Clarity of Purpose

I think it is time to start writing about the things I wish I'd known at the start of my career. So from now on I want to pass on insights gained along the way;  I hope these will help you forge ahead purposefully,  more so than I ever did in my youth.


So, my top insight is, be clear what:

•  your purpose is within a project
• organizational goal your project contributes to
• aspect of your organization's mission is being advanced by your project 

In so doing, you will be able to evaluate whether what you are doing is purposeful. The skill I want you to develop is strategic thinking.

Satin Lined Boxes

I learned a lot from the Gen Y leaders I worked with in the UK. As we set about reviving a failing organisation, their flair and talent turned adversity into adventure, peppered with many moments of fun.

It causes me to wonder why so many leaders and organisations fall short of using people to their full potential? Why have so many institutions been brought to their knees in recent years as a result? The more I read, the more I feel that we are skirting around the issue.

Is it because we are confused as to purpose of leaders? Convention dictates that the role of 'leader' can only be ascribed to the few who exhibit defined competencies.  So we demand of the few an exhausting combination of qualities and competencies that must impose a hollow quality on life.

I suspect that this is the nub of the problem. For both leader and follower find themselves in satin lined boxes, the former fearful of being found wanting and the latter resentful of being denied opportunities to realise their potential.

What fear compels us to guard our box so jealously and ensure others remain in their box too? Is it this instinct for self-preservation that allowed for unbridled risk in our banking system and for leaders to eschew responsibility as the effects continue to ripple out?

Or, is it because it is tabu for leaders to be followers, so denying any possibility of understanding complexity from below as well as above? Most likely it is a combination of both. Also, memories of being ridiculed make guarded relations preferable to risking oneself in pursuit of genuine relations. 

I suspect it is a failure to confront the ensuing compressed quality of organisation life that is at the heart of Gen Y's impatience for change; as is a profound scepticism that only grindingly high levels of unquestioning activity can deliver performance.

How are these issues being played out in your organisation?

Finding the DNA of Transformation

Upon meeting an inspiring leader, I am always intrigued by how their personal history informs their ability to nurture the potential of others.  Such transformative power comes from a deep understanding of what it means to be human. 

Clarity for me was achieved early in my career. Thanks to a series of eye opening encounters with successful, powerful people who, finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, revealed the same vulnerability I felt so intensely.

I realized that vulnerability defines us all, because:

·We are born of trauma and struggle to heal; yet we expend a huge amount   of energy masking this fact

·We fear our loss of dignity, so we cling to conformity; yet we long to be recognized for our uniqueness

·We yearn to belong, to be celebrated for our individuality; yet we live in fear of being judged for the very qualities that set us apart

Therefore, I've come to realize that for those engaged in transforming communities, the first task is to embrace these vulnerabilities. Next is to free ourselves of the impulse to differentiate ourselves into 'boxes': mainstream/ marginalized, clever/stupid, educated/uneducated, successful/unsuccessful, rich/poor etc. Only then, can we embrace what fundamentally connects us and forge new ways of working together.

I demonstrated this point to some students recently: I asked them to introduce themselves by name and tell me one thing  that they liked about themselves. The anxiety was palpable as each scrambled to think of the most anodyne but safe thing to say about themselves. 

The point was taken: we are all in need of greater self-esteem and self-confidence to be ourselves. Inspiring leaders know this, most by intuition. 


Consequently, it leads me to ask:

·What if, through a deliberative dialogue, they were enabled to crystalize their understanding and how it informs the core values of their organization?

·What transformative power would it unleash - to spell out the DNA of their approach and share it with kindred spirits in Gen-Y?