Category: transformative leadership

Leaders and full spectrum thinking

Once again in lockdown, I am coming back to still a new terrain with the benefit of a couple of lessons learned. While somewhat more familiar, the environment is still foggy to me. Living inside myself, I have come to recognize various voices: the angry one which hardly ever speaks but clearly has an opinion; the inner child who wants, needs, and desires until exhaustion; the confused one who analyzes and cannot make much sense of the outside world; the feeling voice who actually seems to be the most helpful one these days.

Some of us have the luxury of time and space to consciously face a regular “meeting of the minds” within ourselves. I have found this to be a very useful experience: a new staff meeting of sort! We can actually summon the many fragments that make up the whole of who we are and give them all a chance to speak, take space, and be recognized. Beyond the interest of self-exploration and self-care, this practice can help us discover a universe within that points to many untapped possibilities.

You may already have discovered various facets of your personalities, of course, but you may still be unaware of the multi-dimensional nature of our humanness – all your untapped possibilities. The environmental noise has made it difficult for you to hear the signs, see various signals, pick up on energies you never felt. You will no doubt marvel at how complete chaos has proven most useful to escape the outside noise and tune in to find clarity in this uncertain world – your own clarity: the only one that actually matters for you to identify your next steps. This is the beginning of full-spectrum thinking!

The new multi dimensional human

I remember the days when in University, studying international relations, we had the luxury to pick a topic on which we could read all there was written on the issue and add something original that had not been considered before.  I have often reflected over the past years how this would be impossible today, given the sheer amount of written publications, the constant influx of scientific studies, and the relentless speed at which new books come out, confounding our well-researched opinion. I have come to dismiss or even ignore new information to simply find the time and space to stabilize my point of view on a particular issue. Yet, I am wondering whether this is the best way forward in our new digital age.

We have learned to process information in a certain way, categorizing, labeling, and developing an argument with enough rigor to demonstrate the validity of our theses. We have come to a reality, which is so complex, volatile, and uncertain that we can strive to be clear in explaining our thought process, but we have long lost the ability to establish the validity of our thought process with any kind of certainty.

You may have read contradictory studies regarding various foods, wondering whether tomatoes are good or bad for you. You can accumulate the data, categorize and label the various theories, but ultimately, you will have to give up establishing the facts with any kind of certainty. You will likely have to decide on the answer depending on the individual and reassess every so often. The key is perhaps to realize that you are not going to finally get to some stable place of having it all figured out. This is humbling.

Finding our way intuitively in the face of massive data, staying open to new information, integrating what works for each and every one of us, stabilizing our worldview at any given point in time, to ultimately ride the next incoming wave of information, intuition, and re-stabilize until the next shift… This full spectrum thinking process may just be the best way forward to develop the multi-dimensional human that we will need to become in the face of massive uncertainty. Let us see this as an opportunity to play, surf on the waves, and enjoy the ride!

Leadership and loss of control

Leadership is often associated to being in charge, in command, and in control. Yet my most memorable leadership experiences have been when I lost control. Like many, over the years, I have envisioned myself going places, achieving a number of things. I developed visions and plans to get there. In fact, I was particularly good at it. But the hard part and where I truly learned about leadership was when life took me to places where I did not want to go – at least consciously. I would feel that something had gone wrong and that I made a mistake. My fault or not, this would always be associated with some disheartening possibility.

What if things going wrong were to take us to a place where we needed to go for reasons deeper than our own ability to reason? What if these detours and disruptions were necessary to shake us loose of an illusion of control? It usually takes something major to wake us up, and the point is rarely to go back to what we know, but rather to remind us that the way forward lies in what we do not know. How many discoveries were made by accident, changing the course of history? These major wake up calls soften us and make us vulnerable to the point where we can release our resistance and let go of control, of what we know and understand.

You may have visited this undesirable place lately, where your response to difficulty has prompted you to witness some of the patterns of behavior that come up unconsciously, unresolved emotional baggage that stands in the way of an easier life, a more joyful existence. It takes courage to face these moments, surrender to what is, and leadership to create a new path rather than return to familiar ways of being and doing things. You will only get a finite number of opportunities to change course and emerge transformed. What is true individually, also applies internationally.

Leadership and the unknown

As I look at the world today for the first time probably ever engaging in one single conversation called coronavirus, I am struck by the reality of facing the unknown. To me, this is an interesting opportunity to venture beyond the comfort of our normal life, beyond the safety of all that we have come to trust in this life. To many, this pandemic is a scary situation, which could strike nearly anyone and cause death for as long as there is no reliable medication or vaccine. To others, it is simply a pain, restricting their freedom. To a smaller number of people, this is an opportunity to do things they never have time to do or venture on a new path without a net. To me, this is the time to trust without seeing and enjoy life from a place of balance and support, even if I cannot tell what is coming tomorrow.

We may find it challenging to move without a safety net in life, like a tightrope walker. However, the net is a barrier to experiencing new things, protecting us from failing, if not falling, and ultimately an obstacle to the freedom of doing things differently. Change is inherent to life, and we spend so much time edging against the risks it entails. But what we have learned to trust can surprise us at any moment, and life presents itself again with a multitude of possibilities, all scarier than the other, and we feel alive again. Remove the fear from the equation with a net, and possibilities will shrink.

When you face the unknown and take a few tentative steps despite the fear, you discover that you can attract support into your life by simply trusting. You will meet a soft landing that you could not have anticipated. From this experience comes the highest and best experience of personal growth. It takes being willing to get past the fear of the unknown, the safety net you have relied on for so long, and to trust without knowing. It is a matter of knowing that you will always make the best from whatever comes your way. Trust in yourself to lead your best life.