confidence courage wisdom

 

Introducing Mark Crosweller: Founder and Director, Ethical Intelligence

My Journey

I have had the great privilege of working with many inspiring people in local communities, the private sector, and the public sector at the local, State, national and international level over the past 36 years, initially in design, construction and engineering, followed by a long career in crisis, national security and emergency management. For over 20 years as a senior executive leader I have worked with or for Senior and Chief Executives, local Councillors and Mayors, State and Federal Ministers as well as Prime Ministers and their respective governments, on matters of strategy, policy, operations, risk and resilience within often times highly complex, ambiguous and uncertain environments.

How we are losing our confidence, courage and wisdom

Throughout that journey, I witnessed and experienced some of humanity’s deepest sorrows and greatest joys as events played out across our country and elsewhere in the world, either at the hands of nature or at the hands of fellow human beings. I saw some of the best humans had to offer, and I saw some of the worst. And throughout all of it, irrespective of what position or role leaders held within their organisations, I realised they were principally trying to do the best they could within the boundaries of both their internal and external limitations, often in some of the worst of circumstances. My own extensive experiences reflected this.

But I have also witnessed throughout the course of my career a loss of confidence, courage and wisdom. The confidence of leaders to access their innate ability to be a trusted, inspiring and compassionate leader, the courage to act in a way that exemplifies their compassion, and the wisdom to know how to understand compassion profoundly and apply it pragmatically to a complex world for the mutual benefit of themselves and others, whether it be at the individual or organisational level.

Having spoken for a number of years nationally and internationally about ethics such as trust and compassion, time and time again people would tell me that these ethics were the most needed but also the most absent in leadership.

An opportunity to reclaim our ethics

Ethical Intelligence has been established to work with leaders and their organisations to reclaim that confidence, courage and wisdom. At a time of increasing uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity across the world, ethics such as trust and compassion are innate characteristics that exemplify the best of leadership, are needed. They can greatly aid us in navigating a world that presents significant opportunities to move away from things that collectively cause us grief and towards things that bring a genuine beneficial, purposeful and meaningful life for ourselves and others. After a lifetime of witnessing and experiencing some of the best and worst of humanity I am convinced that the future will be brighter if we can navigate its complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty through the best of what, as leaders, our individual and collective ethos has to offer.