Leadership is in crisis the world over ~ 3
The world today has all the hallmarks of living through an International Conflict, and when we emerge on the other side, we’ll not simply find a new normal, we will be living in a new era; never have leadership skills been in greater demand, and yet seemingly in such short supply.
Effective Leadership can be defined as seeing beyond the horizon, plotting a course to get there, and inspiring people to 'want-to' go there with you. So, what can we see as we start to look beyond the horizon? This is my third post exploring this topic, and here are some more thoughts.
Leadership is in crisis the world over ~ 2
It seems that increasingly, people are taking up the option to stay with remote working, at least for a few days a week, since they have been able to redeem the time spent commuting for other activities, and many people are reluctant to give that up. For example, here’s a graphic for the UK from iNews showing time spent in the workplace and public transport usage.
Leadership is in crisis the world over ~ 1
As in all periods of large-scale conflict, technology has accelerated at an enormous rate. We've probably seen a generation's worth of change happen in just a couple of years, especially in terms of communication via zoom and teams. No longer do we all have to meet in the same physical space; now a 1-hour meeting takes ... 1 hour.
I have a regular 3-hour board meeting with people from around the country, and it used to be a very long day with 6 hours of travel included to get to the meeting and back. Now it takes 3 hours in total, and I get the rest of the day to do something else.
In this blog post, I want to explore some of the hallmarks of the world we’re living in today and then look at the implications in a subsequent blog post.
Seeing Beyond The Horizon
I recently listened to one of my favourite leadership voices, and I was reminded of one of his recent messages. John Maxwell was introducing the second publication of one of his earliest and most widely purchased books "Developing the Leaders within you 2.0" when he spent a few moments talking on the two themes - that effective leaders see more than others see, and they see before others see.
“A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do.”
~ Leroy Eims
GLN conversation – Faith matters
Over the years I had become increasingly interested in leadership. I had discovered many of the books written by a leadership expert named John C Maxwell, and I found the Global Leadership Summit. I became an avid reader of Johns books, attended many of the GLS events held at a venue near me in Stafford, England
GLN conversation – Confidence
One approach would be to find out what does a person want enough that they are prepared to fail, to get there. Then I would want to make sure that to build a confidence culture that they had a safe, well-informed place to fail.
GLN conversation – Communication
Having a common language for personality, for motivation, for IQ and emotional intelligence can really help us to understand what's going on around us in a team environment, and to see the other people and the things they do through their eyes, to understand their intentions in the light of their experience, and to understand the things that motivate them and inspire them to succeed.
GLN conversation – What does success look like?
The overall objective of the business may be to make widgets profitably or to provide a great service and make a meaningful difference in some way for your clients. To have a thematic goal makes it possible for the team to come together around a particular aspect of that objective for a season. Here, successful leadership is about "intentional alignment in terms of results".
GLN conversation – Navigating the Leadership Journey
Accountability for leadership development commitments is most effective when there is detail to the development actions. Some people use Objectives and Indicators of Success, others use Objectives and Key Results. I use a methodology based on identifying the "Next Exciting Win", doing something NEW.
GLN conversation – Calling, Passion and Purpose
In the 15 invaluable laws of growth by John Maxwell, the second chapter is called "The Law of Awareness", and states: "You must know yourself to grow yourself". The key question in that chapter is "How to find your passion and purpose" and is a great read in the context of this question. It takes the reader through the journey to explore what would you like to do and asks the question: "Can you do what you would like to do?".