2023) was conceived to help leadership educators and scholars stay up with current and emerging research ideas.

As a contributing co-author with Aoi Yamanaka for the chapter on "International perspectives in leadership learning," I highly recommend the book for several reasons. The first reason is that Komives and Owen are extraordinary in the breadth of their contacts and awareness in leadership research and have used their deep knowledge to inform the entire project. The second reason is the insight gained from the writing process; Komives & Own enlisted all contributing authors in the review and critique of each others' drafts which led to improving the sharpness, integration, and substance of the broader collection of chapters. The third reason is that our chapter (Roberts & Yamanaka) was revelatory in the exploration of truly internationally-informed leadership research and was a cross-cultural and cross-generational project of its own. I deeply enjoyed writing the chapter and hope that readers will embrace our assertion of the importance of "international context" and that it leads to fundamental changes in the way that researchers approach their work.

Traveling with a "critical perspective"

I'm a student affairs "lifer" and can't let go of the calling I accepted to pursue a student affairs in higher education career in 1973 (50+ years ago!). That calling was to contribute to the learning and development of students and colleague faculty and staff and it was a commitment to a critical perspective that involved doing research, applying practice to theory and back to practice, and being reflective in everything I did by writing, presenting, or engaging with others.

My fifty-year career took me to several higher education settings in different states and concluded with work abroad, first in a visiting faculty role in Luxembourg, and second in Qatar where working for Qatar Foundation opened an entirely different world to me. The cumulative impact of career and life experiences calls me to stay current in philosophical and theoretical orientation, regardless of whether or not I'm full-time employed. One of the theoretical lenses I've grown to appreciate and has garnered considerable attention in contemporary writing is John Dugan's "critical perspective."

At this point in my life everything is fused so maybe that is why applying a critical perspective to not only work-related but also life-informing experiences has become paramount. What does that mean for travel? It means that I feel a responsibility to reflect on, and show appreciation for, the places I've been and continue to explore. This commitment has become more urgent for me recently as I view the travels that many are taking around the world. In very interesting ways, "The Case Against Travel" in the New Yorker raises questions similar to my own.

As I've observed the rush to travel after the pandemic, fueled by improving financial means of privileged Americans, I decided to respond to those who post about or share their travel experiences only when they demonstrate a commitment to appreciative and critical learning. This is challenging and has required constant monitoring of what motivates my decisions. I am sure I've missed travelers who are committed to inquiry and understanding and I'm sorry for having missed them. Three wonderful examples of critical perspectives in travel are Kathy Beardsley, Keith Edwards, and Patrick Love. In these examples, documentation and posts about travel are like a public journal, including reflection and appreciation for the places visited, taking the posts beyond "been there, done that" to what people and places reflect about history, art and architecture, and the broader view of human striving.

Particularly in the age of social media, and specifically during a time when Facebook has been abandoned by youth and adopted by "boomers" and older Millennials, I've grown very cautious about what I say or post, knowing that negative emotional consequences may be an unintended outcome for some of those who hear or view my updates. The negative impact of being left out or marginalized in youth has been documented but not much is being said about the impact for mid-life and older adults. Every celebration of travel, places I've been or things I've done, has increasingly included consideration for who has the passport, time, resources, and physical ability to engage in international travel. The spirit of why I share, and the inclusive intent of my sharing, has become central in my considerations.

What kinds of travel can be not only enjoyable but have the broader outcome of connecting across culture, understanding history, and examining my own privilege as a white, heterosexual, mainly fully abled, male American? To check my own authenticity, I looked back over my blog of the last eighteen years to see if my view of travel has changed and what types of experiences had the most profound impact. To be sure, a few of my blogposts have been just "been there, done that" but most have included a lot of reflection and appreciation for what I observed. What's interesting about the reflections that began in 2005, accelerated in 2007, and continue to the present is that they started not as tourism but as intentional learning. And the most powerful learning in travel was almost always the result of encounters with cultural informants in settings that were very different from my own life experiences. Realizing this has caused me to perceive a possible answer to a question that Aoi Yamanaka and I recently raised in a chapter on international context in leadership research. We asked what experiences can be most useful in stimulating deeper learning about international leadership? As I reviewed my blogposts, my travel started with seeking to learn and that has shaped all my subsequent experiences, which gradually included increasingly distant and diverse cultures. Perhaps this is an insight about how international travel might be introduced to anyone - before even receiving a passport, how important is it for there to be intentional consideration of "why am I doing this and what do I anticipate being the outcome for myself, my learning, and the way I live in the world?

Some examples of reflection and appreciation in travel using the elements of Dugan's critical perspective taking include: compositional diversity (Who's traveling and who is encountered in travel?); historical legacy of inclusion and exclusion (Whose stories are honored and whose are silenced?); organizational/structural aspects (What do the palatial residences of monarchs and edifices of religious institutions tell us about equity?); behavioral climate (Who is welcomed and given attention?); and, psychological climate (Whose identity and being is celebrated and what does it mean for travelers today?). If these were used in preparing for travel and as a framework for reflecting on what we encounter in travel, I suspect that outcomes of travel might be immeasurably enhanced.

Hawken - Drawdown

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Hawken, 2017) is a well-documented encyclopedia of scientific ideas rather than a story to be read. It is a compilation of various authors' insights on alternatives to fossil fuel use, including various other natural resource reductions, and how each can plausibly lead us out of the current threatening environmental tailspin.

The solutions that are included could all result in "regenerative economic outcomes that create security, produce jobs, improve health, save money, facilitate mobility, eliminate hunger, prevent pollution, restore soil, clean rivers, and more" (p. x). The premise of the entire
book is that atmospheric transformation that is descending upon us requires reimagining almost everything we do. But reimagining is not some far-fetched impossible scenario - it is doable and as citizens of the Earth we have a responsibility to act.

An important principle of the combination of solutions is that each is still emerging, which will result in some strategies being immediately viable while others will improve in potential over time. The book is too extensive to list all the possibilities but options that are included and analyzed are wind turbines, microgrids, geothermal, solar farms, rooftop solar, wave & tidal, biomass, and nuclear. And these solutions can be used in concert by using one source when another is less or not available, providing the opportunity to consistently maintain the necessary levels of power.

Two of the current challenges that require attention are storage and distribution of power. Strategies to store power for when power cannot be generated, such as solar power at night, are essential and will require cooperation across the globe. In order to do this, grid adaptability and storage during peak production must be solved.

As a future treasured resource, which will surely be revised over time, Hawken's book concludes with a summary of the net costs and savings of each of the environmental solutions covered in the book. The bottom line of examining the costs is that repair is less costly than where we are presently headed in coping with environmental degradation and the resulting shortages, disasters, and irrevocable consequences we face. And the concluding sentence - "What it takes to reverse global warming is one person after another remembering who we truly are" (p. 217).