The Burning Bush

I have some exciting news to share, and an Action Request. See below!

Last?year, I started writing a book with the working title of?The Burning Bush: a Call to a New Paradigm of Leadership.?The?goal is to publish by May 2024.?I've got an amazing community of fellow authors and?publishing professionals?supporting me through the journey. I've already sent my editor?the?first?full?draft?for feedback,?which makes this all very real!

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Here's where this book comes from. Most of the last twenty-five years I’ve coached entrepreneurs and executives on growing and scaling their businesses, but recently two things came together to change the course of my career.

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First, I started to recognize the urgency of the crisis of leadership in our society; and I committed to finding a way I could contribute to a better future.

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Secondly, I noticed that I was being asked less and less for coaching about business development and much more about leadership.?Entrepreneurs and executives were now asking me to help them clarify:

• What exactly needs to change for my company to thrive, because--clearly--working more isn’t the answer??
• How do I need to reorganize resources (people, time, money, effort) to make this change happen?
• How do I need to communicate differently to empower the change?
• Do I even belong in the position of leader? (Imposter Syndrome)

It is no accident that, at the very same time that our society faces pressing existential issues (the plutarchization of the economy, the digitization of the human mind, the annihilation of the ecosystem), our would-be leaders are caught up in personalities cults, pandering to moneyed interest, and distracted by endless culture wars.

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What I realized, and what became the seed of the new paradigm of leadership I’m writing about and coaching from, is that we’ve been trying to go it alone as leaders. Unwittingly we’ve assumed that leadership resides in an individual, and that that individual walks and talks differently than the rest of the family, or the company, or the community. This is at the root of the crisis: the reluctance to lead, the unfitness of our leaders, the corruption, and the divisiveness our leaders trigger.

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Part 1 of The Burning Bush traces the historical and philosophical heritage of this crisis of leadership back to the individualist logic whereby the leader, endowed with extraordinary powers (charisma, detachment, intelligence, courage), stands alone; and that responsibility is either yours or mine (not both).?

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Once we see how the individualist model of leadership is the source of the pressure, the divisiveness, the malice, and the fragility of our leadership, Part 2 fleshes out what I call the relational paradigm of leadership.

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Following?the pragmaticist philosopher Ch S Peirce,?I hypothesize that leadership, like any?science,?is an?evolving practice guided by?“that famous trio of Charity, Faith, and Hope, which,?in the estimation of St. Paul, are the finest and greatest of spiritual gifts.”

As a veteran business coach with a doctorate in philosophy, I’ve have seen many times over how, in reality, leadership evolves (from person to person and style to style, i.e. relationally) to fit the need of the moment when we listen for the direction that these three sentiments will take us:??

• As experimenters?at the science of leadership, we must?must first have a genuine interest—call it?charity--toward the community?with whom we share our results.?
• Secondly, to establish her/his?theory, a scientist?in the field of leadership?must exhibit a kind of?faith?in the process of comparing outcomes, with?other scientists.
• And thirdly, if those results continue to hold?ad infinitum, as?leadership?hopes, we say her/his?theory is true.?

The new paradigm to which?The Burning Bush?calls us is the relational model of leadership. It sees individuals as made up of relations (rather than the other way around); it challenges us to align on the future we have in common; and it calls on us to share the lead.

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Part 3 of?The Burning Bush?is a huge call to action. In it I provide practices, structures, exercises, and next steps for the reader, whether as spouse or parent, team-member or manager, corporate or community leader, to move beyond confusion, resistance, doubt, and other obstacles and participate in leading the way to a future for our descendants that is designed to provide for and honor everyone’s contribution.

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Accordingly, I have also started integrating collaborative and community-based leadership in everything I do. It is in this spirit that I’m inviting you to join me on this journey of writing and distributing?The Burning Bush, and of reengaging in the leadership for our future.

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The?goal of "Project?Burning Bush"?is to?empower us?all?to take on the?wobbling?economy, health in the digital age, and our planet's climate change?by?shifting?our model of leadership from the individual (who is supposed to know more, act differently, and take all the responsibility) to a new paradigm of leadership, which is about the way we relate to each other inside the three powers essential to causing the future we desire: charity, faith, and hope.?

Action Request

I'd love your help!

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing key pieces of the journey with you:?things I'm learning, conversations I'm having, milestones?and stories along the way, and pieces?of?the book.?

If you’d like to be a part of the community committed to learning about and developing our leadership, please reply to this newsletter now, asking to be part of?The Burning Bush?Journey. This way I can add you to a separate group to receive insights, updates, offerings. If you do not reply, you will continue to receive these bimonthly newsletters on various topics.

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Of that separate group, I will be requesting feedback on excerpts from the book, selling tickets to the book’s launch (proceeds to pay for production and marketing), and offering group coaching, workshops, and a retreat, all to grow excellent leadership.?

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On that separate line of communication you can message me with suggestions for improving the paradigm of relational leadership, with requests for leadership coaching, and with the contact data for folks whom?you know?that?I should meet.?One of the most rewarding parts of?the?Burning Bush?experience so far is talking to so many interesting people about the book?and our leadership.?

Thanks in advance for all the support?through?the ups and downs of this journey.

PS: In your reply to this email newsletter, you can also let me know that you and someone you know are interested in participating in the the Leadership Growth Program, a three-month group coaching program based on the relational model of?The Burning Bush, which starts the second Monday of September.

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Sincerely,

Martin Kettelhut, PhD

303 747 4449

[email protected]

https://ListeningIsTheKey.com

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