Working in uncertainty has become the new normal, but what do leaders have to draw upon when lacking the requisite knowledge? In this book, the authors make a case for Negative Capability, which enables leaders to work in a state of not knowing without simply reaching for old ideas or resorting to habitual behaviours. It is not a practice that can be measured, but its impact in leadership practice is immense and tangible. Offering fresh insights for leadership students, researchers, and practitioners on the challenges of working in uncertainty, the book offers a novel perspective on Negative Capability as a way of being. Each chapter explores an aspect of Negative Capability through the accounts of leaders and managers who had the courage to explore this way of being and share the stories about its powerful impact. Ultimately, this book explores how a practice of attention can lead to new ways of understanding the role of purpose, leisure, and passion in leadership practice.
Too many companies are managed not by leaders, but by mere role players and faceless bureaucrats. What does it take to be a real leader—one who is confident in who she is and what she stands for, and who truly inspires people to achieve extraordinary results? Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones argue that leaders don’t become great by aspiring to a list of universal character traits. Rather, effective leaders are authentic: they deploy individual strengths to engage followers’ hearts, minds, and souls. They are skillful at consistently being themselves, even as they alter their behaviors to respond effectively in changing contexts. In this lively and practical book, Goffee and Jones draw from extensive research to reveal how to hone and deploy one’s unique leadership assets while managing the inherent tensions at the heart of successful leadership: showing emotion and withholding it, getting close to followers while keeping distance, and maintaining individuality while “conforming enough.” Underscoring the social nature of leadership, the book also explores how leaders can remain attuned to the needs and expectations of followers. Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? will forever change how we view, develop, and practice the art of leadership, wherever we live and work.
Scenario planning is a long and well-established approach to help leaders create novel insights and challenge what they know of the world to influence future action. But as the world becomes increasingly unpredictable, leaders must question the traditional mode of analysing the contextual environment and adopt new capabilities to embrace change while they redefine and reframe their organisation for the future. The Evolution of Scenario Planning explores the pervasive nature of change. It provides a contemporary approach to using scenarios as strategic conversation to embrace experiences – past and present – to create novel understanding and insights. The book uses case studies and practical examples to guide facilitators in applying the scenario process in their organisation. Leaders, senior managers, consultants and academics will learn how to engage with scenarios as a central element of strategy and better understand their role in strategic leadership. They will also gain insight into the skills and capabilities revealed during the process of strategic conversation, where ambiguity and equivocality is a natural feature of such conversation. The Evolution of Scenario Planning makes a compelling case for using scenarios to enable leaders to develop foresight and attunement to grasp the ongoing dynamic of their uncertain and ambiguous world.
Why does it matter that our leaders care about us? What might we reasonably expect from a caring leader, and what price are we prepared to pay for it? Is caring leadership something ‘soft’, or can it be linked to strategy and delivery? International scholars from the fields of ancient and modern philosophy, psychology, organization studies and leadership development offer a strikingly original debate on what it means for leaders to care.
This book samples the groundbreaking work that has been developed over the last twenty-five years by psychoanalysts, writers and practitioners associated with the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO). What characterises this collection of original papers is an attempt to look at organizations, groups, teams and organizational role holders using psychoanalytic, systemic and psychodynamic perspectives that collectively eschew superficial, linear, prescriptive and mechanistic views of both the system and the individual within. These papers, delivered as presentations to the Society during the Annual Symposia of the ISPSO from its inception in 1983 to date, collectively form an important commentary on the changing societal dynamics and current preoccupations facing contemporary organizations, their leaders and their workforce. As such, these papers are representative of many that have contributed to, and documented, the development of the thought and praxis from a psychoanalytic perspective and systems thinking over the last quarter of century. Whilst most of these papers have already been published elsewhere, the ISPSO as an organization wished to include them in this volume, recognising their lasting influence and legacy as well as their ongoing impact upon the thinking and the practice of its membership and beyond.
