Articles
These short articles I wrote at various times in my life. Once I had completed my Masters in Leadership from Royal Roads University I was inspired to share some of my thoughts. Some of these articles were shared broadly others in small ways to selected people. Please enjoy and I hope a few of the words will give you pause for reflection, surprise you, help you through a difficult time, or help you remember that when we are vulnerable we open ourselves to more learning and greater opportunities.
Clear Thinking
What is clear thinking? Sometimes things seem confused, muddy, grey, complex, obtuse, and we often say "it depends". How can we find space so that our thinking can become more clear when we are constantly bombarded with information, when our time is overfull, when everyone wants a piece of us, and when we just cant think clearly. What happens when our thinking is not clear? We start to make poor decisions. Poor decisions as a leader can derail your career; lose the respect of colleagues or your team. When we can't clearly see or think we often grab at things or just try to keep juggling and so our decisions are not based on solid, analytical, value-based reasoning or strong values. Leaders need space and time to think, time to reflect and ensure they have all the information they need to make a right decision. As a leader you have a responsibility to ask for this time or space, to create it for yourself so that your decisions are based on clear thinking. Sometimes you only need a few minutes- take them, you will respect yourself for creating your own thinking space. ​
Competition and Collaboration
How can I be different? How can my work be unique? What marketing technique will let me stand out? What can I do to catch someone's attention? How can I be noticed in the world? Do we all want the same thing? In many ways, yes. We seek this differentiation to tell us and others we not the same, we have something better, something more valuable to offer. We compete in sports, business, relationships, education. We award excellence. Do we reward teamwork the same way? How do we see sustainable leadership? What if we collaborated. What if we looked for the commonness. What if we tried to find the same. What if we all pooled our resources to help each other. What if we tried to connect in our sameness. What if we actually joined together to save our planet- for the good of us all. Is this an impossible dream? Is it against human nature? Of course not. It is our choice to compete and differentiate OR to collaborate and live in wholeness. Leaders today can merge. Leaders today can share leadership. Leaders today can bring together the challenges, the resources, the issues and the needs. Leaders can make a difference in the world. Leadership begins with you. Challenge yourself to be a sustainable relationship leader.
Creating New Ideas
We often come up with ideas that we don't always follow through on. Sometimes we don't have time or space in our lives. Sometimes we think they are too big, or that someone else has already done it. Surprise! Ideas come to us in flashes, with intuition, and sometimes they arrive to several people at once in the quiet space of our minds. One of my ideas, Tri-namics Coaching Triangle System I did bring to life. When an idea flashes by you that you think is really good it is time to examine your leadership initiative. If you simply can not follow up then consider passing on the idea to someone who can. It is like a "pay it forward" or "random act of kindness" in a different way.
Humble Leadership
Humble leadership is similar to servant leadership. It swells with generosity, with a sense of using every opportunity to promote, display and encourage the leadership of others before self. Â When leaders demonstrate sincere generosity and deep caring in their actions they are living humble leadership. Observe, notice, recognize and practice humbleness in yourself and others- these days we could all use more of it.
Intuitive Thoughts
Wow! I have an idea and in it pops. When we tap into our intuition and things "pop" we tend to surprise and delight ourselves. They also seem to come to us when we have stopped thinking so hard, stopped trying to create, stopped trying to fill up every moment with our thoughts. There is an openness or space or void that is more empty when intuition comes. Sometimes thinking about diverse ideas or concepts that are not directly linked also brings intuition to us. The disconnected yet interconnected allows for creation. Maybe this tells us that all things are connected somehow. We need to allow for intuition, to foster it and to create the space for it to happen. Some are able to tap into their intuition easily and naturally. For others it is much more challenging to find. However we all need to trust our intuition as it is really an amazing way of not only getting new ideas but really gathering information from the world around us. Tri-namics Coaching Triangle System began as an intuitive thought when I was having a shower one day. Noticing how people solve problems, who they go to, how they create for themselves in an organization small places of refuge, small informal groups, places to create. It was born in a flash and I took this idea and created a full system that helps organizations tap into their own intellectual capital. Using our intuition means really grabbing those fleeting thoughts and doing something valuable with them. See more about Tri-namics in my Books on this site.
Leadership Development Strategies
What strategies work? What strategies should organizations use to develop leadership? One of the best questions I have heard is leadership for what? Leadership of field staff, project teams, departments, large business units, or the whole organization? Different strategies need to be developed based on expectations of leaders, on skills required, based on opportunities. One strategy on leadership development simply will not work at multiple levels of an organization. Leadership development requires multiple strategies and needs to be linked strategically with the business strategy. What are some examples of leadership strategies? ​​ Rotating leaders through development positions every 3 years to broaden experience Funding 5 people to attend executive education programs every year to keep management knowledge current Hiring 20%of new management positions so that we bring in new ideas Reviewing succession planning and leadership development activities to ensure alignment with business strategy Providing all first line managers with a basic leadership course Requiring all managers to report on the development coaching of their direct reports Supporting two action learning teams per year Fostering a coaching culture by using peer coaching as well as one on one coaching to that employees are supported in their development needs These kinds of strategies, and the resulting execution, need to be customized for each organization to ensure that the right leadership development is created. What is good for one is not always a "best practice" for another organization. Do you need a little help with your leadership development strategy? First look to your business strategy, then align it to what you need your people to do as leaders. This will point you in the right direction to manage your talent effectively and ensure the leadership development activities you support will give you the outcomes you desire.
“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up”
– Pablo Picasso
Opportunities Galore
Leaders see opportunities easily. So easily in fact, that they often do not see problems. They are able to switch thinking so quickly when faced with what one person may see as a problem to see it as an opportunity for growth, learning, or change. A question to ask yourself when problems crop up in your life is. "What is the opportunity in this?" As we begin to see more opportunities our thinking itself shifts as does our conversation. We find ourselves speaking differently and notice that we start then to even see other's problems as opportunities. Before you can even comprehend this you begin to seek out "problems" that others are having to help them see the opportunities that abound. When a leader is able to encourage and influence those around him to see opportunities, to embrace them, to get excited about the possibilities there is hope. Hope that as we all see opportunity in things around us that we are focusing on context, on environment, on relationship which is the white space surrounding the situation. This ensures that we see the broader whole of a system. Leaders who can see systems enable systemic change which transforms and improves our world. "What eyes do you choose to see with?"
Transition
During times of unrest, change, confusion, disruption, unease or the unknown we often say we are 'in transition." It gives us comfort to say this as we help ourselves understand that what we feel and experience is not a permanent state. The space that is freed up is a gift. Be it space to think, space to breathe, space to be different, space to question or simply space to be quiet. I am in transition. I relish every moment of this. It allows for reflection. It allows for reconnection with the many people I am often too busy to communicate with. It allows for redefining what is important. It allows me to write, to create, to reinvent, and to experiment. Why we lose or do not recognize these abilities or opportunities when we are not in transition is something to ponder. What is it about routine that makes us so focused we feel like we are a horse wearing blinders? What is it that we are doing in our small world that keeps us from branching out in many directions and exploring possibilities? When we experience change why do we often hear the term ' I feel like a whole new world has opened up for me?' Is it because we are open, because we have heightened our senses, because we have reconnected and look for synchronicity and intuition to help us find our new path? My transition time now provides an incredible warmth. I feel connected to humanity in a new way. I look forward in some ways to "landing" somewhere to refocus my energy and in other ways would love to stay in transition awhile. Perhaps I will try to carry my transitional spirit with me, it may make me a better leader. ​ ​If you really think about it we are constantly in a state of transition every day. It is only an illusion that we are permanently in one place or space.