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Choose Confidence Over Hope – Stoic Leadership in Times of Turmoil


Recently, one of my nieces asked me if choosing French as a foreign language was really much better than Latin. Having had Latin in school for five years and not remembering much of it, and, given my rekindled love for France and speaking French, I clearly replied: Yes, it is!

We see leaders facing heightened tensions across multiple domains: abrupt political shifts, economic volatility, demographic change. Technological acceleration, unstable money systems, and new global trade patterns add pressure – fast, complex, often contradictory.

And what is rarely a headline anymore: the unresolved struggle to balance office presence with remote work. The toll is subtle but real – in the erosion of work relationships, in the drying up of informal dialogue, in how conflict is too often avoided instead of used for growth.

But then, with all the ever greater tragedies in the news, I remembered my love for Seneca. As a teenager, back in the ’80s, I gave a speech against the rising “Null Bock” attitude among my classmates, drawing on the Stoics’ refusal of empty hope and their advocacy for something more demanding: confidence. Not the loud, stage-like, self-assertive kind of confidence, but the quiet kind. The kind that holds when nothing else does.

This is not a time to let fear gain ground. What we need instead is a work culture that fosters confidence and with it the competence to face the unknown fearlessly and turn it into something new, not yet known. That’s the foundation for real innovation.

In the view of the Stoics, hope was seen as a projection of control onto something external. Confidence, by contrast, resides within. It marks a shift away from placing trust in higher powers, toward drawing strength from within ourselves.

Hope is a beautiful word, and a meaningful concept. But it doesn’t suffice as a leader’s resource. Hope comforts – but confidence orients. Confidence allows us to visualise a positive future in the face of uncertainty. It rests on the belief that we will find answers to questions we do not yet know how to ask.

It’s an old safety rule you already know from flying: put on your own mask first before helping others. The same applies to leadership. In times of turmoil or emergency, leaders need steady breathing, a clear mind, and space to feel what’s theirs – before they can be of use to others.

While I learned about Seneca in my Latin lessons, I also discovered yoga at the age of fifteen and found inspiration in Eastern philosophy and embodied practice: the inner discipline, the non-reactivity, the compassion. What unites Stoicism, Yoga, and Buddhist thought isn’t detachment, but attention. Not control, but presence. Not noise, but inner ground.

In times of turmoil, this what leadership begins with.

Maybe now you will see a small win in still letting students learn Latin. 😉 ... and remember to choose confidence over hope!

Flugbegleiterinnen führen das Anlegen von Sauerstoffmasken vor.

Flugbegleiterinnen führen das Anlegen von Sauerstoffmasken vor.


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