The Nature of Leadership and Career

read time 7 minutes

The Nature of Leadership and Career, is a weekly newsletter where I provide 1 illustration and ~3 ideas to help you connect to your career, leadership, or work journey in a more natural way.

Today at a glance

• Illustration of the week

  - Modes of belonging

• The Psychology of Belonging

  - Social Identity Theory

• The Nature of Belonging

  - Social, social-solitary and solitary animal group behavioural patterns

• The Nature of Career and Identity

  - 5 key lessons from animal belonging patterns

  - Thought Exercise

Illustration of the Week

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The Psychology of Belonging

During transitions one or more of our self-role-identities are “challenged”.

Put another way we ask ourselves “Who am I …now?”

If one of our self-role identities has changed, this triggers other questions such as How do I fit in with others? How do I belong?

Our need to belong is based on evolution; the need to survive and reproduce as a species. More recently it’s fair to say it’s also for emotional support and a sense of pride.

In psychology belonging is closely linked to the concept of our “social identity”.

Social Identity Theory - How do I fit?

Social identity Theory

• Social identity theory, a key contribution to psychology from Henri Tajfel, refers to the way your self-concepts are based on your membership in social groups.

• These groups are an important source of pride and self-esteem. give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.

• Examples: family, sports teams, religions, nationalities, occupations, sexual orientation, ethnic groups, and gender.

• During transitions one or more of our self-role-identities are “challenged” and this can often challenge our sense of pride and belonging to a group.

• Sometimes our desire to belong leads us to make decisions that sacrifice who we are or want to be (self-identity) for the group we want to belong to (social identity and belonging)

Read more:

Science Direct: Social Identity Theory

The Nature of Belonging

Let’s look to the wisdom of animals for different models of belonging:

Social groups creatures

🐬Dolphins swim in pods, where they communicate, hunt, and protect each other. Group living also provides opportunities for learning and sharing knowledge about navigation, feeding grounds, and social dynamics.

🐘 African elephants live in matriarchal herds, where older females lead and protect the younger members of the group. This allows for knowledge and experience to be passed down from one generation to the next ensuring the survival of the group.

🐵 Bonobos cluster in troops which are known for their peaceful and cooperative social structure. Their communities foster strong bonds, social harmony, and reduced aggression. This enables them to form alliances, share resources, and maintain stability within their groups.

Common disadvantages amongst these social pods, herds, and troops, are the competition for resources, mating partners, and conflicts that arise from hierarchal structures, and limitations on individual autonomy.

Social - Solitary creatures

🐻 Brown bears are typically solitary animals, but they may form temporary social groups during the salmon spawning season, where multiple bears gather to feed on the abundant food source.

🦈Orca whales, or killer whales, have complex social structures, living in matrilineal pods composed of related females and their offspring. However, there are also solitary male orcas known as "roaming bulls" that live alone or in temporary associations with other males.

🦧 Orangutans – female and young orangutans are very social whilst adult males that are relatively solitary. Mother orangutans and their offspring can remain in continuous contact for up to 7 years and young orangutans frequently socialize with adults and other juveniles. Adult males are semi-social, and occasionally join large travel bands which form around areas of high fruit abundance

Solitary creatures

🐆 Snow leopards’ solitary behavior enables them to efficiently hunt and navigate their rugged mountainous habitats. They can move stealthily and cover vast territories, increasing their chances of finding prey. Being solitary reduces competition for food, ensuring individual access to sufficient resources.

🐨 Koalas desire to stay solo allows them to efficiently navigate their preferred habitat, eucalyptus trees. Each koala establishes and defends its own feeding territory, ensuring access to sufficient foliage for sustenance. Solitary living reduces competition for limited food resources and minimizes conflicts over territory.

🐻 Polar bears’ solitary nature in their Artic habitat reduces competition for food, especially during the scarcity of their primary prey, seals. Solitary living allows polar bears to cover vast areas of sea ice in search of food and potential mates.

Common disadvantages amongst these solitary creatures are the limited opportunity for social interactions resulting in less opportunities for mating, and decreased opportunities to share knowledge for hunting.

Resources for this section:

Animal Social Behaviour

Sociality and self-awareness in animals

The Nature of Career

5 key lessons from animal belonging patterns

🟢Belonging has a reason and a season. Our need for belonging depends on our current phase and goals i.e. fit with our current or desired self-identity.

🟢Unlike animals who perhaps have more stringent modes of group or non-group behaviors, as humans we GET to choose more easily change when and how we want to be social, social-solitary, or solitary depending on our needs.

🟢Just because you no longer belong to a certain group anymore (whether it’s our choice or not) doesn’t mean you don’t belong if you have multiple group memberships.

🟢It is better to belong to the right type of group that fulfills the belonging we need in each period than belong for perceived modern reasons of survival (companionship, approval). There are other herds, pods, packs we can be part of.

🟢Our primal instincts are telling us to survive and reproduce. If we want to be in semi-social or solitary modes, we need to tell our primitive brains – “I am safe, I can survive, I have access to resources. I am in snow-leopard mode. I will choose to be in brown bear or elephant mode when I am ready”.

Thoughts Exercise

💡What season of your career or leadership are you in?

💡What are your self-role identities for this phase and your next phase?

💡What is the mix of social – vs solitary group belonging that you need?

💡Which groups do you need to stop, pause or start being part of to fulfil your need for belonging that fulfill your current or future self-identity?

Catch up on recent issues of The Nature of Leadership + Career

• Why should anyone be led by you?

• How to design your generalist - specialist career journey

• 5 Leadership + Career lessons from nature's secret to efficiency, diversity, and resilience

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