The last thing I have noticed about successful cultural leaders is that they integrate their focus on achievement and the importance of relationships. I have struggled on how to explain this perspective.
Recently, I was in a church adult education class when it came together. We were discussing an article about why the world needs faith at this time period when the author of the article referenced the phrase, “called to be”. It was a blinding flash of the obvious, quoting an old Tom Peters term. The best cultural leaders leader I have met feel that they are “called” to be a leader. It is not “called to do”, but instead “called to be” a leader.
When we seek to integrate achievement and connection, we must come to understand that being a cultural leader is an invitation to walk with others through the land of ambiguity, uncertainty, and paradox. On good days and challenging days, we may walk through the trough of chaos, a sideways cyclone or the pit of despair, recognizing that we live in is a world that loves certainty.
Furthermore, being a cultural leader means that we have to understand that knowledge is a beginning. In reality, it is a continuous beginning and constantly changing. For these kind of unique leaders, it is a foundation for ongoing learning. They understand what Mark Twain was saying when he wrote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
These same successful cultural leaders understand that being a cultural leader requires you to constantly build networks and coalitions of affiliation, rather than hierarchies of power and inequality. They understand that there is positional/functional hierarchies; people do report to people within an organization. But the best leaders do not promote personal hierarchies, i.e. “I am better than you.” Instead, they recognize functional hierarchies but always default to personal equality .
To become this kind of integrating cultural leader, I think it takes four specific skill sets. The first is the ability to attune to others. Think of the image of tuning a radio to get the right station. These leaders help themselves and others to be more aware of context, strategic intent, goals and communication. This helps them bring things and themselves into harmony with the strategic nexus.
The second skill set is discernment. Routinely, we must walk with intentionality through the land of uncertainty, ambiguity and paradox. We must have a baseline tolerance for ambiguity, and we can not get caught in binary thinking. The world of leadership is more than yes or no. Instead these successful leader display four way thinking, namely yes, no, yes but no, and neither yes or no is acceptable. As one of my Kitchen Table Cabinet people said to me about discernment: “consult your scars; consult the stars.”
The third skill set is listening. These leaders listen with their head, their heart and their gut. They start with the premise that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have and what they understand. They listen carefully to the words and they listen to the “music” under the words, i.e. the tone and tenor of the conversation. They even listen to the silence. But most of all, they listen to the wholeness of the dialogue.
The fourth skill set is translation. Successful cultural leaders understand that everyone has their “defaults”. Therefore, they are constantly translating information and action so others and themselves can become more aware and ultimately understand.
When we proactively choose to attune, discern, listen and translate, something important happens, namely an inner transformation of perspective and an outward action that reflects this inner translation. We must continually focus on improving our ability to do the above four skills sets. It will help our people and the organization as a whole during the coming years.
No comments:
Post a Comment