Synergy and Leadership

There has been much talk lately of how much responsibility a leader bears for violence carried out by those he/she leads.  If there is no obvious and specific call for violence, can the leader be held accountable? 

Leaders and the groups they lead are deeply connected by energetic bonds.  Human beings are social animals, and as such, they are highly influenced by the groups they belong to and the leaders leading them, even though that influence may be unconscious.  Groups give us important parts of our individual identity, and play a huge role in the creation of mass consciousness.

Although its effect is profound, mass consciousness goes mostly unnoticed, hidden deep in the recesses of the subconscious.  It accounts for many of our deepest beliefs, moral judgements and sense of what is right and wrong, good and bad.

In the most groups, these shared interests, beliefs and characteristics form unconscious bonds between members, building a synergy (synchronized energy) that connects members on a deep level. This energetic connection enables ideas, thoughts and emotions to be shared and expanded upon energetically without verbal communication or agreement, and happens largely under the radar of individual consciousness.

Because of group synergy, the energy inherent in negative and positive emotions, and/or inspired ideas and visionary creations, can expand exponentially, which means the energy created by the group far exceeds the sum of the energy of individual members.  This is why large groups of people gathered for a particular purpose can easily get out of hand and become destructive given only a small or seemingly insignificant comment or action.  This is also why small groups of highly motivated and inspired individuals can achieve amazing results way beyond what you would normally expect from such a few people.

And this is precisely where the energy of leadership becomes so important.  Given the shared energy of a group, the words and actions of the leader have enormous influence.  In a large group, for example, one person who takes an inadvertent leadership role by exhorting either violence or peace, can turn the crowd completely one way or the other.  (If the crowd is already seething with fear and anger, however, trying to calm is much harder than activating violence.)

Leaders set the energetic tone of the group, and then activate the bonds created by the tone.  If the energetic tone is fear of, anger at, and hate for specific groups and/or individuals, then even the most casual innuendo can set the group to violent action. In fact, the leader often doesn’t even have to say anything because he or she is a role model, and actions do speak louder than words. When a leader acts disrespectfully toward certain ethnic groups or individuals, then his/her followers think it’s OK to do the same, even those who might not have done so before.

 In this way, a leader can harness the synergy of the group, and influence people who would normally be peaceful to become violent, or people who would normally turn violent to become peaceful. Whether the leader realizes it or not, he or she is a visionary, sending out a potential for the group as to what is now possible that wasn’t possible before.

Captain Sully Sullenberger said it well in a recent Washington Post Op-ed:

“. . . A leader sets the tone and must create an environment in which all can do their best.  You get what you project.  Whether it is calm and confidence – or fear, anger and hatred – people will respond in kind.”

As a prime example of an effective and inspired leader, Captain Sullenberger should know.

Dysfunctional leaders can provide a benefit, however.

The first group most of us encounter is the family.  In a typical family, the parents are the authority figures and therefore the leaders.  The children look to the parents to keep them safe, take care of their physical needs and make decisions for them. As adults, most of us unconsciously look to national leaders to assume the same role; to keep us safe, make sure we can support ourselves, and make decisions in our best interest.

When the parents in the family become dysfunctional (whether through illness, incapacity or criminal activity) and can no longer take care of the needs of their children, the children are forced to grow up fast and start looking out for themselves. Likewise, when our national leaders become dysfunctional, we begin to participate more in the governing process.

If we trust our leaders completely, we are often complacent and unquestioning, allowing the leader to exploit our emotions for their own gain. We heed the call for loyalty and react unconsciously without realizing how easily we are being manipulated.   But when we no longer trust those in charge, we feel compelled to ask questions and take responsibility.  We grow up, empowering ourselves in the process.

While these are trying times, they are also full of potential and possibility.  They command our participation and attention.  They are demonstrating the importance of enlightened leadership and the perils of dysfunctional and unchecked authority.  They are teaching us to ask questions and demand truthful answers, even from those leaders we like and trust.  They ask us to clarify the future we want and set our intention to create it.

Through this process, we begin to understand that we are co-creators of our future, and that our leaders need our help in making it happen.  An awareness of the magical bonds that connect the leader and the group is rising to consciousness, and providing the foundation needed to move forward. Just as the energy of the leader inspires the group, the energy of the group sustains and directs the leader. Our leaders can’t do it alone.

With inspired leaders, synergy can be harnessed in creative collaboration:  leaders and group members working together both physically and energetically, creating the expanded energy needed to build the future.

Now more than ever, we need enlightened, authentic  leaders and committed participants.  The time for followers is gone.

You can learn more about the energy realm in my book, “It’s All About Energy:  Adventures in Expanded Reality”, found on Amazon, in local bookstores, and on my website, www.transformationalexpansion.com.