THREE QUESTIONS FOLLOWERS WANT THEIR LEADERS TO ANSWER

… before they give them their full support

1. What will you model to me?

2. What is the destination?

3. How will you engage me?

1. What will you model to me?

Character

Integrity

Courage

Personal mastery

The 3 questions represent 3 areas of leadership

Leading self

Leading change Leading others

Character

Competence Charisma

Leadership principles

Leading self

Authenticity: A leader cannot help others unless he shares himself openly and honestly.

Passion: The leader does not only have to have a strong sense of responsibility, but passion for the cause.

Self-regard: Positive self-regard is necessary for a leader in order to accept criticism, learn from it and continue leading with confidence.

Character: Leadership involves many tests of courage, resilience and morality which makes strong character indispensable.

Self-awareness: Self-awareness opens the door to effective communication and the leader’s ability to relate to others.

Perseverance: Leadership disappears when we give up and emerges when we choose to persevere when others would have given up.

Life balance: To sustain his energy and ability to focus, and to set a credible example, a leader needs to have good balance between the different areas of his life.

Leadership principles

Leading change

Adaptability: Effective leadership is more a consequence of the leader’s ability to adapt well to changes than a consequence of his knowledge or experience.

Visionary thinking: The mental picture of a desired destination, big or small, sparks focused activities and worthwhile endeavours, which is why leaders’ first task is to imagine the ideal future.

Strategic thinking: With the vision or goal in mind, leaders accept responsibility for the most effective way to achieve the vision or goal.

Trend- and systems awareness: A big-picture view to spot trends early on and an understanding of the influences of systems and their relationships is needed for the strategic direction that the leader must give.

Cultural awareness: In an age of globalisation and culturally diverse workplaces, sensitivity for differences is critical to the leader’s success in mobilising people as a community.

Leadership principles

Leading others

Building relationships: Leadership is by definition action in the context of relationships. To ignore relationships contradicts leadership whereas building them enhances teamwork.

Being servant: By choosing to serve and not boss the team, the leader builds them up and collectively they grow to become better leaders in service of the organisation.

Building trust: By being honest, open and consistent and by showing the willingness to trust the team, the leader lays a strong team foundation for the good, but especially bad times.

Recognition: Leaders recognise people privately and publicly out of real appreciation for their contributions as well as personal qualities.

Inspiring hope: Nothing is as damaging to an organisation as the negative attitudes of its people. It is the leader’s uppermost responsibility to inspire hope and create a positive climate.

The need to shift our thinking

Strategy Culture

Head and hand Heart and soul

What and how Why and what for

Change of processes and tools

Change of heart and attitude

Expectations of leaders over time

Criteria and development focus

OLD CRITERIA AND DEVELOPMENT FOCUS

NEW CRITERIA AND DEVELOPMENT FOCUS

Knowledge

Experience

Strategic and tactical skills in position of power

Awareness

Inner work (reflection and self-challenge)

Context-sensitive leadership responses (use of inner wisdom)

Advocacy

Good for transactional environment

Questioning and shared learning

Needed for transformational environment

Societal changes

“Imagine the current race to dominate the world economy being transformed into a race for well-being … Perhaps in 15 years we will have just as many experts studying emotional well-being as we have economists today.”

From materialism and economic measurements to meaning and measuring of well-being

“People are both body and spirit. The spiritual aspect of humanity is coming back to us”

‘All businesspeople should ask: “What kind of emotional appeal, what kind of meaning, or which story are we selling? What dreams are we fulfilling?” The same applies to services... Anyone seeking success in the market of the future will have to be a storyteller.’

Deeper foundations for higher aspirations

“The blind spot in current leaders’ thought is that they know all about what leaders do and how they do it -but not know about the source level, that is, the inner place or the state of awareness from which leaders and social systems operate.”

- Otto Scharmer

Leadership is built on personal growth or else it is nothing but

position (power), ego-building, and tactics

Otto Scharmer – U Theory

Answering followers’ three questions

Can you show me the destination and how to get there?

Is your life an example of character, integrity, courage and personal mastery?

How am I to travel with you on this journey in a meaningful way?

The example of Mandela

Surely, if we recognise leadership excellence in the person of Nelson Mandela, we should endeavour to look for and grow the qualities

he lived and demonstrated. For organisations it is not a call to become more ‘touchy or

feely’, but to responsibly address the context within which business decisions are taken and

to ensure that these decisions accurately reflect the organisation’s heart, mind and soul,

be this in its strategy, finance, marketing, technology and corporate social values.