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Third Generation Leadership and Depression

Written by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: A recent Scientific American article makes it clear that an early aspect of depression leads to creativity. A person feels “down” or suffers some disquiet about his or her situation and, under the right circumstances, can use this to develop new approaches – the experience is used to harness their creative ability. This is a “blue zone” activity and 3G Leaders are adept at helping people shift their brain’s locus of control into the “blue zone”. Such leadership can help many people avoid the debilitating illness of clinical depression.

Third Generation Leadership and Depression

Third Generation Leadership - the dealing with existential anxiety by means of ensuring every person knows that they matter; that they will be listened to; and that they are important in their own right - has implications across every area of life.

In the macro environment of international relations, the complexity of today requires "blue zone" thinking. The fiasco of the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio; the tragedies of the Iraq and Afghanistan ventures; the problems in Africa and with Iran; the issue of drugs and countless other world issues are proof that First Generation Leadership and Second Generation Leadership approaches have had their day.

But it is also critical in the personal sphere. One of the most common and debilitating illnesses today is clinical depression. Pharmaceutical companies make fortunes designing and selling antidepressant drugs and I suspect that a significant amount of illicit drug use is also to help people deal with the same issue.

Depression, in its general sense, is a state of low mood and aversion to activity. A depressed person generally experiences feelings of sadness which can then escalate to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Feeling "depressed" is often synonymous with feeling "sad", but both clinical depression and non-clinical depression can also refer to more than one feeling

In January 2010, The Scientific American had an article entitled Depression's Evolutionary Roots. In this they reported that

• The brain's ability to enter a depressed state has been preserved throughout evolution, suggesting that depression is an adaptation.
• Depression promotes focused rumination about problems. People in this state of mind are better at solving complex social dilemmas.
• Effective therapies encourage patients to engage in rumination, allowing them to find solutions to their problems and end their depressive episode.

They also reported that "research in the U.S. and other countries estimates that between 30 to 50 percent of people have met current psychiatric diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder sometime in their lives." No wonder the pharmaceutical companies invest so much time and effort into the antidepressant market!

They go on to say: "This ... seems to pose an evolutionary paradox. The brain plays crucial roles in promoting survival and reproduction, so the pressures of evolution should have left our brains resistant to such high rates of malfunction. Mental disorders are generally rare-why isn't depression?"

Recently I wrote "At the heart of the human condition lies existential anxiety. Essentially existential anxiety is a search for meaning. As such it is unique to humanity." (See Third Generation Leadership Develops Self Confident People) I suggest that it is in this issue of "existential anxiety" that we see the reason why depression is not rare when, generally, mental disorders are.

If people have an in-built desire to find meaning in their existence (and I strongly believe that they do) then those times when they are unable to find any such meaning will impact on how they feel and behave. Such impact will range from a general feeling of disquiet and "feeling a bit down" through to severe clinical depression - and the downward transition may occur extremely rapidly depending on the circumstances surrounding that person.

I have frequently repeated the message of my book "Leaders: diamonds or cubic zirconia" that the role of a leader is to create an environment in which people can be successful. In the First Generation Leadership environment (up to about 1940) this environment was provided through a reasonably rigid strata system in which the vast majority of people were conditioned to believe it was their role to obey. If they obeyed their leaders they had the certainty that life was predictable and so existential anxiety was alleviated. In the Second Generation Leadership environment (up to about 1980) this same certainty was obtained conformance to norms and rules and confidence in learning from experience.

In a world in which there is almost total certainty - a First Generation Leadership world - the issue of depression is unlikely to be widespread. Because the emphasis is on "doing what one is told" there is pressure to accept one's lot in life and, once this is accepted, existential anxiety is allayed. "Don't rock the boat" would be an apt motto for this period.

In a world where these is a reasonable degree of certainty - a Second Generation Leadership world - there will be those who "don't rock the boat" as well as those who use (either overtly or covertly) the freedom to question and this will impact on their lives. In its most positive form, this questioning will lead to a feeling of disquiet about whatever it is they are questioning and that, in turn, will lead to creativity and innovation. This is in accord with the findings reported by The Scientific American when they said "Depression promotes focused rumination about problems. People in this state of mind are better at solving complex social dilemmas". It is no accident that the post Second World War period saw some of the greatest advances the world has ever known in productivity, economic activity, and technology.

I am quite sure that "depression" as an illness existed before the 1980's but I am equally sure that the incidence of depression has accelerated since the onset of the Third Generation Leadership era. The reason is simple. With the advent of personal computing coupled with the availability of the internet and, now, social networking people are faced with a level of complexity and choice with which many are unable to cope. For those educated in the years up to 1980 questioning and "thinking outside the square" was either actively discouraged or allowed only under controlled circumstances. The trick was to ascertain what those in authority wanted and then to show compliance with this. Second guessing one's leaders was a game of "survivor" and only the best made it through all of the challenges. When loss of certainty occurs or the available options are too many, existential anxiety rears its head and a high probability result is depression.

In order to resolve this we need 3G Leaders - leaders with their brain's locus of control firmly in "the blue zone". 3G Leaders may not be qualified to assist people with clinical depression - we still need appropriate professional services for this - but they are eminently qualified to help many people avoid the downward spiral which brings clinical depression about.

For the good of mankind today and tomorrow we need Third Generation Leadership and 3G Leaders.

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Article Tags: blue zone, clinical depression, creative ability, creativity, scientific american, third generation leadership



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