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The Leadographies on Integral Development : Commented Outline

This document presents the outline and design of the leadergraphy books and offers commentaries on each section. The purpose of this structure is to set an uniformity for the Book Series, assure its scholarly quality and help the reader to better navigate in a complex and fascinating subject. The overall hypothesis on which these books are based is that leaders who have developed themselves beyond the stage of development that Abraham Maslow called "self-actualization", involving a decentring or a transcendence of self, lead differently and for different purposes, when compared with leaders who have not reached this developmental plateau.

A. Outline.   Number of pages
Introduction: Introduction to the book collection
Identical text common to all leadographies
2 pages
     
Part I: immersion into the life and times of the leader
1. Pictograph: 20-25 pictures, presented in chronological order 10 pages
2. Time line: Two columns table on the life of the leader,
events in his or her country and in the world
3-4 pages
3. Life story: an engaging story of the life and context of the leader,
structured through his or her epiphanies
20 pages
     
Part II: Acting as an integral leader: differences with traditional leadership theory and practice.
4. Integral analysis: following Ken Wilber's model, analysis of the leader' thoughts and actions after he or she has reached the developmental plateau of self-actualization:
a. Behaviors with others;
b. Organizational tools and processes used;
c. Interaction with values and shared meanings;
d. Development of self.
Four parts of 15 pages each = 60 pages
60 pages
     
Part III: Becoming an integral leader: the ups and downs of integration and lessons for education and training.
5. Critics and limitations: discussion of the critics addressed to the leader and his or her shortcomings 15 pages
6. Developmental process: the events and contexts which influenced both the visions and the abilities of the integral leader and the lessons which can be learned for training and education in leadership. 30 pages
     
Conclusion and Appendix
7. Legacy: what we should remember from this leader's leadership for the theory, practice, education and training in leadership 5 pages
8. Resources: chosen texts by leader and associates or other material 10 pages
9. Annotated bibliography: key resources to learn more about the leader and associates and indication of major sources used in the book 2 pages
     
Number of pages in total manuscript: around 150 pages
     
One page in book format = 300 words : thus total number of words in manuscript :
150 X 300 = 45,000 words.

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B. Commentaries on each section.

The book's structure attempts to mix styles (photographies, time table, literary story, scientific analysis, conceptual synthesis, executive summary, etc.) in a friendly manner for the reader. The first part of the book is more organic but follows a chronological order. The second part is more analytical, structured by Ken Wilber's model and quadrants. The third part of the book returns to the organic mode where relationships among the quadrants can be addressed.

Introduction to the Book Series:

Please see below the two pages document The Leadergraphy Series on Integral Development. This text will be printed at the beginning of each leadergraphy, listing first the leader studied in the particular book.

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The Leadergraphy Series on Integral Development

Abraham Lincoln defined leadership as a growth process - a course of development and maturation - which encourages people to act from "the better angels of their nature". Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Rachel Carson and many others demonstrated the power of such leadership. In the process, they changed the world around them. Imagine what could happen in our societies if all leaders were as purposeful, meaningful, ethical, integral? What would happen if we were developing in ourselves and others some of these same qualities?

In the first systematic research effort of its kind - involving one hundred researchers around the world over a ten year period - the volumes in this series explore practical yet profound questions about this more integral type of leadership: What are leaders who are considered to be operating at a more mature level of development doing differently? How have they achieved this maturity? How can we help future leaders to undergo such development? Answers to these questions could modify our current views of leadership and change the way leaders are chosen and trained. These answers could also help us to address the four great challenges of our world, as defined by UNESCO: The challenges of peace, poverty, ecological viability and collective meaning and purpose. Integral leaders are not only men and women of great principles. They also help us to effectively tackle the most challenging problems of our world.

As their titles indicate, these books are not standard biographies. We have coined a new term to describe them: "leadographies". These short and jargon-free books are written for leaders-to-be, leaders who want to learn and people who wish to work with them. Drawing from biographical and historical data, they go beyond the one man show and issues of fame, power, status or charisma. They are also critical as integral leaders - like all of us - remain perfectible human beings.

The first part of each leadergraphy immerses the reader in the leader's life and context through a pictograph, a timeline and a life story. The second segment goes beyond a mere chronology and reveals the innovative actions of integral leaders in four domains: behaviors with others, organizational tools, shared meanings and development of self. The third part describes the growth of these leaders in many spheres of life: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, ethical and spiritual. Finally, a comprehensive appendix presents key texts by the leader and suggests resources for further learning.

Each volume is a synthesis of more than 1,000 pages of data carefully chosen and coded into a database. Upon its completion, this database will include in excess of 100,000 pages on 100 integral leaders, allowing conclusions to be drawn across time, space, cultures and religions. We suggest that readers visit this series' web site for more information on the studied leaders, the project's methodology and available resources, including books, case studies, instruments, videos and software. Readers might also be interested in contributing personally to this project, either by facilitating its logistics or by participating as an author of a leadergraphy.

We hope that these volumes will inspire readers to themselves engage in integral development, individually and collectively. As opposed to mimicking the behaviors of famous leaders - a common practice in current leadership training programs - the great challenges of our world require that we become the best we can be. Integral leaders are all driven by the same vocation: they are helping themselves and others to act from the better angels of their own natures.

