From Brexit to Trump, the events of 2016 reflect a groundswell of anger over the way leadership works in our societies today.
Ratna Omidvar, a Canadian Senator who emigrated from India, also spoke of the problems with politics as normal.
“I think political leadership is opportunistic and it has to be, because of the election cycle,” she said. However, she said that “as an immigrant, I have three passports in my life, I want to see points of light in all this discourse about difficulties and betrayals.”
She praised Angela Merkel’s welcome to refugees as an example of “a leader who stepped up and behaved in a way that was values-based, that served the common good and not just the interest of her political party.”
“Leadership is about taking hope from those who are charting a different path. I want to strike a note of optimism rather than complete despair.”
Clearly, leadership means different things to different people – not least to organisations that provide professional leadership training.