Leadership and the Art of Struggle

4Make Sense of a Chaotic World

What I need is perspective.… Otherwise you livewith your face squashed against a wall, everythinga huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, theweave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face.

—Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Tension Points

“The world as it is,” as the Struggle Lens suggests, is chaotic indeed. Such chaos might leave a leader feeling flustered, out of balance, and out of control. Seeking to discern the specific tensions underlying a challenging situation is a good next step toward managing through the complexity. With a better understanding of how these tensions work, you will gain a clearer perspective and make better choices.

Not only is change at the heart of leadership struggle, it ...