Thierry C. Pauchant
Director of the Series

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Part I: immersion into the life and times of the leader

1. Pictograph

The pictograph is the entry point into the book, through art. The feeling is both aesthetic and informative. As a leadergraphy is not only about a leader but about the content and process of leadership, at least 50% of the pictures chosen do not represent the leader alone. We could present pictures of their associates, opponents, contemporary personalities, landscapes, buildings, art, etc. The text presenting the pictures is minimal and the order is chorological for helping the reader to become oriented.

During your readings, you are invited to note which pictures have moved you emotionally and input them in NVivo for further retrieval. With 2 to 3 pictures per page (at most) in the pictograph, we need between 20 and 25 pictures.

Other pictures could be inserted through the book, such at the beginning of each section.

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2. Timeline

While the pictograph will seduce readers who are more visual, the time line will be appealing to readers who are more cerebral. The idea is to assist him or her to get oriented trough time, places, people, events, etc. It can be presented chronologically, in two columns: the first column presents the life of the leader, eluding to his or her epiphanies; the second lists events which appended in his or her country and in the world in general, and this in many domains including politics, economics, art, science, religion, etc.

The time line presented below, whose a shortened version will be used in Mother Teresa’s leadergraphy, is an example.

1910
  • August 26: Birth of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje (Macedonia: former Yugoslavia).
  • Balkan Wars 1912 – 1913
  • Outbreak of the WWI (1914)
  • Revolution in Russia (1917)
1919-1922
  • Death of Agnes’ father (some believe probably poisoned by the Yugoslavian secret police).
  • At twelve years old, Agnes announces she wants to become a nun.
  • Ernest Rutherford splits atom for first time (1919)
  • Gandhi launches peaceful non-cooperation movement against British rule (1920)
  • Lenin introduces New Economic Policy in Russia (1921)
1928-1930
  • Agnes leaves for Ireland to a Loreto convent at Rathfarnham outside of Dublin and two months later sets sails for India
  • Enters the noviciate of the Loreto Order and takes to name of Teresa after the French nun: St. Teresa of the Child Jesus.
  • Wall Street Crash (1929)
  • First Round Table Conference between British government and Indian parties (1930)
1931- 1937
  • Sister Teresa lives a safe and sequestered life among the nuns
  • Teaches geography at St. Mary’s High School for Girls near Calcutta
  • Takes her final vows and is appointed principal of St. Mary’s High School and superior of the Loreto nuns at Entally convent.
  • Hitler appointed German chancellor (1933)
  • Long March through China, led by Mao Zedong and Zhu De (1934)
  • Earthquake in India: hundreds of thousands dead (1937).
1941-1946
  • Mother Teresa is discharged from her position as principal of St. Mary’s High School; suffers from illness.
  • Experiences a life transforming experience: “a call within a call”. Feels called to start a new congregation that would work for the poorest of the poor
  • Famine strikes in India : more than 2 million people starve in Calcutta (1941).
  • WWII: Japanese bombing raids on Calcutta
  • Riots between Muslims and Hindus: British troops enter Calcutta to end the riots (1946)
1947-1949
  • Mother Teresa receives, from the Vatican, the authorization to leave the Loreto Order
  • Begins teachings children in the slums.
  • Becomes an Indian citizen
  • Opens the first dispensary with the help of many volunteers
  • Independence of India (1947)
  • War between India and Pakistan: one million deads (1947)
  • Partition of India (1947)
  • More than 4 million refugees arrive in Calcutta (1947)
  • Mohandas Gandhi is assassinated (1948)
  • Mao Zedong proclaims People’s Republic of China (1949)
1950-1955
  • The Constitution of the Missionaries Sister of Charity receives Papal approval
  • Mother Teresa works with 48 sisters and a small army of volunteers.
  • The Missionaries of Charity operates several schools, an orphanage, medical dispensaries as well as a “home for the dying” (Nirmal Hriday).
  • Korean War (1950-53)
  • Black Americans intensify campaign for civil rights (1950s)
  • Death of Stalin in Russia; Nikita Khrushchev takes power (1953)
1956 -1959
  • The Missionaries of Charity’s first mobile leprosy clinic is opened by Archbishop Périer
  • The Missionaries of Charity are allowed to extend their activities beyond the Calcutta Archdiocese
  • Soviet troops invade Hungary (1956)
1960-1965
  • The sisters number nearly 250 and twenty houses are now opened in India.
  • Mother Teresa goes to the United States in search of funding and addresses the National Council for Catholic Woman
  • Receives the Padma Shri award for distinguished service (first award for her humanitarian work) and the Magsaysay Award for International Understanding
  • First center opens in Venezuela.
  • Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first human in space (1961)
  • Berlin Wall built to stop East Germans fleeing to the West (1961)
  • Cuban missile crisis (1962)
  • US president John F Kennedy assassinated (1963)
  • Black civil rights 'freedom march' on Washington, D. C. (1963)
  • Death of Pope John XXIII (1963)
1966- 1967
  • Foundation of the Missionary Brothers of Charity
  • Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister of India (1966)
1968-1974
  • Malcolm Muggeridge shoots a 15 minute documentary for the BBC about Mother Teresa and her work and publishes the book
  • Something Beautiful for God”
  • From now on, Mother Teresa will be awarded numerous prizes, degrees and awards (the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize; the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion; the Albert Schweitzer International Prize; etc., including the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • From 1970 to her death, a new center will open somewhere in the world every six months
  • The Bangladesh government asked her to take care of the girls used by the Pakistan army.
  • The Missionaries of Charity go to Israeli occupied territory in search for the poorest of the poor
  • Suffers a slight heart stroke
  • Paris erupts into student riots followed by general strike (1968)
  • Major protests in United States against Vietnam war (1968)
  • Czechoslovakia tries to initiate internal reforms; Soviet troops enter Prague (1968)
  • US astronauts Neil Armstrong walks on the moon (1969)
  • Millions of innocent civilians are rounded up and put to death in Bangladesh. Hundred of thousands of woman are raped by Pakistani troops. (1972)
  • "Bloody Sunday" in Northern Ireland; troops fire on civil rights marchers (1972)
  • US president Nixon resigns after Watergate scandal (1974)
1975-1979
  • The Order operates more than 100 leper colonies throughout the world. There are 158 foundations scattered throughout the world, 1187 protest sisters, 411 novices and 120 postulant; 800,000 Co-Workers scattered over five continents.
  • Becomes the subject of the Time magazine cover story Foundation of a new contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity
  • Helsinki convention on human rights adopted (1976)
  • UN peace force sent to Lebanon (1978)
  • Britain elects first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher (1979)
  • First direct elections for European Parliament take place in all nine member states (1979)
1981- 1989
  • The order opens more foundations in India, America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.
  • Offer assistance after the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal
  • Sets foot in China for the first time
  • Arrives in Havana for talks with Fidel Castro
  • First house open for AIDS victims
  • Yasser Arafat askes Mother Teresa to open
  • Death with Dignity” homes in Jerusalem and Bethlehem
  • Mother Teresa suffers a near fatal heart attack and is fitted with a pacemaker
  • The Lay Missionaries of Charity are formed (a movement spiritually affiliated to the Missionaries of Charity)
  • Falklands War between Argentina and Britain (1982)
  • Indira Gandhi assassinated; son Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India (1984)
  • In Bhopal, Union Carbide gas leak kills over 2,200 (1984)
  • Mikhail Gorbachev elected Soviet Communist party leader (1985)
  • Nuclear power disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine (1986)
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989
1990
  • There are 3,068 professed Sisters; 454 novices; 140 candidates; 400 houses in over 90 countries; 380 professed Brothers in 82 communities in 26 countries; 3 million Co-Workers.
  • Mother Teresa is re-elected as Superior General
  • East and West Germany are unified as one nation (1990)
  • Solidarity's Lech Walesa is elected president of Poland (1990)
1991-1996
  • Mother Teresa has increasing health problems
  • Shuts down the organization of Co-Workers
  • British television broadcast documentary by Christopher Hitchens, "Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa of Calcutta.''
  • Opening of the 565th convent (Swansea)
  • Gulf War; Iraq driven out of Kuwait (1991)
  • Break-up of Yugoslavia (1992)
  • Palestinian leader Arafat and Israeli prime minister Rabin sign peace agreement in United States (1993)
1997-2003
  • Mother Teresa dies of cardiac arrest on September 5th at the age of 87.
  • She is given a state funeral by the Indian government and is succeeded by Sister Nirmala.
  • I.K. Gujral becomes India's 12th Prime Minister (1997)
  • Pope John Paul II beatifies Mother Teresa (2003)

