Mastering Leadership

Key Concepts

Five Levels of Leadership

Egocentric—”We are identified with our ability to meet our needs. This identity does not notice others' (often competing) needs.” (p. 62)

Reactive—“...we are simply breathing in the surrounding self-defining messages and constructing ourselves accordingly. We define ourselves, not from the inside out, but from the outside in.” (p. 67)

Creative—“...first, we shed some old assumptions that have been running us all our lives; and second, we initiate a more authentic version of ourselves as we shift from Reactive to Creative.” (p. 75)

Integral—“The visionary-strategic capability that emerges in the Creative leader evolves into Systems Thinking and Design.” (p. 82)

Unitary—“This is the stage where the person ecstatically experiences the world as one. This oneness is not just an idea, not something gleaned from a book. It is a literal experience of oneness with life itself—the oneness of all things with Itself.” (p. 85)

“Note that as Reactive behavior increases, Leadership Effectiveness goes down. We see a solid (-.68) inverse relationship between Reactive Tendencies and Leadership Effectiveness.” (p. 72)

“Creative Leadership is the minimum level required to create lean, engaged, innovative, visionary, creative, agile, high-involvement, high-fulfillment organizations and to evolve adaptive organizational designs and cultures that can thrive today.” (p. 79)

Six Leadership Practices:

1. Discerning Purpose—“Great leaders stand for what matters and create it.” (p. 239)

2. Distilling Vision—”Being a person of vision and leading the organization into its desired future is the first Promise of Leadership.” (p. 245)

3. Knowing Your Doubts and Fears—”Again, we cannot pursue both safety and purpose simultaneously. We must make a choice.” (p. 251)

4. Engage in Authentic, Courageous Dialogue—“There is no safe way to be great. And there is no great way to be safe. Transformation requires courage.” (p. 252)

5. Develop Intuition, Open to Inspiration—”Leaders must learn to use data and rational analysis as far as it can go and then listen to their gut, their intuitive knowing about the best or right thing to do.” (p. 255)

Think Systemically

”In the presence of a new and compelling vision, structures and systems must evolve. When structural change is ignored, visions fail.” (p. 259)

Quotables

“Collective effectiveness carries the day. The organization cannot perform at a level higher than the collective effectiveness of its leadership.” (p. 20)

“The inner game runs the outer game. The maturity of the inner game is mediating and managing the outer game.” (p. 27)

“Competency alone does not make for effective leadership. Yet, the current focus for developing leadership effectiveness is primarily on improving competency, which is necessary, but insufficient.” (p. 29)

“The Leadership Imperative is simply this: The development of leadership effectiveness must, at a minimum, keep pace with the rate of change and the rate of escalating complexity.” (p. 42)

“The primary tension in life and leadership is the tension between purpose and safety, between the part of us that wants to be about something great, make a difference, and merits our deepest commitment and another part of us that simply is not up for that much risk.” (pp. 160-1)

“There is no safe way to be great, and, there is no great way to be safe.” (p. 164)

“The leadership literature and competency research is quite clear in describing effectiveness. Effective leaders are purpose driven and translate their deep sense of purpose into a clear and compelling vision and strategy, which become the focus of execution and decisions. Leaders are systems-aware, redesigning systems to produce higher-order results. They are authentic and courageous in their conversations, lead with integrity, and are self-aware, emotionally intelligent, interpersonally skillful, and relationally competent—fostering high teamwork and trust, as well as mentoring and developing others.” (p. 212)