Is your leadership a competitive advantage, or is it costing you? How do you know? Are you developing your leadership effectiveness at the pace of change? For most leaders today, complexity is outpacing their personal and collective development. Most leaders are in over their heads, whether they know it or not. The most successful organizations over time are the best led. While this has always been true, today escalating global complexity puts leadership effectiveness at a premium. Mastering Leadership involves developing the effectiveness of leaders—individually and collectively—and turning that leadership into a competitive advantage. This comprehensive roadmap for optimal leadership features: Breakthrough research that connects increased leadership effectiveness with enhanced business performance The first fully integrated Universal Model of Leadership—one that integrates the best theory and research in the fields of Leadership and Organizational Development over the last half century A free, online self-assessment of your leadership, using the Leadership Circle Profile, visibly outlining how you are currently leading and how to develop even greater effectiveness The five stages in the evolution of leadership—Egocentric, Reactive, Creative, Integral, and Unitive—along with the organizational structures and cultures that develop at each of these stages Six leadership practices for evolving your leadership capability at a faster pace A map of your optimal path to greater leadership effectiveness Case stories that facilitate pragmatic application of this Leadership Development System to your particular situation This timeless, authoritative text provides a systemic approach for developing your senior leaders and the leadership system of your organization. It does not recommend quick fixes, but argues that real development requires a strategic, long-term, and integrated approach in order to forge more effective leaders and enhanced business performance. Mastering Leadership offers a developmental pathway to bring forth the highest and best use of yourself, your life, and your leadership. By more meaningfully deploying all of who you are every day, individually and collectively, you will achieve a leadership legacy consistent with your highest aspirations.
Leader Work offers an accessible and engaging introduction to the power of reflection to support leaders in their development and professional practice. The book does not present a tick-box toolkit to being a better leader, instead it provides the prompts and deeper reflexive space for leaders to consider their own self-development. Written by a leading management researcher and consultant, the book draws on reflexive practice, but goes beyond this method to guide the reader on how to consider both inward and outward work, and provides useful suggestions for application. The inward work involves developing our knowledge of ourselves, our capabilities and our limitations through self-examination and connecting with others, and so building up our capacity for judgment, and gaining confidence in using intuition and imagination thoughtfully in situations of complexity and uncertainty. The outward work involves learning to express a leader identity that is both true to ourselves and recognized by relevant groups and the organizations in which we work, so that we are trusted to help navigate and narrate a path through uncertainty. This book has been written for leaders and would-be leaders looking to develop and shape their practice, as well as scholars studying and teaching leadership classes.
Action learning is one of the most prominent individual and organisational development approaches used in all parts of the world, including in over 70 member states of the United Nations. From its early beginnings in the 1970s, it has been adopted in private, public and third-sector organisations and has produced several variations. Used for leadership and management development, to support teamwork and problem-solving, and to encourage creative thinking, it can help to develop and enhance the learning capacity for individuals and organisations. Applied as a discrete activity focused on a priority need or on new or changed roles; as a linkage between more formal programs and the workplace or blended with other elements in a program, this book distils current and previous practice and theory to provide an up-to-date guide to action learning. The book will provide readers with an understanding of action learning, including the major elements, the choice of issues, the key skills, the role of the facilitator and applications organisation-wide. It will address such important aspects as how action learning can adapt to different national and regional cultures and how it can be evaluated. It will also offer a range of resources for further and deeper understanding.
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
A group is working on a business challenge. The group members are under pressure. They have a lot to accomplish and a limited amount of time. After first attempting to develop an overview of their common task, they try to make a plan to ensure an efficient group process. The planning is proving difficult. We’ve all been there. We are in a working group or at a meeting, discussing a topic or a challenge, and all the while, as a separate track running underneath our conversation, there is a subtext that no one explicitly addresses. This is an example of ‘the elephant in the room.’ Most of us notice the elephant, it gets in the way, and it’s difficult to deal with until someone points at it and says, ‘There it is, let’s take a look at it and reduce its impact.’ With an engaging use of examples and questions, the book addresses how we can best deal with the elephant and thus promote job satisfaction, creativity, and productivity. In the context of action, what we notice often recedes into the background and gradually slips out of focus until we eventually reconnect with our need to reflect and recreate a space for it. This book addresses the challenge of focusing on, holding on to, and acting on what we notice ‘in the middle of it all.’ Maintaining a simultaneous focus on task and process – what we do and what we notice – is what I define as ‘double awareness.’ Double awareness is not only a core capacity but also a core challenge. The aim of the book is to promote understanding and awareness of this core challenge and to inspire both reflection and action in anyone wishing to improve their capacity for double awareness. How can we define and understand the practice of mindful avoidance? And can we, as members of groups and organizations, begin to practice mindful action by engaging in and acting on what we notice, in real time?