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3. Life Story

If the pictograph is aesthetic and the time line conceptual, the life story is relational. We literally need to tell a story, using a literary style. The tone is warm, intimate, using many stories and telling commentaries. The structure is the one used in a standard biography, following a chronology from the birth and death (if occurred) of the leader.

This is also the section where we introduce more explicitly the leader’s epiphanies hinted to into the pictograph and the time line. We need to convey the message that the studied leader is, like many of us, several persons at once through his or her lifetime, who has grown or regressed through different experiences. We could use different appellations for conveying this developmental growth. For example, we can speak of Gandhi period one, period two, period three, etc.; Gandhi 1, Gandhi 2, Gandhi 3, etc. In the Gandhi’s leadergraphy, we also use the following appellations:

  • Gandhi’s youth
  • The British gentlemen
  • The humanistic lawyer
  • The activist in South Africa
  • The leader of an Ashram
  • The political consciousness in India
  • The international symbol of non violence
  • The Mahatma
  • An individual serving other individuals
  • A martyr influencing many generations

We should be careful, however, of not confusing the different themes in a leader’s life, used often by biographers, and the leader’s different stages of development. Our concern is less to convey these different themes than to show the developmental growth of the leader and his or her struggles with this development. Often, a level or a stage of development could be associated with several themes. It is also important to choose a quote from the leader or his associates (conceptual mode) and a touching vignette story (relational mode) for typifying each stage, while not becoming too mechanical when doing this. We need to capture these quotes and stories when we encounter them and store them in NVivo for later retrieval.

As in the entire book, a balance needs to be made in the life story between the leader’s views and actions, influencing the context such as people, events, etc., and the influence of this context on the leader him or herself. We need to avoid the habitual thesis of the one man or one woman show. In the life story it is thus important to convey how the leader has been shaped and how he or she shaped his significant others (family, friends, teachers, grandparents…) and his associates; his surroundings (tools, structure, goods and services available, institutions…); his culture, family, religion, organizations he belonged to, etc.; and his sense of self and subjective experiences.

Further, it is important that we capture the reader’s interest, right from the beginning of the life story. One way of doing this is to provide the reader right away with information which challenges his or her views but in a warm fashion. For example, we could start the life story on Gandhi in the following manner:

Gandhi’s life story

Generations to come will scarcely believe
that such a one as this ever
in flesh and blood
walked upon this earth.

