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‘Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves’ – Carl Jung
Looking at things through a different lens can often help us see a situation differently and learn. This was exactly what struck me when I came across this quote recently… except the lens in this case is more like a mirror – so we can understand ourselves and our impact on others a little more.…
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Leadership in the age of complexity… an interesting article
Leadership in the age of complexity… an interesting articleThis is an interesting article on the transition from Heroic Leadership to Leadership as a ‘Hosting’ activity. As the article describes, Heroic Leadership relies on the assumption that someone can be in control which is impossible in this age of inter-connectedness.
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Experimentation
I wrote in a previous post about the benefits of experimentation to open up our minds to possibilities. I heard today of a cookery book which intersperses QR codes along the way so you can link into a video clip using your phone, iPad etc.. I love it! Such ideas come about through experimentation, making…
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Fail Harder!
A key part of leadership is taking risks. Albert Eintstein defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. If we care deeply about something we will take a risk. If we have an illness and take the decision to take a drug that has potentially serious side-affects, we…
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Acknowledging our part of the mess!
Facing up to an adaptive challenge requires us to put the problem at the centre, depersonalise it and then look at the various the various stakeholders and where they sit in relation to the problem. That all sounds very logical and depersonalised, however it gets interesting when we look at the part that we ourselves…
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What is Adaptive Leadership?
Adaptive Leadership is ‘the practice of mobilising people to tackle tough challenges and thrive’ (source: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership; Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky). The ‘tough’ challenges referred to are adaptive challenges… challenges which have unclear definitions and unclear solutions. New ground is being covered and there are no obvious solutions to the challenge at hand.…
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Harvard – The Art and Practice of Adaptive Leadership – A Debrief
‘Where do we begin?’. The week started with a question and ended with many, which was very appropriate considering we were there to learn how to tackle leadership development in the face of adaptive challenges. We were a class of 62 from 20 different counties and 5 different continents. We were in a leadership laboratory where we…
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A leadership challenge with a difference
This is an incredible story by the Center of Creative Leadership. It paints the picture of how a Swedish Executive, Ingar Skaug, took on the CEO role at Scandinavian Air after the top two layers of management had been wiped out by a plane crash. From Grief to Growth
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Leadership and Lifelong Learning
I have just finished reading John Kotter’s book ‘Leading Change’. After finishing the book, I went back to the start to see when it was written and was amazed to see the year 1996 mentioned. Many business books are written and remain relevant for a year… this one is as relevant now as it was…
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Learning Agility
A few months back I wrote an article about the value ‘stretch assignments’ in developing our leadership capabilities. An article in the recent CIPD magazine (People Management) entitled Deepening the talent pool through learning agility struck a chord with me along the same vein. It speaks of learning agility (our ability to learn and adapt to new situations) as…
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