The shepherd king and his flock: paradoxes of leadership and care in classical Greek philosophy

Atack, Carol

doi:10.4337/9781788975506.00015

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Caring too much can become overly interventionist (Tomkins and Simpson, 2015). It can result in leaders assuming, rather than finding out, what their followers need and want, depriving them of agency, identity and independence (Atack, 2020). Indeed, the assumption of followers' needs might even be seen as an abuse of power, inspiring Ladkin (2020) to reframe caring leadership away from 'doing unto others as you would have them do unto you' towards 'doing unto others as they themselves would want to be treated'.…”

Section: So Where Is Boris Johnson?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Where is Boris Johnson? When and why it matters that leaders show up in a crisis

Tomkins

2020

Leadership

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Now, more than at any time in our recent history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion. (Rishi Sunak, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, 20 March 2020). 1 In this piece, I draw on an ethics of care and compassion to address a question that has been asked almost daily in UK politics over the past weeks and months, namely: Where is Boris Johnson? Johnson is a leader with a long-standing reputation for being selective about whether and when he shows up. On 16 March 2020, as the severity of the coronavirus finally seemed to register, Johnson agreed to start holding daily press briefings, bringing his previous track-record and apparent instinct for no-shows into sharp relief. Criticism was understandably stilled during his hospitalisation for the virus, but it was not long after his discharge from hospital before the question of his absences came back into focus, with renewed concern about his non-attendance at key COBRA meetings and his decision to go on holiday in mid-February as the virus had been taking hold. 2 Through the prism of the psychoanalytic caring leader, I reflect on some of the explanations for, and implications of, his absences, arguing that they do not always have the same function or effect. Some absences may be politically astute, as a way of promoting an anti-establishment message and/or reassuring his constituents of their own competence and efficacy. Other absences are decidedly risky, because they send a message that he does not care. In times of crisis, the scales of separation versus proximity – absence versus presence – tip differently to normal, and leaders who appear not to care risk triggering especially powerful anxieties about betrayal and abandonment. When it is impossible for us to be care free, leaders must avoid being perceived or experienced as care less.

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Section: So Where Is Boris Johnson?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Where is Boris Johnson? When and why it matters that leaders show up in a crisis

Tomkins

2020

Leadership

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“…Philosophical elaborations of caring leadership have drawn on Foucauldian ethics (Ladkin, 2018), Jungian archetypes (Gabriel, 2015), Heideggerian ontology (Tomkins and Simpson, 2015), evolutionary theory (Abreu Pederzini, 2020), and Classical understandings of the relationship between care and democracy (Atack, 2020) and care and national security (Lowrie, 2020). These have traced some of the power dynamics of caring leadership, focusing principally on the suggestion that care can be infantilising.…”

Section: Caring Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This risk revolves around a loss of autonomy and agency. For instance, Atack (2020) explores caring leadership in Classical Greece, where the analogy of the shepherd king and his flock exposes the crucial significance of distinguishing between followers’ assumed versus articulated needs, for the assumption of needs is seen as a potential abuse of power. Drawing on the more recent framing of psychoanalysis, Gabriel (2015: 329) highlights similarities between the overly caring parent and the overly caring leader: ‘As every caring parent knows, excessive caring can seriously inhibit the autonomy of followers, instilling dependence and inertia…At what point does caring turn into overprotection and cosseting?’…”

Section: Caring Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring leadership as Nietzschean slave morality

Tomkins

2020

Leadership

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In this paper, I respond to calls for more critical reflection on the power dynamics of caring leadership. I consider how a combination of care and impotence might unfold as Nietzsche’s ‘slave morality’, crystallised in the phenomenon of ressentiment. At the heart of slave morality is an inversion of values in which everything represented by the Other is denigrated so that the slave can find meaning and solace in his own place in the world. The Nietzschean inversion transforms impotence, inferiority and submission into virtue, identity and accomplishment. In contrast to recent elaborations of ressentiment in followers, I argue that slave morality is something to which leaders, especially caring leaders, are also vulnerable. When caring leadership awakens or exposes the slave-within, we are unable to take charge of – or responsibility for – ourselves, because we have ceded control of the self to forces beyond the self. This is the risk of ‘care ethics’ as a systemic inversion of values which constructs an ideology out of letting others define who and what we are. It creates a breeding ground for ressentiment, feeding off unspoken and unspeakable grievances about the injustices of one’s lot, especially those involving a clash between the rhetoric of empowerment and the experience of impotence. The Nietzschean warning is: Be wary of leadership models which might look and even feel nice, but which turn self-sacrifice into virtue and silence into necessity.

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The shepherd king and his flock: paradoxes of leadership and care in classical Greek philosophy

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

Where is Boris Johnson? When and why it matters that leaders show up in a crisis

Where is Boris Johnson? When and why it matters that leaders show up in a crisis

Caring leadership as Nietzschean slave morality

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