Challenging humanist leadership: Toward an embodied, ethical, and effective neo-humanist, enlightenment approach

Abstract

It can be argued that a humanistic enlightenment approach to leadership emerged as a counter to the historical prevalence of totalitarian elitism where leaders were often autocratic and authoritarian, demanding obedience through command and control. Although beginning with the ancient Greeks, this kind of leadership has continued through classical periods from early medieval times up until the industrial revolution, and also into our modern era. Since the 18th century, philosophies of enlightened humanism have been the face of leadership thinking if not always what might be seen as its embodied practice. Beneath the surface, there lurks a controlling and demanding imposition of self-discipline that can be seen as equally if not more, repressive than the elitism it replaces. This article is concerned to challenge such repression by developing a neo-humanist enlightenment approach to leadership and its development. It departs from those studies that reflect and thereby reproduce individualized preoccupations with, and attachments to, identity on the part of leaders and the so-called followers. The focus, instead, is on an embodied leadership that encourages an ethical engagement with the community, institutions, organizations, and society.