Peace Leadership

By B. Ann Dinan, PhD

Peace Leadership, the nexus of positive peace and positive leadership, is a relatively new area of study and discussion, and one that I was directed to in a divine manner.

More than 10 years ago, I stumbled upon coaching and then realized I was delivering personal leadership coaching, which led me to the study of leadership. In the most synchronistic way, I found myself engaging with Richard Barrett, a well-known author on values-based leadership, at his values-based leadership conference in South Africa about the concept of Ubuntu, the humanistic philosophy that Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu utilized to unite the nation of South Africa post-apartheid.

While I was presenting a leadership model that included the tenets of Ubuntu at this conference, I was asked to return the following month and work with the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative on a youth workshop. I completely resonated with their work around sustainability. And after a period of time, I realized that when we all spoke about sustainability, we were starting the conversation in the middle; the base of sustainability in my eyes, was peace.

Armed with that new epiphany while attending the International Leadership Association conference a year later, I looked at the conference agenda for the day and realized that an affinity group entitled Peace Leadership was meeting for breakfast. I already had a breakfast appointment and clearly could not be in two places at once, but ran to this meeting, shook hands with everyone present, and gave them not only my business card but my assurance that I would become actively involved. I knew I had found my tribe.

Since that time, I have organized two Peace Leadership Conferences — Peace Leadership pre-ILA (International Leadership Association) mini-conferences with the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and with the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. I’ve also written several book chapters on peace leadership, and am now writing three books on the subject. Organizations are now realizing the need for coaching and consulting in the area of peace leadership and I am actively involved in this area. Thus, with regard to peace leadership, I not only experienced divine intervention but divine timing.

So, what is peace leadership and why is it so important NOW?

I define peace leadership as the spot where positive peace (whereby peace is not only defined as the absence of violence, but advocating for equality and peacefulness) and positive leadership (leadership that is for the betterment of the good in terms of humans and the earth) intersect. Peace leadership is about learning to lead oneself to a place of peacefulness and then radiating that peacefulness to others. It is about doing no harm and also doing good for all. It is about taking a systemic approach not only to one’s life, but to one’s circumstances for the purposes of peace and peacefulness.

Why now? Regardless of one’s political viewpoint, it does seem that energy is escalating and accelerating. There is a need for global inhabitants to wake up and become aware of themselves, their true purpose, their impact on others, and to learn how to be emotionally and spiritually intelligent humans. It is clear to some that this is not a linear process and that interventions need to occur at every level (e.g., with young people in terms of education, as well as in organizations and communities).

I maintain that we must also recognize our interconnectedness in a most deep and profound way. It is one thing to recognize that we are all connected in such a way that if one economy of an influential country dips dramatically, then we are all affected. We are now being called upon to recognize a deeper interconnection that I believe peace leadership provides — the recognition that what happens to one person has a ripple effect not only on those directly related, but those only tangentially related.

Technology is connecting us faster and in some ways deeper and further than ever before. Astronomically fast, in fact. So, it is incumbent upon us to take responsibility for our own peacefulness and to be peaceful with others in the way we act, what we say, what we think, and what we do — and not only with humans but with every living thing.

Peace leadership, as I look at it, asks us to apply tenets of Ubuntu, such as compassion, equality, interconnectedness, mutuality, dignity, forgiveness, humanity… and to act with positive leadership from a place of peace.

To say that peace leadership is needed in every sector and with every population is an understatement. And to say that we need peace leadership NOW is not at all an overstatement. We need to reclaim our legacy and our purposes. We need to unite around peace and peacefulness immediately and forever.
 

Ann Dinan, PhD is active in the emerging field of Peace Leadership. She is the co-convener of the Peace Leadership Affinity Group for the International Leadership Association, the President of the Deeper Peace Leadership Institute, and previously the Head of North American Operations for the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) as well as faculty for the Whole Foods Market Academy for Conscious Leadership.

Ann, who is writing several books and book chapters on Peace Leadership and Human Unity for Peace, organizes the annual Peace Leadership Conference. She is also active with the Oslo Peace Week, sanctioned by the Nobel Institute.

Ann earned her doctorate in Social Science Research from Washington University, her master’s degree from Case Western Reserve, and is an ICF (International Coach Federation) certified coach. To connect with Ann regarding coaching and/or consulting, please feel free to contact her through her website or via email.