Existentialism can often be engaged with as an esoteric and somewhat unfathomable philosophy, and it is hard to see its relevance to our day-to-day lives. Other than off the cuff usage to indicate a significant threat to the existence of something – it’s an existential crisis, after all – it is rarely heard in casual conversation. It is also rarely discussed amongst friends as an approach through which we can better understand ourselves and live authentic lives. However, this mysterious existentialism is the essential bread and butter of our lives. It’s tenets and principles are aspects of our everyday lived experience. So, just what is existentialism and how does it relate to us on a day-to-day basis? Crucially, how can we use it to live in a more authentic way?
Existentialism is an understanding of how we live our lives or, in existential terms, our ‘ways of being’. It explores how our ways of being are conditioned and informed by a variety of factors including the social and cultural context in which we are born and live, our values and beliefs, and what is meaningful to us. However, whilst it firmly acknowledges that a number of these factors are outside of our control – we do not choose where and when we are born, after all – existentialism also states that we all have freedom of choice or, at least, in every aspect and situation of our lives there are choices we can make and we are free to make them, should we be courageous enough to do so. Of course, to do nothing in any situation is also a choice in itself.
Our days are filled with choices, large and small. Some seemingly insignificant - What will I have for breakfast? Will I take an umbrella today? – some seemingly much more impactful – Will I apply for that Exco position? Will I sign off on that proposed capital development? Will my decision about the restructuring improve service delivery or not? In all these decisions, no matter how knotty they may seem, we have the freedom to choose what we do.
Our choices are informed by who we are, what we believe in, our values and principles, and how we respond to the pressures and influences around us. All of this are at the heart of existentialism and its perspective on whether we are making authentic choices, or not. However, these choices are not made by us in isolation. In fact, every choice is made in relation to other people and the context in which we are in.
This idea of relationality is a core principle of existentialism. It refers to the reality that we exist in relation to everyone and everything around us. We understand who we are due to this relationality and make all our choices with this context of relationality. I know I am a leader because I have staff around me and the associated leadership responsibilities. Even when we are alone, we live in relation to the people who are not there as well as the objects around us – I am currently alone at my desk at home writing this piece. I am alone because my partner is not here and I am at my desk because, well, it is here, and I know it as a ‘desk’.
Now, making choices in this context of relationality is where another of existentialism’s core principles comes into play - uncertainty. Whilst I may have some modicum of control over the desk, I do not have absolute certainty about how long it will last or, indeed, what the impact will be if I move it to somewhere else in my home. This is even more apparent in my relations with other people and in the context of decisions that, perhaps, carry a greater impact than where I put my desk.
We cannot absolutely control and nor can we absolutely know how people will behave in response to our actions – how will my staff respond to the restructuring? Nor can we control or know for certain the outcome of any business or, indeed, personal decision – Will the capital investment work to increase revenue? How will my application for the Exco position affect my personal life? None of us know what the outcome of our choices will be. We might try to mitigate this uncertainty through knowledge, analysis, or exerting influence but we can never be 100% certain of anything. So, bearing in mind the relational nature of our existence, this uncertainty that is inherent in every choice we make infuses our lives, our way of being.
It is because of this uncertainty that we experience anxiety, existentialism third core principle. This is not the anxiety that the National Institute of Mental Health call ‘anxiety disorders’ but rather the anxiety that arises from the ‘not knowing’ that is characteristic of uncertainty. We are creatures who have, from time immemorial, instinctively feared the unknown. This is, primarily, due to the risks and dangers associated with it – If we step out into the dark, away from the fire, will we get eaten? As such, when we are presented with an unknown, such as how a person may respond to us, or how a business decision may work out, we experience a degree of anxiety about what the outcome might be for us.
It is often this anxiety that holds us back from making a decision or causes us to make a decision that does not actually reflect our values or beliefs, an inauthentic decision, which Sartre describes as an act of ‘bad faith’. Not being authentically ourselves is an act of bad faith not just to ourselves but also to others, given that in not being ourselves, we are, in effect, presenting a false version of ourselves to them.
So, existentialism and all that it holds is with us in every moment of every day. Indeed, existentialism is simply a perspective and a philosophy on everyday living. However, it also forms the basis of an approach to ways of being, an approach to how we live our lives. The existential approach asks us to explore how our values and beliefs affect the relationality, uncertainty, and anxiety that make up our lives, and how they impact on the choices we make. It asks us to examine our values and the meaning we seek to gain from our lives and how we can make more authentic choices on a day-to-day basis, rather than falling foul of the bad faith that results from inauthenticity.
Existentialism provides us with perspectives and understandings through which we can better understand who we are, why we do what we do, and the reflections and actions required for us to live authentic, meaningful lives. Of course, at Wide Open Voices, we focus on how we lead, rather than our lives outside of work, but it is impossible to separate the two completely. There is an inevitability that our ways of being outside of the office are, in many ways, replicated in our ways of leading in the office. As such, existentialism has a relationship to leadership and also provides a perspective and an approach to develop a more authentic and meaningful way of leading.
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