In our last issue we said that we’d begin to review how leading thinkers today are re-looking at the concept of leadership. As you consider your own models of leadership and some of the thinking that has influenced you thus far, here are some thoughts for your consideration:
“Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself as the empowerment of others,” and the idea that “the leader controls, directs, prods, manipulates is perhaps the most damaging myth of all. The leader must be willing and able to set up reliable mechanisms of feedback so that he cannot only conceptualize the social territory of which he is an important part, but realize how he influences it.” (see Concept Cafe below)

– Bennis, Nanus and Slater (as quoted in The Future of Leadership, Jossey-Bass Pg 111)

“One line I liked summed up what I thought about leadership: ‘The people with whom I have been associated have worked harder, enjoyed it more, although not always initially, and in the end, gained increased self-respect and self-confidence from accomplishing more than they previously thought possible.'”

– Jack Welch (Jack pg 84)

“Yet it is not enough for leaders at the top to forget themselves in their function. That delight, that sense of vocation or passion, must be possible right through the organization. That requires space, space to express oneself in one’s work, space to experiment, space to fail – and enough space to correct the failures before too much damage is done or too many people notice. It won’t be possible to create those spaces in an excessively tidy organization. Elephants have to be loose-limbed if there is to be room for fleas other than at the top.”

– Charles Handy (A world of Fleas and Elephants)

“Leadership is defined as anyone who wants to help at the time.”

– Margaret Wheatley (while in South Africa during November 2001)

The conventional view of leadership emphasizes positional power and conspicuous accomplishment. But true leadership is about creating a domain in which we continually learn and become more capable of participating in our unfolding future. A true leader thus sets the stage on which predictable miracles, synchronistic in nature, can-and do-occur.

The capacity to discover and participate in our unfolding future has more to do with our being-our total orientation of character and consciousness-than with what we do. Leadership is about creating, day by day, a domain in which we and those around us continually deepen our understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future. This, then, is the deeper territory of leadership-collectively ‘listening’ to what is wanting to emerge in the world, and then having the courage to do what is required.”

– Joseph Jaworski (Synchronicity)In our last issue we said that we’d begin to review how leading thinkers today are re-looking at the concept of leadership. As you consider your own models of leadership and some of the thinking that has influenced you thus far, here are some thoughts for your consideration:

“Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself as the empowerment of others,” and the idea that “the leader controls, directs, prods, manipulates‌ is perhaps the most damaging myth of all. The leader must be willing and able to set up reliable mechanisms of feedback so that he cannot only conceptualize the social territory of which he is an important part, but realize how he influences it.” (see Concept Caf� below)

– Bennis, Nanus and Slater (as quoted in The Future of Leadership, Jossey-Bass Pg 111)

“One line I liked summed up what I thought about leadership: ‘The people with whom I have been associated have worked harder, enjoyed it more, although not always initially, and in the end, gained increased self-respect and self-confidence from accomplishing more than they previously thought possible.'”

– Jack Welch (Jack pg 84)

“Yet it is not enough for leaders at the top to forget themselves in their function. That delight, that sense of vocation or passion, must be possible right through the organization. That requires space, space to express oneself in one’s work, space to experiment, space to fail – and enough space to correct the failures before too much damage is done or too many people notice. It won’t be possible to create those spaces in an excessively tidy organization. Elephants have to be loose-limbed if there is to be room for fleas other than at the top.”

– Charles Handy (A world of Fleas and Elephants)

“Leadership is defined as anyone who wants to help at the time.”

– Margaret Wheatley (while in South Africa during November 2001)

The conventional view of leadership emphasizes positional power and conspicuous accomplishment. But true leadership is about creating a domain in which we continually learn and become more capable of participating in our unfolding future. A true leader thus sets the stage on which predictable miracles, synchronistic in nature, can-and do-occur.

The capacity to discover and participate in our unfolding future has more to do with our being-our total orientation of character and consciousness-than with what we do. Leadership is about creating, day by day, a domain in which we and those around us continually deepen our understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future. This, then, is the deeper territory of leadership-collectively ‘listening’ to what is wanting to emerge in the world, and then having the courage to do what is required.”

– Joseph Jaworski (Synchronicity)

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