Albert Einstein on Mohandas Gandhi.


History generally remembers Gandhi as the leader who has ended India’s colonisation. This is misleading. While he certainly played a central role in that liberation, he remained faithful to the British rule for about two third of his life; and he did not rejoiced when his country achieved independence in 1947. Gandhi wished much more than India’s liberation from the British Empire: he wished the psychological, social and spiritual liberation of all men and women in India, indeed in the whole world. For many people, most of the knowledge they have of Gandhi has been derived from the film directed by Richard Attenborough, Ghandi, featuring Ben Kingsley. While this movie is indeed superb on many aspects, having won 9 academy awards in 1982, including best picture, it also reinforced the view of Gandhi as the “political liberator”. This is, as we shall see, a view that does not resonate with Gandhi life’s message.

People who know more about Gandhi’s life often retain that he shared, at the end of his life, the bed of young women, naked. Men who invoke this story often make denigrating comments on the impossibility to learn anything from a man who was such an old sexual perverse; and women are often obfuscated by Gandhi’s supposed crime against woman dignity. While these reactions are certainly understandable, it can be affirmed without any doubt that Mohandas Gandhi was neither a senile sexual perverse nor an antifeminist virgin rapper. These accusations can be rather rightly directed toward the totalitarian leader Mao Tse Tung, as we shall see later.

If you hold one or both of these views, Gandhi as the political liberator or Gandhi as the virgin rapper, we are asking you to suspend your judgments while reading this book. We are convinced that, if you do so, you will encounter in these pages a great soul and a great leader who walked upon this earth, in flesh and blood, with all the fragilities of a human being.

Indeed, Mohandas Gandhi was not born the Mahatma, “the great soul”. Like all of us, he had to grow-up in maturity though many experiences in life. A great many studies in leadership do indicate that leaders are not born as such: they undergo a developmental process. And yet, a good number of people still believe today that leaders carry in their genes special gifts. At the extreme, these people then divide the world between a few all powerful leaders and the mass, composed of passive followers. Contrary to this belief, Gandhi’s life demonstrates that an ordinary human being can become an international leader, indeed an integral one. Gandhi’s personal story is a testimony that all of us can act from the “better angels of one’ s nature”, as Abraham Lincoln nicely put it.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in a small city on the coast of India...


To be able to convey all of the notions mentioned above in a 20 pages chapter is, indeed, challenging. Often it takes several months and a lot of reading for deciding what should be included in the life story, choosing between the essential and the peripheral. Our focus on the epiphanies and the different stages of development should help us in doing this. Also, we need to remember that details could be presented in the other sections of the book.

Through our experiments in writing leadographies, we have concluded that the life story is the first piece that needs to be written, as it structures the other parts of the book. It is in the life story that we establish the period(s) in which we judge that leader has became integral. As explained below, this means that the person has developed oneself beyond the self-actualization stage. In the integral analysis, the next section of the book, we only use data associated from this integral stage or these integral stages, and relate them to the four quadrants of Wilber’s model, as explained below. However, in the other parts, the critics and limitations and the developmental process, we can use data from all periods or stages.

It is thus essential that the life story be written in a more or less definite fashion and that the different stages of development be precisely delineated before working on other parts of the book. Many of the codes to be inputted in the NVivio database rely on these differentiations (See the document “Using NVivo”).

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Part II: Acting as an integral leader: differences with traditional leadership theory and practice.

4. Integral Analysis

This section is the heart of the book. It is in it that we document how integral leaders differ from traditional leaders in practical terms, both for the theory and practice of leadership.

In order to structure our analysis and deepen it, we use Ken Wilber’s integral model. Below we comment briefly on this model. These commentaries cannot replace an in-depth study of Ken Wilber’s work (See the document Joining the Research Team for deciding which books and articles to study). In his model, Wilber proposes two pairs of reality modes: "internal" and "external" realities, as well as "individual" and "collective" realities. These two pairs form four quadrants as shown in Figure 1, namely quadrants A, B, C and D.

  Interior Exterior
  A B
  “I” “IT”
Individual Personal meaning and sense of self Body and behaviors
  D C
  “WE” “ITS”
Collective Culture and shared Institutions, artefacts, Values systems and processes

Figure 1: Ken Wilber’s integral model


Quadrant A refers to the "internal" reality lived by an individual. It is only accessible through profound dialogue with that person or studying his or her private writing, speeches or other production. This internal reality is made up of the individual meaning and personal experiences, her subjectivity, dreams, conversations with herself, spiritual raptures. It is articulated by an internal language or other form of "intra-personal" conversation, i.e. images, sounds, emotions, feelings, intuitions, bodily sensations, etc. This is the reality of "I"; the world of images, thoughts, emotions lived by that person, internally, as modulated by the levels of consciousness.

Quadrant B encompasses this personal reality but as perceived externally from the person, through the intermediary of the senses or a technology, a tool which is an extension of the senses. This reality is the world of the individual "id" or “it”. It consists of organic matter that makes up a person, her brain, synapses, muscles, senses, her body, as well as her actions and overt behaviours with others. This reality is perceptible externally by observation and modern science, namely the positivist-logic sciences, using clinical or empirical observation, analysis, and measurement and advanced technologies (Cat Scan, x-ray, questionnaires, statistics, etc.). It is not a matter of sensing a subjective meaning in some intra-psychic way, as in Quadrant A. If some of the reality of Quadrant B stems from the internal of the individual, as do the different neurophysiological processes in the brain, they are mostly observable from the outside of the individual through the use of intermediary technologies or through a report by that person if she is aware of these realities. Other components in that quadrant, such as overt behaviors with others, are also observable from the outside and tested by means of direct observation, laboratory manipulations and testing or questionnaires.

