I hope you have enjoyed this overview of the seven capacities of leadership. And while I cannot tell you they are "right", I can tell you they are my current truth and I have given it my all to enable you and me to both glimpse them. Before we leave them, I'd like to condense why we need them and how you can develop them.
Why You Need the Seven Capacities of Leadership
"The human race is at a unique turning point. Will we chose to create the best of all possible worlds?" That is what the cover of the September 2005 Special Issue of Scientific American entitled Crossroads for Plant Earth said. In it, international scientists, lots of them, reached the conclusion that we--all of humanity--face a perfect storm of sorts.
We are facing so many interrelated issues, any one of which could be catastrophic and many of which are probable, that we will be forced to change. That's the turning point--for humans to face external conditions of such a magnitude that we will be forced to change. Up to this point, human beings have done the forcing. That era is winding down.
What I enjoy about the work these international scientists did is they chose to look at it from the positive--they chose to show that we have a choice. That is so true, and it is so powerful. I don't believe an Armageddon is necessarily imminent. I believe an awakening is. And, given that the sum total of our individual actions as human beings has brought us to this point, I believe the sum total of a set of new actions can lead us not just out of it, but to a higher place.
To reverse what we have 'create' will require such a breakthrough that we will not return to the way we were--we'll slingshot far past it. And that makes sense. The purpose of life is not to solve the problem of unconsciousness and the imbalance that creates. The purpose of life is to evolve. So all real problems addressed in a balanced and sustainable way will result in the evolution of consciousness.
And then there is the Responsibility Revolution. Heard of it? It is headed your way. In fact, it is here.
A growing number of people--including the people who are coming to work for you and who are buying services like yours--are waking up. In the 60's, we had the "Me" generation; in the 70's the "Us" generation; in the 80's and 90's the "Them" generation was born.
The "Them" generation includes everyone who is thinking inclusively, who are unshaken in economic up's and down's because they believe there will be enough if we cooperate and collaborate together. They are becoming a force in the market place. Heard of mutual funds called SRI's (socially responsible investments)? There is now over $2 trillion in them, twice what it took to fund the dot com boom.
Best-selling author Tim Sanders, a Silicon Valley thinker and the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo during Yahoo's ascent, says that if you are not socially responsible you will be upended by others who are. He predicts billion dollar companies will fall to smaller niche firms IF the billion dollar companies cannot find the heart in becoming socially responsible.
The new wave of workers marching forward are looking for socially responsible companies, and the best and the brightest will be the most demanding. Seventy-eight percent of the young people you have not hired yet say that working for a socially responsible company that uplifts everyone in the companies footprint is more important to them than money.
Such a paradigm shift--from profit to impact and significance--will be a leadership challenge... and unprecedented opportunity.
So you can focus on the negative (change is coming at an unprecedented rate whether we like it or not) or the positive (enough humanity is waking up to see that radical change is required and will demand that the businesses they work for and buy from lead the way). Whichever your perspective, the change is for the greater good. Imbalances will be resolved. And you can lead the way. Leaders who fail to align with and surf these waves of change will be left standing on the shore.
Where does leadership come in?
While it is true that every individual must wake up, leaders will be needed to coordinate the efforts of change. But the old form of leadership isn't going to get it done. After all, that old form of leadership is what was in effect during the period the led up to this point. That same leadership will not suffice at this turning point. That same leadership will neither lead us to make the new choices, nor will it enable us to see the solutions required, nor will it provide the required speed.
The new form leadership will have remarkably different characteristics. I will not attempt to recount all those distinctions here (yet I will soon). But one thing I will say about it is that the old form of leadership was for an individual leader to, through a command-and-control mindset agreed to by a group, coordinate the activities of a group individuals. The goal, if you will, was set by the leader. The leader enlisted people to assist in achieving it. And the leader controlled the process of the activities required to do so.
The new form of leadership will become secondarily about coordinating activity and primarily about serving to help activate group consciousness--the collective intelligence--of entire groups of people and then interacting working with the group to channel that energy in socially responsible ways. A whole new arena of leadership, called transformational leadership, is coming into being now. I will provide you with some resources about the group consciousness/collective intelligence that is arising now.
So why do you need the seven capacities of leadership? Because those are the capacities of the new form of leadership that is arising. Are they complete? No. They are incomplete for two reasons. First, I have not completed the transformation of my self into that new form of leader. In fact, I've just begun.
Second, we won't actually know what that new form looks like until it gets here. But that is too late to start working on it. So we have to start from somewhere. And developing these seven capacities is the point from which I am starting. Whatever you may choose as your starting point, I encourage you to define yours and to start as well. And, regardless of your approach, I believe you will find this at the epicenter: mastering your self.
(c)2008 Otis Woodard
