The question,
"What
is your notion of
leadership?"
was asked of
Ralph Kilmann (http://www.Kilmann.com),
author of the new book, "Quantum
Organizations",
by Russ Volckmann, editor of the
Integral
Leadership Review
(http://www.LeadCoach.com).
Here
is Kilmann's response:
Leadership, just to
put it in context, is one of the most discussed topics
in the last 100 years. There originally was a belief
that if we had a great leader, all our problems would
be solved. We still have that hero myth about leaders:
if you find the right leader with the right traits,
the right abilities, the right disposition, this will
save us. I think there still is that fantasy.
Based on my
understanding of the new paradigm, what if we embrace
what we know of reality through quantum physics,
cosmology, neuroscience and the evolution of
consciousness, and we take that all very seriously.
What does that say about the notion of leadership?
I come out two ways on
this. First, everyone can be a leader. There can be
shared leadership and servant leadership throughout
the organization. I am not perpetuating the myth that
this is one person on top who gives orders and the
rest are supposed to follow like a well-oiled machine.
That's the Newtonian model. Leadership is more about
adult responsibility in today's world and today's
quantum paradigm.
What is this person,
leader if you will, doing about his or her own
self-development? There seems to be a need for a
special responsibility to develop oneself. I can't be
a good role model. I can't impact other people
effectively. I can't help other people grow. I can't
be involved in creating functional and healthy systems
and processes if I don't know who I am and if I
haven't done my work in growing and evolving. So there
is a very inherent need for people, if we want to call
them leaders, to develop themselves because they are
in special situations, special roles where they can
touch upon the lives of others. My question for
leaders is what have you been doing about your own
development, growth, spiritual enlightenment and your
own sense of self. In other words, what work have you
done in developing your soul and developing your
spirit?
The second feature is
do leaders understand the nature of systems in today's
world? Do they understand infrastructures, systems and
processes? Or do they have an outdated worldview of
what is an organization and what is reality in today's
world? It's not enough just to develop yourself,
whether it's through meditation, therapy or
enlightenment. No, that is not enough! We also have to
understand the context, the environment of our world.
That means leaders have to know some of the things I
talked about earlier (in the interview): that there
are these hidden quantum waves in organizations that
have tremendous impact on what people see and what
people do. We need to help people participate in
self-designing and self-managing strategy, structure,
reward systems and all the processes and improvements,
if we are going to make full use of people as well as
providing opportunities for people to self-develop.
That's a two way street.
Organizations are for
products and services. But organizations are also the
setting where adults spend their lives and therefore
are fertile ground for helping people to continue
growing and developing, knowing their true essence and
expressing their true essence in everything they do.
To what extent have our leaders been trained to be
aware of the complexities of organization? Are they
just equipped to deal with marketing, finance or
accounting? To what extent are they aware of systems,
processes and infrastructure? Are they in touch with
the way reality has unfolded?
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Albert Einstein
once said, "We should take care not to make the
intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles
but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only
serve."
Leaders know and
science has discovered emotionality's deeper purpose:
the timeworn mechanisms of emotion allow two human
beings to receive the contents of each other's minds.
Emotion is the messenger of love; it is the vehicle
that carries every signal from one brimming heart to
another.
Leadership
happens in a series of interactive
conversations
that pull people toward becoming comfortable with
the language of personal responsibility and
commitment.
That is why
leadership development is not an event. It is a
process of participating in respectful conversations
where the leader recognizes his or her own feelings
and those of others in building safe and trusting
relationships.
For human beings,
feeling deeply is synonymous with being
alive.
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As leaders, we must hold ourselves to a higher
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