Much has been made of the transition from expert to manager. In Rising to Power by Eric Hansen and Ron Carucci, the authors shed light on the hazards and adaptations leaders need to undertake as they assume the mantle of authority.
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Adventure has driven some of the most amazing discoveries in human history. We are hard-wired for it. But apart from the yearning fed by curiosity, is there a science to it?
Yes, the brain likes adventure
Yes, there are risks when we get the brain hooked on adventure
Yes, we can get adventure back in our life
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Home base has a great sense of security. The familiar. The known. And yet it keeps us from growth. When facing a horizon, how do we muster the courage to leave the shore?
What are we holding on to?
What are we most afraid of?
What is that calling to us?
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We all get them: slumps. We forget they happen and are dismayed when they do. But slumps can be an opportunity. Don’t fight it; use it.
Progress happens when we bounce out of a dip.
4 types of questions to facilitate progress.
How to calculate your set point, and what to with it.
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Not nearly enough leaders are looking to the impact of automation on job losses, including their own. Yet it’s not just that - we have a culture of blame to navigate too. How do you stack up? Are you disposable? Or indispensable?
Ego makes us disposable.
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The year is half way through. It’s a good time to take stock. Here are some questions and reflection exercises to help make the most of what has been, and what is yet to come.
Reflection is like navigation, start by assessing where you have been.
Next, determine where you are going - clarify the destination.
Finally, decide on your route plan - what steps you need to take next.
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We get comfortable with being comfortable. And it keeps us bound. If we are to truly know what it is to be alive and fully human, we need to heed the call to adventure.
How adventure opens the spirit
What happens when we stay wrapped in our comfort blanket
How consciousness expands in beauty
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Homelessness is a terrifying experience. Living on the edge of society is alienating and horrific. As leaders, we can help.
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When it comes to leadership, connection with others is the most crucial skill. Yet we don’t focus nearly enough on it. This makes us disposable at worst, replaceable at best. Connection has one key component to make it work best.
The pivot point that shifts isolation to connection
How connection is a river current
Why focus on others will benefit us all
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We have an innate human drive to gather, to belong. What separates those who seek company and those who create it?
What drives us to show up in community.
The giant leap to lead community, and how to do it.
Why we admire community leaders and why it could be us too.
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Sports teams: perhaps the biggest cliché for modeling leadership success. Plus, it is so far from reality it’s painful! It’s not sports, but adventure we should emulate.
Sports are finite events. Leadership is not.
There is an audience and a prize. No one is cheering or handing out awards for leaders.
You win, you lose. In leadership, there is only commitment, a do or do not.
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By definition, leadership is a lonely function. The buck stops with you. You make the tough calls, you cop the flack for failures, and with success, it is attributed to the team. It’s tough.
Where can we go to get re-charged?
How can we get reassurance?
Where can we get genuine a sounding board?
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I watched the afternoon sun light up the autumn tree leaves like a ballerina ablaze. It was magical! There was no fanfare, no trumpeted procession. Just nature expressing itself in full glory, boundless.
I’ve spent a lifetime in love with nature. I’ve had some profound personal experiences face to face with the Great Mystery: northern lights and their ghostly swirls above a remote wild lake, serenaded by loons and their haunting soulful cry. I’ve spent many summer afternoons staring out to sea, bedazzled by the diamond sparkles.
I see dead trees on arid Australian landscapes as frozen dancers, a shadow of consciousness, expired and retreated. Like a tide that comes in, swirls about, and ebbs away.
I feel the breeze and marvel at its invisible touch, sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce and ferocious.
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Hanzi Freinacht has written a fantastic book, The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics Book One, on adult development and why it matters. He lays out an analysis of the various leadership development models and adds a few other layers of development needed. His main point is that development matters. We need to develop our mental and emotional capacities in order to contend with the world we have created. We need to develop our inner dimensions to keep up and manage the complexities of what has evolved in our various cultures and economic systems.
In this brief video I give you an overview, and then a practical strategy to get started: morning routine.
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What would cause a professional sportsperson to risk their career with ball tampering? When did winning become more important than integrity? How does one let a decision like this stain their moral fabric?
We’ve seen this before of course. Who could forget Lance Armstrong when he finally confessed to drug doping on the Tour De France, with the explanatory, “Everyone does it.” The argument was that it’s not a fair playing field if you don’t dope.
It’s amazing what we will justify if we don’t have a strong moral code. In my new book, Loyalty, I explain how the best cultures, the most consistent and enduring ones, have a Culture Compass to which they hold themselves accountable. They know their values, they know the behaviours that line up with those, they know their purpose and who they serve, and they know what results they want to produce. They have a system and a practice of building the Culture Compass into their recruitment, induction, and regular team engagements.
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Every once in a while an elephant shows up. You know, the thing that is blooming obvious, but no one wants to talk about.
Like the fact that Uncle Fred drinks way too much and smells of urine. Or Susan spends more time socialising on Facebook than she does doing the accounts. Or the boss’s right-hand man – the ‘Golden Boy’ – has tantrums that keep everyone cowering behind their desks and taking really, really long lunches – out.
What do you do? If you say something, then what started as something uncomfortable may become a Major Issue. If you pipe up about smelly Uncle Fred, then the family is going to have to deal with alcoholism. If you point out Susan is wasting company time, you may become the tattle-tale. If you complain to the boss about Golden Boy’s tantrums, then maybe you’ll get the sack.
Our fears of creating even more uncomfortable feelings keep us paralysed.
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In Australia, talking about feelings at work is akin to dancing on a tabletop in your underpants. You just don’t do it. Not unless there has been a significant amount of alcohol consumed.
Here’s why we need to get over ourselves and start talking about feelings:
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Losing good staff is a serious bummer. It’s disruptive and costly. Our Boundless Team falters as we scramble to fill the void left behind. As a leader, it’s hard not to feel hurt and betrayed by someone we value deciding to leave. The default is to simmer with resentment and blame them for lack of loyalty.
If we don’t ask, “Could I have done anything differently?” we miss an opportunity to improve. The first area to look at improving is an underrated one: recognition. It’s a simple thing to implement, with astounding results.
Consider this insight from O.C Tanner*:
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Let’s face it, when we finally get that role we've been seeking as leader in an amazing organisation, we can’t wait to get our hands dirty and put our stamp on the place. After all, that’s why they hired us, right? To bring new perspective from different experience. We’re meant to improve things. They expect change.
Here’s what happens...
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