Do we want to get the passion back into your organisation?
Generally we seem to agree that the world needs leadership more than ever before. Not just leadership – we have a great many leaders! – but transformational leadership that inspire behavioural change and generate more passionate positive movement.
In the midst of years of dedicated focus on good leadership and issues standing in the way of transformational leadership, we at Leadership Platform are regularly inspired by experiences that boost our confidence in the rich leadership potential in our country. We have gathered a great heritage of leadership content in conversations with some of the best minds, locally and internationally. This content is mostly freely available on podcasts and other media.
It is ironic that we should find that the best possible leadership development practices are not necessarily dependent on expensive and time consuming training interventions. Almost all leadership training are of value but the benefits of such training are very seldom in harmony with expectations.
We want to introduce you to a practise that promises leadership development results way beyond expectations. All this requires is a mindset change and a reshuffling of some of the work schedules that we confuse with management performance.
About the world of meetings and conversations
Most meetings and conversations in a work environment tend to be either of an informal (and often frivolous) nature or with a formal, action filled agenda. The result of our formal meetings is often frustrating and tends to try to enforce compliance of some kind or other. That special kind of passion that changes the world is often not generated in these many meetings. The ‘perform or else’ threat factor is often dominant, whether conscious or unconscious.
Old Man’s Essence
‘Let’s face it: if we conduct our leadership duties in the same manner as in the past it does not make sense for us to somehow expect different results. It makes significantly less sense if we should expect inspirational or behavioural changing results. We need to change some of our behavioural habits if we expect real change or improvement in performance’.
Universal principles (laws) governing positive movement conversations
It is a privilege of good leaders to embrace universal principles and behavioural models (how we do things) that generate positive results. The ability to generate positive movement (change, growth, excellence, passion) is also determined by two essential universal principles:
- The Law of Movement
‘All movement is governed by the integration of motivation, direction and structure.’ If all three these elements are not present, no movement will occur. This is applicable to all things in nature as well. Even the movement of a bird in flight is governed by the integration of these three principles, or else it will fall from the sky. This applies in equal proportion to our efforts to generate movement in all personal and leadership matters. Check out this law and try to prove it wrong and you will find it to be authentic.
- The Big Transformational Behaviour Question.
‘How can I help move this situation in a positive direction?’ This question, whether asked consciously or unconsciously, determines our attitude commitment to specific direction in our conversations, meetings and actions.
Movement conversations are typically of a more ‘informal’ nature, based on the guiding two mindset principles mentioned above. They are informal, not in the sense of having a lack of serious intent, but in the sense that they are not dominated by action items beforehand.
Transformational behavioural insights are the fruits of conversations that are respectful, trusting, honest and open-ended. Movement conversations just happen to be surprisingly enjoyable and even exciting.
As we obey the two guiding principles mentioned above, movement conversations are not just brain storming discussions, although brain storming can certainly play a part in them. Movement conversations are not just talking, but are focussed on positive movement which requires an integration of motivation, direction and supporting structure. In other words, as the conversations flow, we can measure their success by asking whether all three elements of the Law of Movement is being mastered. Motivation or passion alone cannot trigger positive movement. It needs clear direction (strategy, plans, and objectives) and also believable supporting structure (organisation, human resources and systems).
A good facilitator (leader) will continually keep the elements of the Law of Movement in mind to ensure that an integration of motivation, direction and supporting structure takes place.
The second prerequisite for successful Movement Conversations is that of the Big Question mindset. ‘How can we help move this situation in a positive direction?’ If a participant does not have a committed mindset of helping to move situations in a positive direction, then he or she is either emotionally unsuitable for positive movement to take place or has some other motivation or aspirations that may detract from the successful movement of the group. This does not mean that negative contributions are not part of a successful movement conversation; in fact the contrary is true. A good movement conversation invites honest discussion of mental as well as emotional negative perceptions. (Refer Leadership Platform’s Reality Modes Model for insight into the interplay of different reality or attitudinal modes)
Mindset change
We said at the top that the adoption of movement conversations require a mindset change. This is true because we are often so tied in to our existing practice of productive agenda filled meetings ’that we are wary of adopting a practice of regular and enjoyable movement conversations that tend to be far more inclusive and inspirational.
For more on what we do to empower individual leaders, teams and organisations – read here
Louis and Adriaan Groenewald are leadership experts and commentators. Do you recognize some areas in yourself or your team that need improvement? Email Adriaan on adriaan@leadershipplatform.com for more on creating “Leadership Fit” leaders that generate successful movement (performance) inside your organisation. Follow him on Twitter: @AdriaanG_LP or @LeadershipPform.
