• Kurt April's presentation

Professor Kurt April began by stating: "Yesterday unconsciously holds tomorrow hostage, to the extent that many of us are unable to act upon good intentions".

He told us that he had a wonderful childhood, not held back by financial constraints. Later he achieved a position on the board of an International company but longed for holidays and lacked joy and fulfilment in work. He came to believe that work is a form of suffering - he had a job but no purpose. He asked the following questions of himself:

• is there something/someone larger than me?
• what lifestyle do I want?
• what are my values?
• how can I lead (me, others) more fully, and with purpose?
• how can I translate my intent into real action?

He knew that he would have to “make a courageous choice away from my imagined safety from pain toward a revealing openness”.

He shared a graph (included in the slideshow above), describing the pressure of work success where raw potential is realised and success follows until a third life crisis. At that point anger and power could dominate or there could be a breakout to an enriched multi story. His mother advised him that he should live with passion, so he resigned his job to focus on what it means to be efficient and effective, but in balance that with equal concern about what it means to be responsible.

He wrote: “Leadership begins with the knowledge that we become whole when we exercise our efforts, emotions and spirituality to make others powerful. Leadership is thus the ability to live on purpose, by being authentic and consciously aware of oneself and others, thereby creating value for yourself and others”.

Kurt described some of the inhibitors that might be faced:

• overcoming the romantic notions of the ordinary and not allowing individuals without substance to set the social norms
• engaging with the pain and loneliness of standing alone in criticism of the things you hold dear
• overcoming your mental models, stereotypes and deeply-held subconscious sets of beliefs and assumptions

Bruised by apartheid, and shaped by a lack of confidence and self-esteem he wondered what else could be done to compensate, and get rid of anger. He had an identity confusion – black but not quite, white but not quite African, but not South African. Kurt stated that you control your personal dream by making choices. The enduring impact of these, among the patterns that we allow to enter our awareness, is not what we get in life but who we become.

Kurt described two types of power:

• ‘hard power’ - the ability to get others to do what we want
• ‘soft power’ - the ability to get others to want what we want

Looking at the role of leaders he identified four components:

1. they are the custodians of values, character and resources – hearing the minority voice and widening the conversation, helping others cope with uncertainty and ambiguities and teaching compassion (actionable empathy)
2. they invest in personal renewal - taking time out for serenity, growing in gratitude for those who have influenced our lives, investing in those who make us resilient, living your purpose – saying no to that which is not in your purpose
3. becoming agents of healing - helping people to work through resentment and become connected, reconcile conflicting images of the past with a vision for the future
4. provide hope and healing - embody hope being active against despair, become a voice for the marginal

Kurt summed up by saying: “responsible leadership starts with an intention of wanting to be the best for the world, not necessarily only the best in the world. It is the basic call for all of humankind to become more than we currently are. But you can only be more if you - through purposeful action - help others and allow them, to be more than you. You can’t be more, if you don’t know how to be less.”

Kathy Seddon