Quadrant C refers also to the concrete world that which is tangible, quantifiable and measurable qualities that can be apprehended from the outside. This is the world of the "collective id" or “its”. It is formed by institutions, enterprises, technologies, laws and rules, management and leadership tools, such as accounting, finance, marketing, information and communication technologies, etc. This collective and concrete world can be lived at different levels, be it at the group, organizational, national or global level. It can be captured through, for example, the analysis of the economic system and the fluctuations of goods, services, information and cash flow. This world is governed by the complex relationships between the institutionalized and technological human world and the natural world, such as natural resources, climate, geography, geology, etc.

Lastly, the world of quadrant D contains once again the subjective and the ineffable, as did quadrant A, expressed this time in a collective fashion. This is the world of values, taboos, informal norms, cultural paradigms and shared meanings. This is the world of the "we", expressed through a common language and signs that are understood by others. This world allows for a collective dialogue that may potentially lead to a mutual understanding. It represents also the levels of consciousness that exist at the collective level, be it a group, an organization, a society or the entire world. It is the consciousness central axis around which a culture is based, its mythology, dominant paradigm, the centre of its cultural gravity.

In leadership studies and training the emphasis is often put solely on the right side quadrants, i.e. B and C. Most of the efforts are directed toward a change in overt behaviours (quadrant B), called also “competencies” or “abilities”, in order to maximize efficiency and concrete output, a quadrant C reality. Of course, some attention is also given to cultural norms (quadrant D) but this is relatively rare in leadership studies as they are often recuperated for maximizing an output to be achieved in quadrant C. Some are also proposing that personal meaning is essential in leadership, using psychoanalysis, existentialism or phenomenology, but this is even rarer.

For these reasons, we propose to start the integral analysis in the leadographies with quadrants B and C (behaviours and systems), which are the most well known, and conclude with quadrants D and C (share meanings and sense of self). This order of presentation is very important for our writing of the quadrants. We need to remember, for example, that when addressing the interpersonal behaviors between a leader and his associates or opponents (quadrant B), we will only be able to talk about their cultural or personal roots in quadrants D and A, i.e. many pages later. This takes some gymnastics and creative writing skills.

In the past, we had presented in the research team extensive examples of the contents to be addressed in each quadrant. For example, we proposed to address the leader’s aptitude for direction in quadrant B, the issues of capital allocation in C, the degree of sharing of power in D, and the experience of transcendence of time and space in A. This way of doing has lead to a kind of mechanization of these notions. Some researchers felt obliged to use each notion in relation to the leader they studied, which lead to some “forcing” of the issues.

At present, we prefer not to specify too much these notions and leave the researchers decide for themselves what needs to be included in each quadrant, depending on the data they uncover in their leadergraphy research. We have thus decided that our research strategy is more data driven than theory driven. The important point to remember is that we need to document how the practices of integral leaders are similar and/or different from traditional leaders and this in each quadrant.

This being said, some issues cannot be avoided in leadership and need to be discussed in the leadographies. For example, issues such as the use of power, the establishment of a vision and of a mission, the means used for motivation, or the pattern of decision-making are traditional issues covered in leadership theory and practise and need to be addressed in the leadographies. Some other issues such as the spiritual practices used by these leaders, their family origin, their education, the books they have cherished, their relation with their body, their spiritual development, and many others, are also essential for comparing these integral leaders among themselves as well as with more traditional leaders. In the document Using NVivo, we specify which issues we have agreed to track so far for later comparisons and their associate codes. While we are asking to track these issues and input them in NVivo, the researcher remains the judge for discussing them or not in their particular leadergraphy.

We present in Figure 2 below a less constringing way of considering Wilber’s quadrants. We have associated them with different scientific or artistic disciplines. This typology provides some structure for deciding in which quadrant to include such and such issue in the leadergraphy. For example, if an issue is traditionally discussed in existentialism, such as the search for meaning, it needs to be included in quadrant A, while financial matters can be discussed in quadrants C.

Of course, the four quadrants are far from separated from one another but rather are in a dynamic and complex relationship. This is the beauty of Ken Wilber’s model as it reminds us that an issue needs to be treated in all quadrants in order to respect its complexity. It is foolish, for example, to enforce a rigid code of ethics in an organization, a quadrant C reality, without involving the realities of the other quadrants, a mistake often made in organizations or in research. How can equity among employees be enforced in an organization, for example, if its leaders are making 500 times the employee average salary, in part because these leaders consider themselves truly superior?

  Interior Exterior
  A B
Individual Phenomenology
Depth psychology
Existentialism
Experiential spirituality
Consciousness studies
Arts, poetry, fine arts
Medecine
Physics, biology Neurology
Behaviorism
Nutrition
Interpersonal studies
  D C
Collective Anthropology
Sociology
Hermeneutics
Sciences of religion
Mythology
Political sciences
Administrative sciences Strategic management
Engineering
Law and economics
Ecological sciences
Systems theory

Figure 2: associated disciplines in each quadrant


We should also remember that the quadrants have to be themselves combined to the levels of consciousness as well as the lines of development. In this section of the book, the integral analysis, we are considering the levels of consciousness as we use only data associated with the leader’s integral level of development. This is to say that data associated with other levels are not used in this section. In the developmental process section, we will address the developmental lines, as we will see below. Also, the levels are graphically suggested in the Figure below. It is easy to visualize from it the Figure that this section of the leadergraphy, the integral analysis, focuses only on the third zone, i.e. the transpersonal or spiritual level.

