Courageous Leaders Blog

We are hearing in the marketplace that business leaders need change agility and learning agility. So if you are serious about your career as a leader in your organisation then we are hearing that it is important for you to get serious about agility.

When it comes to change; leaders ignite it, and it is imposed on them by others. Both require agility:

1. Igniting change: leaders have the agility to recognise their course of action from an earlier decision is not working. So they need to be able to drop their ego and own that it is not working and then have the courage to ignite another change that replaces the original course of action. They find another way

2. Imposed change: leaders have the agility and resilience to make the change being imposed on them work with speed and effectiveness. They embrace it and support others in their teams to do the same.

The agility required from business leaders has moved beyond change agility and sees leaders demonstrating learning agility. Beyond recognising that change needs to be ignited - they need to reflect and capture learning from the experience. So when presented with a similar situation they can use their experience and knowledge from the past. This certainly requires a subordination of the ego - not something that many business leaders are comfortable with. The challenge is to get comfortable with a debriefing process - this is our greatest learning experience should we dare to embrace it!

Learning agility is demonstrated real time as change is imposed and ignited. Finding a disciplined process to enable this demonstration is really important. If you are interested in knowing more about the power of the debrief process please contact me as I will happily share more.

At our recent Courageous Leaders Facilitator Community meeting one of our facilitators - Jonathan- shared an interesting insight from his latest research.....that standing still is the new going backwards. We all resoundingly went "oh yes"!

Courageous Leaders know very well that change is the new constant as we shared in our recent Research and Insights paper - and that standing still is just not an option. To think of it as going backwards is a critical insight - every leader has a responsibility to keep learning and keep challenging their habits. I don't believe we have enough existing leaders prepared to do this - what's your experience?

Defensiveness sees leaders protecting themselves with their cage of habits and this weighs them down so they DO stand still. The younger emerging leaders keep moving and this is one of the reasons they just keep on moving - out of the business and off to somewhere they can thrive on change.

We need far more courageous leaders igniting and thriving on change!

Over the last couple of weeks I have witnessed and facilitated people taking time to reflect on what they have learned and what they have achieved as a result of investing time and energy in their leadership development.

 

I sat in the back of the room as a group of participants shared what actions they had taken as a result of participating in a leadership program - I got goose bumps listening to the depth at which they had challenged themselves and the risks they had taken as they made themselves vulnerable. Moving out of your comfort zone and into your learning zone always increases your feeling of vulnerability. And how amazing for these people to stop and take stock of just what they had done and learned.

 

Again today I sat and listened as leaders shared what they had actioned and achieved over the last 18 months - how their efforts and their energy had created results at a personal and a business level. We really need to take more time to reflect and recognize what we have achieved. Courageous leaders absolutely ensure this is done regularly - it is a very special way of connecting at a very real level with people.

Over the last few weeks several incidents have occurred and caused me to reflect on the pain of learning. I believe this is why so many people do not truly embrace the desire to LEARN to lead. It requires conscious thought and effort each day and with this greater consciousness comes pain. So much easier to just keep doing what you've always done or tinker on the edges.

Learning to lead is so much more than participating in a program, completing some self awareness tools......it about wanting to LEARN. It is about truly being prepared to dive deep inside and check out your limiting mental models....and we all have them! Challenge your assumptions and check out your judgements - and that is tough stuff.