I found some interesting thoughts on leadership in the article “Do you have the will to lead?“. These some thoughts on leadership are from Peter Koestenbaum, a classically trained philosopher with degrees in philosophy, physics, and theology from Stanford, Harvard, and Boston University.
Make Time for Conversations that Matter
“There’s a terrible defect at the core of how we think about people and organizations today. There is little or no tolerance for the kinds of character-building conversations that pave the way for meaningful change. The average person is stuck, lost, riveted by the objective domain.”
I like the phrase “character building conversations“, how often to we talk past one another or leave things unsaid for the sake of peace? The net result is the “illusion of conversation”, as we all nod and talk past on another. Leaders must take the responsibility to actively engage in character building conversations with their people. Too often leaders remain separate from their constituents in theory offices and rarely engage in conversations that matter…..
Leadership as Competence and Authenticity
“Think of leadership as the sum of two vectors: competence (your specialty, your skills, your know-how) and authenticity (your identity, your character, your attitude). When companies and people get stuck, they tend to apply more steam — more competence — to what got them into trouble in the first place: “If I try harder, I’ll be successful,” or “If we exert more control, we’ll get the results we need.” The problem is, when you’re stuck, you’re not likely to make progress by using competence as your tool. Instead, progress requires commitment to two things. First, you need to dedicate yourself to understanding yourself better — in the philosophical sense of understanding what it means to exist as a human being in the world. Second, you need to change your habits of thought: how you think, what you value, how you work, how you connect with people, how you learn, what you expect from life, and how you manage frustration. Changing those habits means changing your way of being intelligent. It means moving from a nonleadership mind to a leadership mind.”
Leadership Means Dealing with Paradox
“I believe that the central leadership attribute is the ability to manage polarity. In every aspect of life, polarities are inevitable: We want to live, yet we must die. How can I devote myself fully to both family and career? Am I a boss or a friend? A lover or a judge? How do I reconcile my own needs with those of my team? Those paradoxes are simply part of life…… Managing polarity teaches us that there are no solutions — there are only changes of attitude.”
This is an important insight, leadership is a paradox. As leaders we need to develop the ability to deal with paradox. The insight, that a change in attitude can help us deal with paradox is interesting. I have experienced this in many situations, and leaders need to consciously manage their attitude by changing the perspective from which they view the problem or situation. If you change your perspective you can often shift your attitude and thereby embrace BOTH dimensions and find a way to move forward.
Vision, Reality, Ethics and Courage
“The best leaders operate in four dimensions: vision, reality, ethics, and courage. These are the four intelligences, the four forms of perceiving, the languages for communicating that are required to achieve meaningful, sustained results. The visionary leader thinks big, thinks new, thinks ahead — and, most important, is in touch with the deep structure of human consciousness and creative potential. Reality is the polar opposite of vision. The leader as realist follows this motto: Face reality as it is, not as you wish it to be. The realist grapples with hard, factual, daily, and numeric parameters. A master in the art of the possible, the realist has no illusions, sees limits, and has no patience for speculation….Ethics refers to the basic human values of integrity, love, and meaning. This dimension represents a higher level of development, one ruled not by fear or pleasure but by principle. Courage is the realm of the will; it involves the capacity to make things happen. The philosophic roots of this dimension lie in fully understanding the centrality of free will in human affairs. Courage involves both advocacy — the ability to take a stand — and the internalization of personal responsibility and accountability.”
Self-Limitation
“One of the gravest problems in life is self-limitation: We create defense mechanisms to protect us from the anxiety that comes with freedom. We refuse to fulfill our potential. We live only marginally. This was Freud’s definition of psychoneurosis: We limit how we live so that we can limit the amount of anxiety that we experience. We end up tranquilizing many of life’s functions. We shut down the centers of entrepreneurial and creative thinking; in effect, we halt progress and growth. But no significant decision — personal or organizational — has ever been undertaken without being attended by an existential crisis, or without a commitment to wade through anxiety, uncertainty, and guilt…. That’s what we mean by transformation. You can’t just change how you think or the way that you act — you must change the way that you will. You must gain control over the patterns that govern your mind: your worldview, your beliefs about what you deserve and about what’s possible. That’s the zone of fundamental change, strength, and energy — and the true meaning of courage.”
This insight really impacted me, leadership requires growth, growth requires transformation and transformation requires that we’re constantly out of our comfort zone! We want to be busy, but busy with purpose. At the end of the day you need to consider, “Are you’re bigger than the job, or is the job bigger than you?” The place you want to be is in a job that is bigger than you.
Technorati Tags: Philosophy, Leadership, Personal Leadership, Personal Development, Character, Paradox, Vision, Transformation
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