What does it mean to lead humanly and what would the impact be for us and others?

How much is what you do is shaped by an expectation? 

‘I should do x’, ‘Y is good/bad for me’, ‘To be x I need to do y’, ‘people in my position should be like…’ 

While we unconsciously learn many of these expectations from rules and our wider world, what is the impact of these expectations on us, on others and how we see the world? 

When it comes to these expectations, how do they compare to the realities of being human? 

How much do we consider our humanity and the reality of being human when we construct our expectations of us and the world? 

What would it be to live and lead with the realities of being human in mind?

What are the realities of being human?

While there are and have been movements and attempts to go beyond the limits of being human, all of these movements are a result of and response to the realities of being human. 

While a question that could produce endless debate, it seems fair to say that the realities of being human involve a need to survive, a need for belonging and connection, and a need for purpose and meaning. All these can be mapped onto any period of history.

Alongside these needs is the fact that, as far as we know, humans are the only abstract thinkers deeply aware of our own state of being. As Shakespeare puts it in Hamlet:

‘What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?’

In short the realities of being human are an awareness of being finite, fallible beings in a far wider world.

Add to this the fact that in seeking to survive, belong, connect and find meaning, we are constantly working out what these things look like and involve in an ever changing, ever more complex world. 

If we are more aware of these things or whatever the realities of being human are, what does that mean for our expectations of us, of others and the world? 

What does considering the realities of being human mean for how we see things? 

What does how we see things through the lens of being human mean for how we are and how we approach and do things?

Finite and fallible and almost always capable beyond our expectations

How do we hold the realities of being human, especially our own fallibility and finiteness, without becoming nihilistic? 

Well despite this reality, humanity has adapted, survived and thrived for thousands of years. People have continued to disprove our own beliefs of limits in almost all areas, from physical and technological to intellectual and artistic to name a few. 

It was once thought that running a sub-four minute mile was impossible or could induce a heart attack. Previously unreachable parts of the world are now reachable within hours. Thinking of travel, in Wayfinders, Wade Davis highlighted how Polynesian wayfinding allowed people of Polynesia to cross oceans well before Western navigators, who had to hog coastlines for fear of being lost at sea, had compasses and maps. This all before we consider technology or thought, art, culture and language. Today satellites can tell us the height of Everest while in the 1800s the same height was calculated within 10s of feet of the satellite reading simply using trigonometry. 

Taking into account what it means to be human then also needs to consider our immense potential as individuals and collectively. 

Knowing what we know of the realities of being human, what does that mean for how we live and lead?

When considering the realities of being human and how being aware of them may shape how we see ourselves and the world around us we are really asking:

Knowing you and others are finite, fallible, and capable almost beyond imagination what does that mean for how you live and lead? 

What may get in the way of living and leading humanly

The irony is, how often our efforts to overcome the realities of being human are inhuman in their approach. 

I can think of all the times I have held expectations of myself that considering I am human are almost insane. Whether it be expectations of the quantity and quality and consistency of work to the expectations of me when I am shorn of some of the basic things all humans require like sleep and rest and connection. Whether it is the disbelief in my ability to achieve an outcome when I am one human in a complex world where more things are outside of my control than inside of it. Whether it is the times I haven’t even had a go because I don’t believe myself capable when the realities of being human show how capable we are with perseverance and adaptability and the reality that given we’re fallible, it wont always work first time around. 

And what about how these inhuman expectations of ourselves seep into our expectations of others? In leading I can think of the moments of impatience that come when I forget we are all human, that we are figuring things out and that takes time.  

What do we need to make the most of being human? 

Which begs the question, what enables us to remember we are human so that we can give ourselves and others the acceptance of our fallibility and the conditions to access our immense potential? 

What do we need to recognise that sometimes our reactions are down to the realities of being human, the fears of rejection, of not belonging and of not being loved, so that we can respond in a way we want rather than one dictated by our very human fears? 

What do we need to remind ourselves that we have so much ingenuity and capability? 

What do we prioritise when remembering that a reality of being human is being finite? 

What does our world look like when we do those things?

What does life look like when we live and lead in it embracing the realities of being human?