Leaders Emerging From Collective Trauma

With contributions from Aydin Ilhan, Zeinab El Kabbout, Natasha Kewene-Hite, Andrés Neira, Alvin Lloyd Peter, Japjit Sobti, Suraimy (Sue) Stephens, Lara A. Tcholakian, Erik van de Loo, and Dianne Yun. Despite the wounds that collective traumas can leave on survivors and descendants, there can also be adverse instrumental and constructive results from healing and inner work. This important work opens the conversation about the global effects of current and past collective traumas on organisational leaders and executives, as well as the impact that these traumas can have on behaviours, patterns, and values. More specifically, the contributions reflect the inner work that organisational leaders and executives have conducted and the meaning-making opportunities they share concerning their history, culture, language, and overall relationship with their inherited traumas. Each chapter is authored by an executive leader who shares their story, each from a different part of the world, culture, or ethnicity. They describe in their own words how they have discovered the birthplace of their conditioning and how they can (re)connect with significant parts of their recent or ancestral collective traumas (i.e. war, conflicts, genocide, large-scale calamities such as blasts or natural disasters). The authors describe their reflections on their connection with their traumas, how they conduct repair work, and the journey of transformation, healing, and self-awareness. Through historical consciousness, these executive leaders show how they transform their inherited collective traumas for the greater good, integrate their awareness or knowledge, and attempt to lead more meaningful professional and personal lives. The editors aim to present an overview of collective trauma and provoke reflection in the reader. It is relevant for all who want to engage with this topic and deepen their knowledge, including the general reader, researchers, policymakers, politicians, healthcare professionals, journalists, and other professionals looking for deeper insight into the role of leadership.

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