Thinking about Gene Sharp who wrote his dissertation on Gandhi in 1968 and died at age 90 in 2018. Like in the 1970's, many who thought of themselves as conservatives are asking what to do in response to authoritarian regimes of stupidity. Turn again to Gandhi, MLK, and Sharp?
Finished The Friction Project (Jan 30, 2024) by Stanford business professors Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao. I recommend it for people trying to make sense of and improve the functioning of large organizations.
McCloskey rightly emphasizes collaboration. Many people think of leadership as precisely the opposite of "hearing from everybody!" "Here is how leadership works. I make the decision and you all carry out my orders!" The problem is: what if the leader didn't think of everything?!
I also tell students who have led teams of volunteers that they will be well-prepared for all kinds of leadership. But people who have only used transactional styles (carrot/reward and stick/punishment) are not prepared because people don't want to be commanded but persuaded.
As McCloskey writes about presidential authority being persuasion, I think too of Stanley Hauerwas's comment that "It is always persuasion, all the way down."
https://faithandleadership.com/stanley-hauerwas-what-only-the-whole-church-can-doAs a pastor, I noticed that too. I was shocked as a professor when students did what I asked.
Stanley Hauerwas: What only the whole church can do
Theologian Stanley Hauerwas discusses the term “leadership” and how he prepares his students to provide it.
"Behaviors that were perceived to have a positive impact on performance were reported in all 25 studies. In terms of *behaviors* that promoted feelings of affiliation between the coach and athlete, thirteen studies reported that coaches demonstrated understanding and concern."
"Eight studies [of 20 studies on *states* perceived as having a positive effect on performance] suggested that coaches demonstrated other-efficacy through their belief that athletes could successfully execute particular behaviors, which reinforced the athletes’ self-confidence."
"eleven [of nineteen] studies [on positive *traits* perceived positive impact on performance] identified that Olympic coaches were conscientious."
In studies of Olympic team coaches, there are a slew of characteristics that athletes said helped or hurt their performance. In the thread below, see the most commonly mentioned (1) traits, (2) states, and (3) behaviors named by athletes about their coaches.
I asked people walking healthy-looking beagles how much they fed them: "1/2 cup twice daily."
So last July we stopped feeding our 8-year-old beagle 1 cup twice a day. We started with 3/4 cup twice daily and then 1/2 cup twice daily. He is down from 32 lbs to 25 lbs. Sleepy now!
