Able Leadership Kate Tucker Syngenta South Africa (Pty) Ltd

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Leadership and change

In a post-modern, complex world, our leadership challenges are radically different from those of even a few short years ago.  The only constant is change, and

leaders at all levels need to learn how to equip ourselves to respond in a nimble and agile manner.  Post-modern

thinking, and a philosophy that embraces change, innovation and the unexpected are the ways in which today's leaders are able to respond.  Through story

telling and metaphor, we can, as leaders, reach within ourselves and within others to liberate latent potential.

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Fractals

http://to-campos.planetaclix.pt/fractal/mandelgen.html

Generates a Mandelbrot set while you watch and allows you to explore the levels of complexity in the set

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set

Learn about the Mandelbrot set and other fractals

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Leadership challenges

There are many, but they can be summarised as follows: Ability to understand truth/reality Ability to see and share the vision Ability to respond to change Ability to liberate potential Ability to translate vision into action and actions into the

next level of vision

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Leadership Presence

First lead yourself, then others! “It is necessary to go beyond ego” Serving involves:

– Strength

– Wisdom

– Professional behaviours driven from the inner core

– Doing the right things the right way

– Recognising that we search for meaning and thus have “soul”

Power is not what is important: rather, how others respond to what powerful people do

Nick Owen: More Magic of Metaphor. 2004; Crown House

Lynda Gratton: Living Strategy: Putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. 2000, Prentice Hall

>>Ubuntu Story

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About serving…

“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you don’t mind who gets the credit”: President Harry S Truman

The word conductor is derived from the Latin conducere for which there are two meanings:

To lead together To serve

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Level Five Leadership

Highly Capable Individual

Contributing Team Member

Competent Manager

Effective Leader

Level 5 Executive

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 1

Jim Collins: Good to Great. Random House 2001

Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will

Catalyses commitment to and vigorous pursuit ofa clear and compelling vision stimulating higher performance standards

Organises people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives

Contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting

Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits

>> Dream story

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Leadership insights

Inside Outside

Me

Oth

ers

Personal Professional

The Team Infrastructure

Adapted from: Nick Owen: More Magic of Metaphor. 2004; Crown House

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Leadership insights

Four interdependent perspectives create a framework to help us find and create meaning:

– Four interdependent scripts

– Left = Inside

Upper Left Quadrant : Personal

– The personal, invisible world of the individual Values, attitudes, leadership style

Lower Left Quadrant : Team

– The invisible interior world of the community Shared values, shared vision, language and culture

Adapted from: Nick Owen: More Magic of Metaphor. 2004; Crown House

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Leadership insights

Four interdependent perspectives create a framework to help us find and create meaning:

– Four interdependent scripts

– Right = Outside

Upper Right Quadrant: Professional

– The visible, exterior world of the individual Personal capabilities and competencies, professional

behaviours, measurable outcomes

Lower Right Quadrant: Infrastructure

– The visible exterior world of the community Social, information and organisational systems, technical,

working and living environment Adapted from: Nick Owen: More Magic of Metaphor. 2004; Crown House

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Leadership insights

Inside Outside

Me

Oth

ers

Personal Professional

The Team Infrastructure

Adapted from: Nick Owen: More Magic of Metaphor. 2004; Crown House

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Response-ability

The ability to respond

– Flexibility

– Responsiveness in adverse and positive situations

– Responsible for personal development

– Responsible Doing the right thing the right way

Accountable

– Knows when to delegate what to whom

– Takes accountability appropriately

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Response-ability

Research shows that high performing leaders: Are aware of their strengths and limitations Think and talk about areas for development Are highly conscious of their feelings and behaviours as

they move through life including personal and professional passages

Learn to learn from their failures See themselves as:

– Continuously learning

– Responsive to both positive and negative circumstances Thus, high performing leaders have developed response-

ability in all areas of their lives

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Time

Response-ability: Recursive process rooted in the self

Self knowledge

Acknowledge experiences

and

feelings

Confront your own humanity

Resilience and the

ability to adapt

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Living the values and the purpose: Live the stories

“Leaders must take a role in developing , expressing, and defending civility and values. In a civilised corporation, we see good manners, respect for persons, an understanding of “good goods”. And an appreciation of the way in which we can serve each other”

Max du Pree (in Mbigi, 2005)

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Living the values and the purpose: Live the stories

Leaders who can develop and live exciting, extraordinary stories have the potential to enhance:

– Paradigm shifts (shifts in mindsets)

– Seeing possibilities

– Innovation

Max du Pree (in Mbigi, 2005)

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Leadership Stories: scripts to live by

Speak of the future as if it really already was present, in the here-and-now

– Mandela The Rainbow Nation We create our own reality through the language we use

– Self-dialogue

– Dialogue with others These dialogues are our scripts, which are verbal visualisations of

our constructed reality Narrative therapy has used the concept of re-scripting people’s lives

for a long time In groups, we have the potential to co-create positive reality (to script

for success) Do we, as leaders, use this potential for ourselves and for our

organisations?

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The Ubuntu Story

The Ubuntu philosophy recognises: The importance of individuals as tradition bearers of past and future

generations That we need to consider ways to make visible and optimise that which is

good, true and beautiful in our heritage That quality of life in the present contributes to the possibilities and

challenges for the future There are no individual heroes

– Membership of the community determines the obligations of the individual towards the community

The importance of being Thus, the key element of Ubuntu is interdependence Interdependence We recognise and respect each others’ differences,

similarities, strengths and weaknesses and function together to form a system that is greater than the individuals

Lovemroe Mbigi: The Spirit of African Leadership. Knowres Publishing: 2005 <<Leadership Presence

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“I have a dream!” The Martin Luther King Jr. Story

King’s philosophy of passive resistance/non-violence based in that of Ghandi, displays the response-able leadership style. A few key indicators:

King’s vision: “I have a dream!” first vocalised at the March on Washington “Leaders are needed … in every community all over this nation…not leaders

in love with money, leaders in love with justice. Not leaders in love with publicity, but leaders in love with humanity.”

King’s five desired objectives:– Self-respect– High moral standards– Whole-hearted work – Leadership– Non-violence

King recognised his own limitations, and worked hard to develop complementary relationships with other leaders from all sectors of America society

Astuteness and political savvy demonstrated in his relationship with J F Kennedy, and his cross-cultural mobilisation of various organisations, black and white, towards to realisation of the dream

<< Level 5 Leadership

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Some ideas for telling the stories

Awards and other recognition ceremonies Professional communities Talking circles Mailing lists Blogs Coffee times Appreciative Inquiry Personal reflection and enrichment

– If you are emotional bankrupt you have noting left to invest in others

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A concluding script

Drucker believed that nobody should be appointed to a senior position unless s/he is willing to be a character role model.

Further, Drucker believed that this should be a key criterion for appointments, and should be uppermost in the minds of those involved in appointments

“The spirit of the organisation is created from the top. If an organisation is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of

its top people if great. If it decays, it does so because the top rots …”

Peter F Drucker

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Storytelling game

Instead of question-time, let’s practice storytelling …

The script we will co-create starts as follows: Mpho is a relatively new MD, having been in this position

for six months. Previously, she held the position of Financial Director with the organisation which she now heads for five years. Early one morning, during her quiet time while she is still drinking her coffee, and reading her daily inspirational story, the Marketing Manager rushes into her office and says: “ …