It is also useful to represent graphically the point of separation between the personal and the transpersonal levels. In Figure 3 below we have combined Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with Ken Wilber’s transpersonal levels. Wilber has called the last personal level “vision logic” while Maslow named this last personal level “self-actualization”. After that point Maslow spoke in general terms of the “trans-personnal” level, while Wilber proposed to differentiate these levels in four categories, i.e. the psychic, subtle, causal and the non-dual levels.

Figure 3: a combination of Maslow and Wilber’s theories


In this research, we call “integral” the leaders who been assessed as having developed themselves beyond the self-actualization stage or level. (Please see the document Joining the Research-Team for a presentation of the three criteria used for choosing integral leaders in this research). Of course, this does not mean that integral leaders are not anymore influenced by previous needs. Maslow has repetitively warned of not considering his model in a too strict linear nor hierarchical manner. Further, this does not mean that all integral leaders have developed themselves in the same manner. Wilber has proposed that the self-transcendence characteristics, beyond self-actualization, are themselves structured, in a non linear way, by several levels or stages. Lastly, this does do not mean that leaders who are not considered to be “integral” do not have access to some self-transcendence characteristics. They probably do. But the leaders we have chosen as “integral” have been described by a diverse population as having developed beyond the self-actualization stage, demonstrating repetitively that their concerns went beyond themselves, had a transcendent or de-centered characteristics.

Please see the paper, included in the Resource File, Integral Leadershp : A Research Proposal, by Thierry C. Pauchant, for a detailed discussion on all these subtleties. In this introduction, we only provide a short quote by Maslow on this subject, as he was one of the first authors to point out the importance of self-transcendence and its implications for leadership, a process he called “Theory Z”:

Humanistic Psychology […] is now quite solidly established as a viable third alternative to objectivistic, behaviorist psychology and to orthodox Freudianism. […]. There is work to be done here, effective, virtuous. Satisfying work which can give rich meaning to one's own life and to others. […]. I should say also that I consider Humanistic, Third Force Psychology to be transitional, a preparation for a still "higher" fourth Psychology, transpersonal, transhuman, centered in the cosmos rather than in human needs and interest, going beyond humanness, identity, self-actualization […]. Without the transcendent and the transpersonal, we get sick, violent, and nihilistic, or else hopeless and apathetic. We need something "bigger than we are" to be awed by and to commit ourselves to in a new, naturalistic, empirical, non-churchly sense, perhaps as Thoreau and Whitman, William James and John Dewey did .

In summary, the following points are essential for the writing of this four parts, 60 pages long, section of the book:

  • Proceed from quadrants B, C, D to A
  • Present only the data associated with the leader’s integral level of development
  • Focus on the practices that complement and differ with traditional leadership
  • Study in each quadrant both how the leader has been affected by its content and how he has affected it
  • Quote the associates and opponents, not only the leader.
  • Choose several telling stories and quotations.

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Part III: Becoming an integral leader: the ups and downs of integration and lessons for education and training.

5. Critics and limitations

Even though integral leaders are exceptional human-beings, they are not perfect. In this section we are invited to discuss some of the critics directed against these leaders and their shortcomings, in particular in relation with their leadership functions. This section is thus counter-balancing the previous one which focused on the most developed aspects of these leaders. Very often, this critical stance is not taken in the books which idealizes leaders.

These critics can fall in three categories:

  • First, some critics - even enduring ones - are simply based on false accounts. For instance, Christopher Hitchens' book on Mother Teresa offers many examples of these ill-founded critics. Of course, we do not wish to claim that our leadographies are totally "objective", based on undisputable empirical facts (a quadrant B reality). This hard stance in logico-positivism is not taken anymore by serious biographers or historians. The best we can do is too carefully check our data and our conclusions and acknowledge our own humanity, subjectivity and purpose. Indeed, who could claim to be totally aware of all the subtleties of a human-being, including oneself? But, without claiming total objectivity, some critics can be refuted, especially when they are based on erroneous facts such as confused dates, places, people, etc., or malicious rumors. This section in the book is the place to address these critics and to rebut them.

  • Second, some critics pertain to some of the less developed stages of development experienced by the leader. If it is the case, this section is the place to replace these critics in their proper developmental context and demonstrate that, at a later stage, the leader was thinking, feeling and behaving differently.

  • Third, some critics are probably right to the point as integral leaders are still perfectible human-beings. In these cases, we have to resist our own idealization of these leaders, present the evidences and state our own views on these issues. Often too, many of these critics have been formulated by the leaders themselves. Advanced stages in integral development seem to allow for an increase in humility and self-criticism. Lastly, this is also the place to discuss the "shadow side" (in Jungian terms) of these, nevertheless, great individuals.

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6. Developmental process

While the previous parts of the leadergraphy were mostly analytical and forced issues in different (but related) quadrants, this part is more organic in nature. In this section, we present and discuss the events and contexts which influenced both the visions and the abilities of the integral leader and how the leader experienced his or her developmental process, with ups and downs. While in the integral analysis we described the being part or the doing part of integral leadership, describing actions associated with a self-transcendent level of development, this section is on the becoming part of integral leadership. Further, we draw in this section some conclusions on the lessons which can be learned for education and training in leadership.

