LEADERSHIP IS LEARNING IS LEADERSHIP

"While in the past, many managers could succeed by imitating another company’s strategy or organisational model, today’s leaders are forced to invent, not copy: there are no surefire strategies or models to copy. Above all, the adaptive manager today must be capable of radical action ~ willing to think beyond the thinkable: to reconceptualise products, procedures, programs and purposes before crisis makes drastic change inescapable."

ALVIN TOFFLER, American scholar, lecturer and author. The Adaptive Corporation (Gower, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1985)

Alvin Toffler’s words, from two decades ago, still ring true, perhaps now more than ever.

Today’s business leader is having to joystick his or her way across a technomystical matrix humming with a plethora of challenges.

Rearranging the letters of ‘leadership’ gives:

“Praise held.” “Idle phrase.” “Phase idler.” “Pile dasher.” “Lips adhere.” “Shared pile.” “Shade peril.” “Dealership.” “Ship dealer.” “Heals pride.” “Leash pride.” “Head perils.”

Any of the above expressions can be a valid objective addressed by a leader. But more than any objective, leadership is a privilege, a charter to chart the course for people being led: with commitment, competence, courage, creativity, and confidence.

The leaders of the past commanded and controlled; those of today must connect and cooperate. Leadership is not a collection of followers, but a connection of spirits inspired towards a worthy vision. The aim of leadership is to ennoble life.

“Most people in big companies today are administered, not led. They are treated as
personnel, not people.”

~ ROBERT TOWNSEND, American business executive, CEO of Avis car rental group, and author. Further Up the Organisation (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1970; revised edition Micahel
Joseph, London, 1984)

Leaders who stop learning, stop leading.

Life flows on, and the leader who is not learning in flow, is not leading, but misleading.

In this state, the leader has entered a stage of decay, and poses a danger to the followers . . . unless the followers have awakened to their own credentials, in which case, the ‘lead’ or ‘dominant’ follower assumes the mantle of leadership.

It is possible to have learning without leadership, but not leadership without learning.

Leaders radiate joy, evince laughter, and inspire abundance. They are lightworkers, emitting light and love whilst they heal and help. No matter what, they stay focused on the highest calling:

In good times, leaders speak and seek, to do good; in adverse times, they elocute and enthuse, to do more good.

Leaders bless their resources, and actively search for things to be grateful for. Staying grounded, they cultivate a sense of childlike wonder and amazement: it enables them to move themselves and their followers into higher dimensions of awareness. Thus,leaders are breeders of leaders.

[Excerpted from the 'Leadership, Learning & Laughter' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]