The Harvard Business Review’s Breakthrough Ideas for 2006, provides a list of breakthrough ideas for 2006. One of the breakthrough ideas that stood out to me, is the breakthrough idea from Howard Gardner, titled “The Synthesizing Leader”, Howard states that:
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann once said to me that he thought the most valued personal trait in the twenty-first century would be a facility for synthesizing information. Increasingly, I am convinced he was correct. The ability to decide what information to heed, what to ignore, and how to organize and communicate that which we judge to be important is becoming a core competence for those living in the developed world. The skill of synthesis is particularly crucial for leaders.
I agree, making sense of context, is an important leadership competence. I recently read good description of this, described by John Maxwell from a post in the Student.Inc Blog….
“In all their relationships, effective leaders enlighten others because they can make sense of experience. They also learn from their mistakes and their successes, and – as they seek out a range of experts across their wide constituency – they ask questions and listen.
What’s more, these leaders are able to deal with the complexity of business life and help those around them make sense of it. They do this by keeping things simple and making information accessible. This way, these leaders help individuals understand what’s going on so that they are better able to achieve success. As one leader put it, “There’s so much happening that affects our work. I make sure, at each meeting, that we understand all the important factors and ensure that the next steps are clearly laid out.”
This skill of sense-making, is emerging as an important leadership competence, and as Howard Gardner points out it will become increasingly important. In this new economy, the context of business is growing increasingly complex, the volume of information is increasing and the time to respond is rapidly reducing. The new economy places increased pressure on leaders, as constituents are increasingly looking to leaders for direction in these times of uncertainty. The skill of sense-making helps leaders make contextual decisions and allows for rapid decision-making, increasing an organisation’s responsiveness. As a leader, how competent are you at making sense of the business context? or Is this a skill you need to focus on developing in the years ahead? Personally, sense-making is a skill that I have on my development plan, and I’ll be actively developing this skill over the next two or three years. I will be posting entries on what I’ve learnt from time to time.
Related Post:
Leaders Are Masters of Their Context
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Personal Leadership, Team Leadership, Decision-making, Thinking, Experience, Management, Sense-making
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