At present, the research team has not reached a consensus on how to structure this section. We do agree that it is not enough to present the practices of integral leaders, as exposed in the integral analysis from each quadrant: we also need to discuss the context and the process from which these leaders have modified their visions and abilities, their goals and means. This information is indeed essential if we wish to say anything substantial about education and training in leadership, beyond a check-list of actions to be performed. We suggest below three strategies which seem worthwhile for organizing the information presented in this section:

  • A first strategy is to explore the different lines of development in human beings. The notion of lines is advanced by Ken Wilber and the University of Notre Dame' business school, studying six different lines in leadership: the physical, emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, moral and spiritual lines (See the Resource File posted on the Web site for this approach).

  • A second strategy is to explore the different multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner and his colleagues. The verbal, logico-mathematical, musical, kinesthetic, spatial, intra-personal, inter-personal, naturalist and spiritual intelligences. (See the Resource File on this web site for this approach)

  • A last potential strategy will be to explore the five practices of exemplary leadership, as proposed by James Kouzes and Barry Posner: Modeling the way, inspiring a share vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act and encouraging the heart (See the Resource File on this web site for this approach).

All of these strategies have merit and offer different limitations.

  • This scientific literature on the lines of development informs us, for example, that there exist no consensus on the number of lines of development (for example, Ken Wilber has proposed up to 24 different lines); the relationship among these lines is highly debated as individuals who are very developed in one line can be archaic in another; or there exist a debate between a more static view of these lines, which posits that different individuals can only master a definite number of lines, and a developmental view, which posits that these lines follow a pattern of development in each individual.

  • The notion of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner offers the advantage of proposing a solid rational both for their definite number and characteristics. And yet Gardner's work is also criticized by the scientific community, particularly in the field of education.

  • Lastly the notion of the exemplary practices in leadership offers the advantage of being extensively used in the field of leadership theory and training and enjoys a solid empirical and statistical grounding. And yet, this model is also criticized as being too behaviorist.

Considering that we study highly developed people who have concretely achieved a positive contribution to their community, we are in a rare position to contribute to the debate about these different theories. Also, the notion of lines, intelligences or exemplary practices is fundamental for better understanding how people transform and can achieve an integral level of development in leadership, with implications for education and training. Lastly, the use of such theories can help us to demonstrate that integral leaders are neither perfect nor developed evenly in all the lines, intelligences or exemplary practices or that they exemplify new ones.

We presently ask researchers to code both the six different lines of development and the five exemplary practices (See the document "Using NVivo"). In addition, we also ask to track in NVivo different states and types that Ken Wilber uses in his model. The states refer to the overall mode of consciousness experienced by human beings, the most common being the waking state and the dreaming state; the types are quasi-immutable structures of personality, such as the Jungian functions measured by the MBTI or the gender of an individual. We are however opened to other suggestions, including the use of other models and theories. Individual researchers can also use additional codes of their choice in their research.

The important point in this section of the leadergraphy is to document the developmental process lived through by the integral leaders and to compare it with more traditional ones. It is also to propose lessons for education and training in leadership offered currently in business school, leadership consultancy or in organizations.

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Conclusion and Appendix

7. Legacy

This part is a 5 pages conclusion about the book, a kind of executive summary. It is the place to present the overall legacy of the integral leader to the theory, practice, education and training in leadership, preferably focusing on one or a very few points. This is also the place to share with the reader the researcher's own growth experience as a biography (or a leadergraphy) is also an autobiography of its author.

8. Resources

In this section we can introduce and present a few key texts or other artifacts by the leader and his or her associates. These choices have to be particularly relevant and representative of the leader's life and deeds. This could include, for example, the text of an obituary, the discourse of acceptance of the Nobel prize, a very famous speech, a painting, etc.

9. Annotated bibliography

In this section we assist the reader to choose the most interesting resources available (books, articles, movies, web site, etc.) for learning more about the leader and his or her context. We also list in this section the major sources from which we have drawn in order to write the leadergraphy.

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C. Additional considerations for each leadergraphy

a. Lay-out of the book

Each leadergraphy bears the same generic title, such as:

Mohandas Gandhi
A leadergraphy on Integral Development

Mother Theresa
A leadergraphy on Integral Development

The book lay-out is also similar for each leadergraphy (cover, lettering, quality of paper, size, color, etc.) for communicating that the book is part of a Book Series.

As a leadergraphy is about leadership, the picture to be chosen for the book's cover should be a group picture and not of the leader alone. This will distinguish the leadergraphy Book Series to other biographies written on leaders, often using an individual picture of the leader. For example on Gandhi's leadergraphy cover, we could use the picture below, taken from the 1930 famous salt march.

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b. Co-authorship and royalties

When the chosen leader is from a culture or a country different from the main author, a member of that culture is to be invited to participate in the writing of the book as a co-author. For example, the leadergraphy on Gandhi will involve as a co-author an Indian resident knowledgeable about Gandhi and leadership; and the one on Martin Luther King will involve a Black American from the Baptist community. The role of co-author consists in the reading of a completed manuscript, offering some critical commentaries and suggestions for change. Such a co-author could receive perhaps 5-10% of the royalties of the leadergraphy or do it for free. This strategy is aimed at increasing the cultural and scientific validities of each leadergraphy and of the Book Series.

