A leader’s authentic engagement requires a sense of presence to one’s environment.  It requires the development of an acute sensitivity to the internal workings of oneself and the constant awareness and adjustment to the “field” that exists between the leader and those whom the leader is relating to.  It is often said of effective leaders that they have a certain “magnetism” that is inviting and warm; people want to be around them to bask in a certain “glow” they emanate.

Such a leader does not operate from the edge of themselves.  They understand the power of authentic engagement and have acquired the skills to inhabit and act from the center, the core of who they are.  They have developed a strong inner observer, and as mentioned in the previous post, this begins with the recognition that their preconceived mental constructs and belief systems are filters that obscure them from the core experiences of reality.  They have come to realize that authentic experience requires sensitivity to our human frailty and necessitates the exercise of skillful means to attend to it in modest ways.  They understand the importance of establishing new patterns of awareness while slowly dissolving old ones that keep them in a state of trance; a state that keeps them at the foggy edge of themselves, disconnected from what is authentic in them and in the other.  This requires consistent effort to step away from pre-conceived ideas and strongly held assumptions and to effectively learn to manage one’s emotional reactivity.

Connecting to the center of oneself, or that of an organization, is a thesis whose latest iterations by Peter Senge in his System’s Thinking work, or Otto Scharmer’s U-methodology, has been an age old question in Western philosophy and Eastern mysticism.  A central running theme in many philosophies has been the recognition of three primary centers of intelligence that are required to be aligned and active with each other, thus allowing for a more authentic self (the center) to emerge; these constitute the Mind, the Heart and the Gut – Otto Scharmer replaces the gut with what he calls an “open will.”

The premise for an authentic engagement lies in developing presence through an “Open Mind” by which our preconceived notions, ideas and knowledge momentarily recede in the background allowing us to listen deeply and sense into what is emerging in the subtle field between us and others.  Presence also demands an “Open Heart” through which we perceive others with compassion and gentleness and respond to their vulnerabilities with sensitivity and respect.   An “Open Belly” allows for a deeper sensing of our environment and the ability to be attuned to our deeper wisdom.  Actively engaging these three centers demands commitment, attention and steady effort; the reward of which is a centered presence and greater awareness of our experience in the moment.

Living from our center generates a grounded authentic engagement that brings with it deep listening, subtle sensing, open curiosity and a natural ability to suspend our agenda.  We relax and open to sitting on the edge of the unknown with the other.  The German philosopher Heidegger called it “the spirit of availability before What-Is.” In this state we listen with a different ear; we intuit deeper patterns and find larger context. This is the ground from which our wisdom and true competence emerges.  It is a grounded state of being-ness informed by subtlety and deep knowing.  Profound authentic encounters are possible in this place and people are enlivened and changed by it.  Loyalty and trust from those we lead emerge with ease.

The post Beyond Our Professional Persona – Part Two appeared first on Catalyst.

Why are younger companies more likely to be better innovators in the short term? 

Curiosity and an attitude of openness to possibilities, ideas, experimentation and a sense of excitement tend to be underlying drivers for innovative organizations.  Therefore it is not hard to see why youthful organizations would have a higher innovation drive; in general young people are by nature open and curious.  Unfortunately this path of youthful exuberance is littered by entrepreneurs that could not sustain these traits; typically after many years of experience their openness and curiosity tends to shrink in direct proportion to the number of battle wounds they endure in the marketplace.

Many however, do not succumb to such fate, any more than older leaders with more years of experience under their belt.  What differentiates these leaders?

These are leaders who have recognized along the way the importance of developing their emotional intelligence as their organization was growing.  They developed a keen inner observer (read previous blog “Leadership & the Inner Observer”) and have come to value how that aspect of themselves drives them toward curiosity about their thinking and in turn about the thinking of others.  They have come to understand that their colleagues’ experience, concepts and ways of expression can add value to their leadership if they stay open to them and curios about their impulse.

An emotionally intelligent leader tends to be a curious one, and a curious leader tends to inquire, and frequently so, before they make their decisions.  They have learned how to navigate their curiosity through skillful means of inquiry; asking the right question at the right time and with a tonality that is open and inviting of others to reveal their thinking.  These inquiry skills create opportunities for everyone around the table to explore without judgment, to add and subtract without hesitancy, to challenge each other toward more possibilities and fresh new perspectives without personalizing their differences.  This is a leader who will purposefully move away from the tendency for an unwarranted style of command and control; instead they will drive their teams to develop the sharp edge of innovation by becoming comfortable sitting together on the edge of the unknown exploring possibilities.

