Greetings!
Greetings! Like most of the country, we had a mild winter here in Central Virginia, although a forecasted dusting of snow turned into six inches last week. The coming of spring seems a little anti-climatic after such a mild winter. It doesn't feel like much of a change. However, great changes are still taking place.
How can we influence change in our organizations in a way that doesn't feel so sudden or abrupt to our colleagues? For some, the very thought of change brings about fears and doubts. In many ways, it is "easier" to deal with what we know than the unknown.
Use this spring season to think about the change you want to see in your organization and think about how to bring about that change in a way that seems like the transition from a mild winter.
Take care!
Cathy Pales
 
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| Rapidly Changing Challenges - Are You Ready? | |
Nicholas Petrie, a senior faculty member with the Center for Creative Leadership, took an entire year to study future trends in leadership development. What was his main conclusion? "It seemed that the nature of the challenges that managers were facing were rapidly changing; however, the methods that we were using to develop them were staying the same.". In his white paper, he argues that our reliance on competency development is necessary, but not sufficient for preparing leaders for the future. He calls on us to emphasize cognitive development. Basically, how we view ourselves and our world needs to expand. You have a water glass - competency development fills up your glass; cognitive development makes your glass bigger.
In previous newsletter articles, I have written about the adult stages of leadership development. As a leader moves from an early stage to a later stage, their thinking expands. It becomes easier for leaders to see connections among seemingly unrelated issues. They are able to form collaborative agreements. They view their organization as a part of a larger system rather than as a stand alone entity. Their "I" becomes "we". "My" vision and goals become "our" vision and goals.
So how can we cognitively develop our leaders? By taking the time ask powerful questions and challenging long held assumptions over a period of time. It's asking each other questions such as:
What stories do we want to re-write?
What assumptions do we hold that may not be true?
What is another way we can look at this issue?
Who can we involve that will give us another perspective?
What is stopping us from changing?
What small shifts in our thinking can help us see things differently?
I often talk with folks about shifting from a problem-solving point of view to a possibility-seeking point of view. Shifting from asking "What's not working and how do we fix it?" to asking "What's working and how do we build on our success?" is a big change in thinking for most of us, but is a way of supporting cognitive development. Possibility thinking makes the water glass bigger.
Read Mr. Petrie's entire white paper here. |
| Must See TED Video - The Power of Vulnerability | |
Watch the video
Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame.
In this video, Dr. Brown discusses the importance of humans making connections with others, but how our fear of being vulnerable gets in the way. What does this have to do with leadership? Relationships are at the heart of leadership - effective leaders make connections with others. They also have the courage to be creative, which often is met with rejection. As Dr. Brown states in the video, it is necessary to embrace vulnerability - it is the birthplace of joy, creativity and love.
Enjoy! |