Thierry Pauchant will also be the co-author of each leadergraphy, at least for the first ones. His role will be more active than the previous co-author as he will be involved in co-writing. This strategy is aimed at establishing the consistency of the Book Series, its scientific reputation and its market recognition.

For the first leadographies, the percentage of the royalties (the editor pays authors 10% of the sales price of the books sold) will be as such:

  • Main author (first author on the book cover): 40 to 75 % of the royalties, depending on extent of work done, the number of co-authors and if the main author has been remunerated or not as a research assistant for writing the leadergraphy.
  • Thierry Pauchant (often second author): 10% to 50%, depending on extent of work done.
  • Other co-author (often third author): 0 to 10%, depending on extent of work done.
  • Chair in Ethical Management, HEC Montréal: 25 %, to be re-invested in the coordination and production of other leadographies.
  • The Chair will perceive 100% of the royalties for all translations in a different language than the original manuscript, as it will finance these translations, keeping the copyright for three languages: English, French and Spanish.

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c. Endorsements

Endorsements are brief laudatory comments offered on the book by credible personalities. They are printed on the back of the book, its covers or at its beginning. For each leadergraphy, the main author has the responsibility to secure before publication such an endorsement by one of the major biographers of the studied leader. This way of proceeding is also aimed at collecting critical suggestions for potential improvement and increasing the scientific validity of each leadergraphy and of the Book Series.

Thierry Pauchant will attempt to secure endorsements by famous leadership scholars, such as Warren Bennis, Jim O'Toole or James McGregor-Burns in the U.S., Henry Mintzberg in Canada, Hervé Serieyx in France, etc.

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d. The style to be used in the leadographies

Please refer to the document Joining the Research Team for general comments about the craft of writing. Below we focus on the styles to be avoided and to be used in the leadographies.

We have based our recommendations on several studies and publications (See the Resource File on the Web site. We recommend that you do read the two first references):

  • An article published in the Library Journal on books concerning ethics and leadership in business.
  • An article written by the screenwriting coach Robert McKee on great scripts and storytelling.
  • A study of 100 top books published on leadership, sold on Amazon.com.
  • The commentaries offered on the Penguin Life Book Series.

The styles to be avoided and the ones to be encouraged are as follows:

  • While this style sells very well, we should avoid what could be called a "bubble gum" style. This casts a leader as a superhero who defies all the evils of the world. Our tone needs rather to be empathic and authentic, conscious of the fragility of the human condition and of, sometimes, its greatness.

  • Please stay also away from the academic style, with it used of jargon. When evoking an author or a theory in the text, the standard academic style, i.e. "Bennis (2003)", needs to be avoided. Rather, that person or that theory can be put into context for the reader such as: "Warren Bennis, the noted scholar in leadership studies, has suggested that…".

  • References and page notes have also to be avoided in the leadergraphy. However, we present the most important sources used in the leadergraphy in its appendix. In the Resource File, you will find an example of such a presentation, taken from the Penguin Life Series Book on Leonardo da Vinci.

  • However, we wish to present the full references of the sources used in the text on the web site of the Series, following the page numbers in the published leadergraphy. Readers will be directed to visit this site if they wish to find a precise reference or a quote. This implies that we input such references in the format of notes of end of document in the original manuscript, taking them out when publishing the book.

  • We also need to avoid the moralistic stance. While this style has gained in popularity, fueled by a renewal of orthodoxy in religion or in different social milieus, we need to explain the motivations behind the leader's actions, beyond a sole moralistic claim.

  • Similarly, we need stay away from any metaphysical claim. When speaking of a very religious person, we have to be careful of not imposing our own faith onto the reader. For example, a statement such as "he followed the path of God" (which implies that such a path exists and that we implicitly agree with this conception) could be restated as "he followed what he considered to be the path of God".

  • When writing leadographies, it is also essential to remember for whom we write. We are not writing for academics nor for executives in Corporate America. While these persons could find our books very valuable, we are conducting this research project for the same people integral leaders strove for: people in pain and people of hope. These people could be disadvantaged ones, young with uncertain future, men and women searching for meaning in private enterprises or government, or people who suffer from the inequality, the ugliness or the violence of our world and who wish for the development of a different kind of leadership.

  • Finally, telling a good story is very crucial. Good stories are listened to, remembered and assist people in their growth. However, we should also keep in mind that the purpose of this study is to contribute to the current theory, practice, education and training in leadership. Our books need to be useful to leaders-to-be, leaders who want to learn and people who wish to work with them.


You will find in the Resource File three extracts of very well written biographies, with three different styles. All extracts are taken for the Penguin Lifes Series which has been described on Amazon.com as "the best thing to hit popular biographies in some time". The Penguin Life Series, with titles on Napoleon, Churchill, Luther King or Abraham Lincoln (about 40 titles to date), is perhaps the Series the most similar to the leadographies Series. The Penguin biographies are not focusing on leadership nor integral development, but they balance very well the scholarly skills and erudition with a warm and engaging narrative, a balance we wish to strive for in the leadographies. Also, each Penguin biography is short (between 150 and 200 pages) and written by an award winning author. The presented extracts are taken from the Biography Pope John XXII, by the best-selling author Thomas Cahill; Simone Weil, by Pulitzer Prize nominated Francine du Plessix Gray; and Buddha, by Karen Armstrong, the celebrated author of A History of God. These extracts are not presented to set the standards to be followed in literary writing in the leadographies, but for helping researchers to find their own style.

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