Reflections on Leadership Development
Recently, one of the participants in a leadership program I was leading shared that between sessions (this was the second part of the course), it had been harder than she had expected to draw on the specific tools we’d worked with during the prior session. While not a surprising comment, it got me thinking about the purpose of our work together and what it means to develop as a leader. So, I offer this post as a reflection on leadership development and as a somewhat roundabout response to her comment and its implicit question.
Many years ago, my yoga teacher Noah Maze said something that struck me at the time and has stayed with me ever since. We were working on a pose and before giving corrections, he said: “You’re perfect the way you are, now get better.” That line has become one of the ways that I describe my approach to my work as a coach and facilitator. Leadership development is not about “fixing” something (or someone) that is broken. We are each whole and capable. My role is to support the people I work with at “getting better,” premised on the assumption that they have everything they need to do so already. We are whole, capable people who sometimes need support to meet the challenges that confront us, learn to guide others, and build powerful organizations. Realizing that growth is not about “fixing” allows us to relax, take a breath, and recognize that we have what it takes—even as we acknowledge there is work to be done to “get better.”
The Two Pillars of Leadership Development
So, what are we getting better at? I propose two core pillars of leadership development: increasing intentionality and building range.
Intentionality is about responding thoughtfully rather than impulsively—especially under pressure.
Range involves expanding our toolkit of methods, skills, and frameworks to approach challenges effectively.
Intentionality
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Attributed to Viktor Frankl
These words, attributed to Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, resonate deeply for me. They provide a definition of intentionality and one of the reasons that intentionality matters. They also suggest a practice that supports intentionality. Every time we pause after a stimulus and consider how to respond wisely, we strengthen our capacity to be intentional.
Pausing between stimulus and response is not natural for humans. We are wired to perceive and respond to threats quickly, often leading to unconsidered action. While this response served us in a distant past when we regularly faced physical and existential threats, it’s rarely useful in the contexts we operate in now. Today— when threats are more often perceived than real—and even when real, not imminent, that quick reaction can hurt us and those around us more than it helps.
Slowing down to evaluate whether a threat response is necessary and choosing a thoughtful response instead requires consistent practice. In the words of my favorite singer-songwriter, Jason Isbell, “It gets easier, but it never gets easy.”
Practicing Intentionality
I often suggest that my clients adopt regular centering and meditation practices. Pausing on purpose and when the stakes are low makes it far more likely that we’ll remember to pause when the stakes are higher—when our bodies perceive a threat. Pausing when we are threatened is far less likely when we aren’t practicing pausing when the stakes are low. Meditation and centering help us to train our bodies and minds so that when we are in those high-stakes situations, we can find the space between stimulus and response. Pausing and centering throughout the day requires very little time—the challenge, in my experience, is remembering and the only way to remember “better” is to practice more. Even meditation doesn’t require a huge time investment--research shows that a brief daily meditation has many benefits. One of my clients decided to meditate for two minutes a day—and has found that to be very helpful.
The bottom line is that we can practice learning to pause for the sake of being intentional and eventually find that intentionality becomes a habit, not an exception. It takes practice—as do most things worth doing.
Pausing, creating space for intentionality, allows us to access another essential leadership habit, listening. When we quiet ourselves, we can hear others—the individuals in front of us, the teams we lead, and the systems we are part of. Without pausing, deep listening is just about impossible. When we pause, we can check in with our emotional state, notice our mood, assess whether we are responding defensively—and then tune in to the person, people, or system in front of us. Without listening first to ourselves and those around us, it is hard to make good decisions about how to act.
Range
Once we’ve created the space for intentionality, range comes into play. A rich set of tools, models, and frameworks gives us more to choose from. When I lead workshops for leaders, this is how I suggest that they use the tools they are learning—with discretion and thoughtfulness. And with the realization that no tool gives “the answer.” There’s no need to stress about remembering a particular tool or method. If you’re being intentional, you will already be more conscious of your choice of actions and have greater range.
My favorite tools to share with clients are tools that help them use the pause to assess their context and take wise action. I’ve written about some of these and briefly describe them, in this context, here.
Frameworks that Promote Range
One of the most valuable tools I’ve encountered is the Cynefin framework, which categorizes systems into four domains: clear, complicated, complex, and chaotic.
Clear and complicated domains exist within ordered, predictable systems.
Complex and chaotic domains operate within unpredictable, unordered systems.
Cynefin is a sensemaking framework that guides us in assessing the type of system we’re dealing with, so we can act wisely. Without sensemaking, we risk applying the wrong tools, which may do little—and potentially cause harm.
Cynefin also includes a “confused” space in the center— that space reminds us to pause, assess, and ask: What kind of system is this, and what action will be most helpful? This is the space of intentionality.
A practical and much simpler tool is Situational Leadership, which emphasizes adapting our leadership style to meet the needs of the person we’re working with. Effective leadership requires diagnosing the other person’s needs and adjusting our approach accordingly. While the tool is simple (sometimes a bit simplistic,) the principle of Situational Leadership is profound. Each of us has styles and proclivities as leaders—but effective leadership involves putting our preferences aside, figuring out what the person in front of us needs, and then adapting our leadership style to the person. It doesn’t matter if you like being super hands-on or are great at delegating and letting go—if you attend carefully to the person in front of you, you will sometimes be hands-on and at others be hands-off.
The first step in Situational Leadership is diagnosis—assessing the needs of the person you are working with. Diagnosis is impossible without intentionality. Diagnosis is the step that requires a pause and invites the question: “What does the person in front of me need now?”
Using Cynefin at a systems level and Situational Leadership at an individual level are examples of how we can be more powerful leaders by combining intentionality and range. And, one doesn’t need a high level of expertise in either framework to apply the principle of pausing, assessing context, and choosing our actions wisely.
Closing Thoughts
A key realization for me has been that intentionality precedes range. And that range doesn’t mean endlessly collecting tools in search of the one that will “fix” everything. I used to think the “answers” could be found in the books I read and in the “stuff” I collected. Now, I see tools as useful, but intentionality as essential.
We live in fast-paced environments that demand more than is possible. Many of my clients find themselves in a perpetual state of overwhelm. Building the capacity for intentionality in such environments is one of the most effective ways to become a better leader—and a more content person. It’s my favorite way to think about “getting better.”