Reflections on Leadership

Proposing "to inspire and create a positive impact in the world," Heather Schultz, a corporate change consultant and former senior executive with Save the Children, talked with a group of 75 business and religious leaders on May 17th about Thriving Leadership.

The event was a remarkable conference, Leadership Without Borders (The Global Quest for Freedom), held at the Yale Club in Manhattan. (I am a founding member of the Values & Leadership Roundtable that, along with Intersections International, planned and hosted the event.)

Thriving leadership, said Ms. Schultz, is infused with three essential ingredients: purpose, vitality, and continuous learning. Purpose is about our vision – why are we here, why do we do what we do, and what are the outcomes we desire. Vitality is about managing our energy as well as our time, and continuous learning is being open to the new lessons waiting for us around each new corner of our lives.

Perhaps few embody such leadership more than Tachi Kiuchi, who also keynoted the conference. The former CEO of Mitsubishi Electric USA, Mr. Kiuchi is now a founder and chairperson of Future 500, an organization dedicated to bringing together companies, NGOs and opinion leaders to advance global solutions. Rather late in his career, opening himself to new learning, he traveled to the rain forest to observe first-hand the devastation being caused there by the clear-cutting of tropical forests and the unsustainable farming methods subsequently laying waste to that land. Since then, he has dedicated his life to facilitating sustainability by urging the business community to take a lead role in its emergence.

At the age of 76, Tachi Kiuchi exudes a vitality that is hard to match. (He flew from Japan the day before our conference, stayed with us all day during the event, and flew right back to Japan early the next morning.) He told conference participants of the devastation in northeastern Japan from the recent earthquake and tsunami, where among other disasters thousands were required to flee their homes and belongings within a 30- mile radius of radioactive contamination around the compromised nuclear plant that made world headlines.

Tachi gathered together a small group of "senior citizens" to retrieve peoples' belongings by going back into the contaminated area. As he put it, he has already lived a rich and satisfying life and probably only has about 6-8 years left. So if radiation takes a year or two of his remaining life away, what is that compared to the opportunity of helping others preserve their life memories and find a new start.

Reflecting on this inspiring day, I come away believing more than ever that ultimately "we the people" create and re-create the world we live in, and that true leadership begins in each of us when we recognize and own the fact that how we live in this world matters.

What we do has ripples of influence far beyond what we can see. Leadership begins, therefore, with faith in our own power, individually and in communities, and in the recognition that although most of us are not "world leaders," we are all potentially "leaders of the world."

In this world, with its continually integrating global economy that revolves around money and finance, what we do with our money – how we earn it, how we spend it, and how we invest it – matters greatly. Sustainable and responsible investors are true leaders, giants of commerce forging a new ethic of money and re-creating daily a new world of sustainability and compassion.