Leadership: it just ain't that simple.

• Author: Atkins, Michael
• Position: OPINION

It's a complicated time to consider the matter of leadership.

The traditional locus of institutional leadership in our western democracies is crumbling under the weight of the human condition (our capacity for good and evil) multiplied by the technology we deploy to live. It is aggravated by the agglomeration of enormous influence by global corporations that dominate, lead and define categories of life (say, health care, food, war, energy. media, and government policy). All of this is leavened with the impossibility of having the time to think in an instantaneous digital world, and that's before we get to the outsourcing of parenting to peers on Facebook or Twitter. The characteristics of leadership are interesting, of course, and have not disappeared altogether, but we live in a world where brand management (both personal and corporate) is more ubiquitous than moral courage.

OK, not what you were expecting, but to talk about the characteristics of leadership without being aware of the context of the times is worse than believing in the tooth fairy at the age of 65.

I'm sure we can all agree more or less that a leader has empathy, has demonstrated competency, is unselfish, is often courageous, communicates effectively, walks the talk, listens, tells the truth, has knowledge, takes responsibility, doesn't hide and generally lifts us up and helps us be our best selves, whether that is coaching a local hockey team or leading a country. Let's set aside the charismatic folks who grab our hearts briefly and then break our hearts when we find out they were basically fake (like, say, priests who turned out to be pedophiles and the insiders that protected them, or politicians who were good fun until we found out they were bought and sold by some try or company (say, the mayor of Montreal).

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So the question for me is not just what is leadership but what is leading us. If we look at what fills our days more and more it is products and brands driven by innovation, convenience, marketing, price and habit. Making money drives ever thing.

I don't want to bore you so I'll be brief. Our health-care system, notwithstanding its many attributes, has become a drug emporium, our food system is designed for obesity and un-health, our energy addictions threaten our survival, our spiritual world is in disarray and conflict (not new of course), and media has gone from something you would do at your leisure (a movie, a book, a newspaper) to...