The Thrown Leader

Abstract

The term “thrownness” designates our inevitable submission to life’s challenges and predicaments, often determined arbitrarily by chance or by destiny. We inescapably find ourselves thrown because the world matters to us in some way or another. The term has major implications for effective leadership since leaders are invariably thrown into vexing circumstances or inherit problems that they had nothing to do with creating in the first place. Effective leaders attend to and “throw off” their thrownness by choosing judiciously from those possibilities (actions) that are available to them in a particular situation. Our “being” as leaders is always a struggle between thrownness and possibility because the undertakings we engage in and the people we interact with—our students, our colleagues, and our families—matter to us in some way or another. We care about our future and the future of our work; that’s what makes the sting of being thrown so raw. But rather than avoiding or disengaging from their challenges, authentic leaders take responsibility for what was, what is, and what will be, regardless of the circumstances they are thrown into. Acceptance of the randomness and inevitability of being thrown, with its associated aggravations and annoyances, is a hallmark of effective leaders. This grants leaders a somewhat paradoxical gateway to freedom, a journey on which they can discover purpose in their thrown humanity.