When a leader teaches an attitude of curiosity and skillful means of inquiry by example, and begins to insist on it with the rank and file, such attitudes begin to spread within the culture of the organization.  As enough people adopt these attitudes, a new culture of innovation begins to emerge; a culture that does not take anything at face value.  Its members learn to skillfully ask the difficult questions, driving themselves and their peers to higher levels of thinking, productivity, creativity and new ideas.

Asking difficult questions of yourself and your peers requires skills that include mutual respect, encouragement of all ideas and the recognition that in every idea, even the least significant, lays a kernel of wisdom worth inquiring about and worth teasing out of the collective wisdom of the group.  A culture of innovation demands the unfettered collective imagination and wisdom to be skillfully and persistently nurtured by its leaders.

Related articles

• 3 CEO Essentials For Igniting Innovation (ceo.com)
• 10 Tips on Making Executives Understand Innovation (customerthink.com)

The post Leading a Culture of Innovation appeared first on Catalyst.

• Define desired outcomes
• Identify potential obstacles to those outcomes
• Design and implement right solutions.

Though such a list is perfectly accurate and useful in the broadest sense, like many others similar to it, it does not guide the reader before engaging each of these steps, or any other similarly broad steps, towards two very important underlying questions; the questions of “WHY” and “HOW.”  Why have I identified certain outcomes as the desired ones?  How did I select those outcomes over others that are available?  The same two questions can be asked of the other two points, the obstacles standing in the way as well as the solutions.

The reality is that most of us typically ask the WHY and HOW questions, but we do it internally and unconsciously … and so very fast, drawing quick conclusions that are based on a host of assumptions which may or may not be true.  In the demanding fast paced business world, most leaders do not slow down to examine these questions for themselves, or better yet, externalize them with their team; they typically do not share their internal process, but rather only share their final conclusions without seeking the necessary external testing and validation that is born from engaging the whole team with these questions.

So why do many leaders skip engaging their teams in these most crucial and fundamental questions?  

Typically I find that those who are confident in the strength of their leadership tend to be more willing to question their own conclusions before they make the final decisions.  In effect, they will purposefully slow down to ask themselves the WHY and HOW questions, and in the same spirit of curiosity, tend to expect that of their teams.

Leaders that do ask such questions of themselves and their teams tend to be more effective in creating influence and buy-in.  They are leaders that have recognized the importance of developing their own emotional intelligence and with it naturally the inner observer (read previous blog “Leadership & the Inner Observer”), and they will drive their teams to develop those same skills.  It is the inner observer in us that tends to drive us to curiosity of what we and others are thinking or experiencing.  An emotionally intelligent leader tends to be a curious one, and a curios leader tends to inquire, and frequently so, before they make their decisions.

If a leader is looking to determine outcomes, obstacles, solutions or anything else within their realm of decision making, then having a healthy sense of curiosity about their own assumptions and about what others think, as well as skillful inquiry habits, would go a long way to harness the collective intelligence of the whole team, generate collaboration, build buy-in and create influence.

The post The Why and How of a Leader’s Decision Making appeared first on Catalyst.

Most of us, especially when we are operating in a pressure cooker fast-paced environment tend to quickly leap to assumptions and conclusions that may have not been carefully examined.  This pitfall can be circumvented if we adopt an attitude of curiosity about our own assumptions and conclusions and choose to do the same with those that others have.  To do this requires taking a mental and emotional stance that keeps one’s own position flexible and open to be influenced by others’ input.  Such a stance is achieved through a practice of inquiry – to be curious enough about my inner and outer circumstances that I am driven to inquire about myself and others’ ideas, assumptions and conclusions.

Over time an attitude of inquiry tends to build a larger capacity for curiosity, which in turn allows for a stronger inner observer and a deeper propensity for emotional intelligence.  We become more “tuned-in” to our environment, our team, our employees and the culture of the organization.  These skills become the hallmark of a Transactional Leader.

Typically I find that those that practice an attitude of inquiry with their teams and employees tend to be more effective in creating influence and buy-in.  Transactional leaders tend to recognize the importance of developing their own emotional intelligence which naturally cultivates an inner observer.  It is the inner observer that drives us to be curious of what others may be thinking or experiencing.  An emotionally intelligent leader tends to be a curious one, and a curious leader tends to inquire, and frequently so, before making their decisions.

If a leader is looking to determine outcomes, obstacles, solutions or anything else within their realm of decision making, then having a healthy sense of curiosity about what others are thinking in addition to a set of skillful inquiry habits goes a long way to harness the collective intelligence of the whole team, generate collaboration, build buy-in and create influence.  Such a transactional leader is able to build creative organizational cultures in which differences of opinion are valued, and where curiosity and inquiry about these differences are used to fuel a constructive dialogue that drives innovation and fresh solutions.

Related articles

• Business Leader Richard Zahn Says “Emotional Intelligence” is Critical to Leadership (prweb.com)

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