Such issues are addressed in a recent special issue of the journal Leadership on the topic of “leadership and the future of humanity.” In the face of conflict and crisis the editors, Zahira Jaser and Dennis Tourish (2024), propose “hope” as the only real antidote to despair. “Hopeful leadership,” they argue, is “the continuous belief in and search for possible and better futures, even if they are imperfect” (p. 255, [italics in original]). A particularly powerful illustration of the power of hope is given in Josh Hayden’s (2024) analysis of Václav Havel and the Charter 77 human rights movement in Czechoslovakia. In the words of Havel: “Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart, it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons… Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out” (Havel, 1986/1990, cited in Hayden, 2024, p. 315).

Embracing hope in the face of adversity, whilst inevitably challenging, provides a foundation for the compassion, empathy, and collaboration required to rebuild fractured societies, in much the way that Nelson Mandela and his compatriots set out to build the “Rainbow Nation” in post-apartheid South Africa.

Whilst much leadership research continues to focus on the characteristics and skills of individual leaders, we would do well to give more consideration to how we can foster collective and inclusive leadership in order to tackle the complex, systemic, and intractable challenges we now face, and to better mobilize against destructive and self-centered leadership. One area where such issues are considered is the emerging field of “peace leadership,” defined as “the intersection of individual and collective capacity to challenge issues of violence and aggression and build positive, inclusive social systems and structures” (McIntyre Miller, 2016, p. 223).

In a recent symposium  in the Journal of Leadership Studies on this topic, Jonathan Gosling and I highlight the significance of facilitative leadership not just in navigating divergent interests and agendas, but in reframing the nature of the narratives in which we find ourselves (Bolden and Gosling, 2024). For us, skilled facilitation is a collaborative process that involves opening up alternative storylines and perspectives that transcend traditional boundaries and divisions. Other important dimensions of peace leadership, outlined in this symposium, include humility; emotional intelligence; listening and leadership-as-practice; adaptiveness; diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; social networking analysis; and systems thinking (McIntyre Miller, 2024).