Leadership during the pandemic - a philosopher's perspective | Robert Rowland Smith, Philosopher, Author, Commentator and Consultant

Leadership during the pandemic - a philosopher's perspective — Robert sets a leadership thought experiment and discusses fear and love
Robert Rowland Smith, Philosopher, Author, Commentator and Consultant

Robert turns to philosophy to help leaders make sense of the experience with the pandemic. Robert talks about fear and love, the philosophical nature of uncertainty, the idea that the virus is a mirror to humanity. He wonders if this unthinkable state has connections with the notion of the sublime. Wordsworth’s description of a mountain in the Lake District in The Prelude is both terrifying and full of beauty. Thus, the virus too – it has unleashed illness, death, personal and collective trauma but also beauty – birdsong in the streets, crystalline air, kindness.

During the pandemic, being asked the question, ‘how are you?’ has taken on more meaning than in more settled times. In the course of a single self-isolated day, people run the whole gamut of the emoji board from fear to love – fear for our financial futures, love for the people we work with and our families who we worry about. Fear and love are traditionally opposed but seem to live side by side in the shadow of the virus. It is interesting how rarely words like love are spoken of in the normal course of corporate life.

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Music : Dan Phillipson | Out in Front

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