Leadership for a Fractured World

CHAPTER 8Keeping Yourself from Fracturing

It is easy to feel fractured and burdened when taking on a difficult adaptive challenge. You can internalize the conflicts and frustrations of the groups you are working with, and you can overwhelm yourself by trying to take on too much. At times, you will feel like a lightning rod in the sense of attracting unwanted attention, criticism, adulation, even delusional fantasies that people project onto you. You might get attacked from your own faction because they see you crossing boundaries and partnering with opponents, or you might be criticized by other groups who see you as an irritant, an itinerant, or a serious threat. One can easily become disheartened or cynical, and act out or burn out.

In this ...