August 20, 2014
In one interpretation of [leadership][3], a leader is one who is constituted through others. That is to say, a leader does not exist outside of authority that is conferred through others. A leader is the result of relationships brought about by other people who share passion, inspiration and innovations.
An archaic business model includes people, humans, as “resources”, “personnel” to be shifted, procured, retired. In this system, in this organizational model, people are looked at as units of production and are treated in a mechanical fashion. In an organization, people are not just units of production; they are not systems. A leader recognizes this and understands that the “first and most important job is to take care of the people, to look after … the Team Mojo throughout the organization.” 1
A Leader Is Created
Simply being promoted to a leadership role does not make a leader. A leader is one who is willing to learn, one who has learned and is ready to make a shift. A leader is one who understands that the cultural organism of the organization, constituted by people, has blind spots. 2 The leader’s task is to identify blind spots, uncover hidden ones and get out the cultural inertia of the organization.
Once this has been identified, it is far easier to dress this mission up with balloons and new stationery and mottos than to actually do something about it. Ryan describes this process further by saying there is a “passion-performance-profitability” connection to the viability of a business and its leaders. If this is not understood, by the leaders of the organization, any further action will only support the old habits.
A leader knows and understands, perhaps innately, that awareness of existing workplace cultural artifacts is just the first step and that a new way of thinking, acting and speaking is necessary to move outside of the existing paradigm. Perhaps this is why leaders that are promoted for reasons of “productivity” may not necessarily do well in exhibiting leadership qualities that is expected.
A Leader Observes, Then Acts
Instead of revising existing actions, a leader embodies the understanding of being a new observer of the organization. A new observer will naturally have a new perspective and the ability to see new possibilities that were previously hidden, masked, blinded by the existing paradigm.
“Any task not methodically performed may go awry, though men in multitudes support it.” - Tirukkural Verse 468
Once new possibilities are seen, then the real work begins to unfold. Actions are taken which are meant to sustain the organization. These actions, may be implemented with vigor but if not mastered, will fail.
Mastery is the ability to repeatedly do, over and over again, with competency and ease the same actions. In short, mastery is equated with practice and leadership is the reflection of mastery as an art form. The leader learns from practice, getting feedback and tweaking.
This space and awareness is crucial to creating or destroying leadership qualities. If the mood of the organization, of the team is one of “been there, done that” this will cause the new initiatives to ultimately fail; this mood does NOT inspire learning. 2
Embodying Leadership
In this interpretation, leadership consists of qualities that are embodied. These qualities result from practice, and a mastery of these. Through practice, actions are coordinated, commitments are requested, commitments are offered within the organization and within the team.
This is a generative process and one that, upon successful completion of commitments, generates trust. Increased satisfaction with commitments leads to an increased level of trust which is then conferred to the individual (or individuals) by the team and organization. A leader emerges, naturally, as a result of the increased capacity of fulfilling commitments.
These actions, these practices are then transferred from the leader to the team and beyond. As I mentioned in the last article, “[a] [leader is the result and sum total of all previous conversations and commitments][3].” Through the practice of fulfilling commitments, leaders are generated.
Are you ready to generate effective leadership? I’d love to hear from you!
References
- Ryan, A. (2014). The Future of Work is Human. Retrieved from: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140603072331-52594-the-future-of-work-is-human
- Dunham, R. (2013). Leadership, Communication, Culture - Elevating Organizational Performance. Boulder, CO: Institute for Generative Leadership.
- Amirthalingam, T. (2014). Effective Leadership. Retrieved from: /effective-leadership