Every once in a while, you read something SO profound, that you want to soak it up. You want to read it, not once, not twice, but several times. It says something that you only wish you had the power to say yourself – with clarity, with whit, with depth.
Well, this evening, I was sent a link to an online publication (we’ll call it a blog, though it’s more a periodical). The blog is entitled; “The American Scholar” and, to be frank, I wouldn’t have given such a title more than a fleeting glance under normal circumstances. However, the title caught my eye. It resonated with things i have written about myself in the past. So I followed the link, and began to read.
This is an address – it’s the transcript of a speech, given by William Deresiewicz, who is a freelance literary critic, in his late 40s, and who used to teach English at Yale. This isn’t the kind of person you might expect to be giving an address to a year group at West Point – the US Military Academy.
What Deresiewicz says includes some pretty outrageous comments about the role of the military, some pretty scandelous material about the nature of politics, it isn’t exactly complementary about academic institutions, about the education system, or about corporations. By his thesis is quite simply one of the most elegantly argued cases for a whole new definition of what leadership – real leadership – requires to set it apart.
If I could reproduce the article here, I would, but why not follow the link and read it for yourself? It might take 20 minutes, but it will surely be worth the effort.
It is a superb exposition that explains exactly why I do the kind of work that I do – www.the-confidant.info!
I’m aware that links don’t always work so if this one doesn’t let me know and I’ll try to reconnect it for you…
Best wishes
The leaders’ confidant, working behind the scenes, helping them to see situations, organisations, themselves, and other people, differently
businesscoaching.org.uk – inter-faith.net – thefutureofwork.org – corporate-alumni.info
