Leader as Healer by Nicholas Janni
“Today’s leaders must be able to embrace complexity, grapple with ambiguity, and express authentic empathy.”
3 Main Messages:
We have a calling to live a life of purpose and inspiration, with strong and positive relationships.
Leaders need to shift from a mindset of executing (doing) to healing (being) and this requires inner work.
Through practice leaders can be the stillness that is needed in the storm in order that teams and institutions can manage and make the most of change.
Tammie Joe Shults is a pilot who has been described as having ‘nerves of steel.’ In 2018 the Boeing 737 she was flying suddenly suffered catastrophic engine failure which caused sections of the plane to be ripped away and a window to puncture. Panic seized the 149 passengers and crew, but Shults was the beacon of calm leadership. She took the microphone and famously announced: “We’re not going down. We’re going to Philly.”
All but one of those on board made it home that day. Shults was widely commended for her calm leadership under intense pressure and stress. As she said: "Having a destination and communicating it gave hope.”
We are experiencing challenging changes across the board right now and are in dire need of some hope. From global political uncertainty, to critical ecological timelines and the onslaught of AI, many of us are feeling insecure, unsafe and unsure of our destination. Now is the time for strong, safe and calm leadership. But how do leaders behave in that way when they are feeling the pressures and stresses themselves?
Nicholas Janni has written about the importance of leaders being able to manage this change and ambiguity, while also, crucially, managing themselves. He writes that change is “coming faster and faster. And massive change begets both massive disruption and massive opportunity, if we can adapt.” Now is the time to lead with “skill, heart and wisdom.”
He writes about the mental shift in leaders from being ‘executors’ to ‘healers’, effectively moving from a focus on doing to being. This doesn’t mean that leaders shouldn’t actually do anything, but that they should focus first on completing internal work and ensuring that they themselves are mindful, present, emotionally aware and available. “‘Being’ provides the balanced foundation from which we may respond rather than react.”
This book is a beautifully thought-provoking and powerful manifesto for how leaders should manage their own emotions and behaviour in order to provide the required direction and hope for their teams to flourish. Janni writes about the need for a ‘new leadership toolbox’ which provides leaders with an emotional anchor and creates an ability to be the calm within the storm.
Chapters in the book focus on building a life of purpose, of settling oneself through mindfulness and meditation, of the power of embodiment and the importance of embracing our emotions. In other words, he is writing about the importance of being deeply and deliberately human. He writes that leaders need to heal themselves before they are ready to lead others.
Throughout the book there are activities and reflections, questions for exploration and beautiful quotes and images. It is perhaps no coincidence that I read the entire book in one flight and stepped off the plane feeling lighter and yet more grounded, with a stronger sense of self.
As leaders steer their teams through these turbulent times, they need to have “robust vulnerability” and be able to be “present without being overwhelmed.” This book provides a blueprint for how to be just that and provides a hopeful model for strong leadership, which is needed right now. As Tammie Jo Shults said: “Hope doesn't always change our circumstances, but it changes us.”
