Is 3-dimensional leadership growth possible for every leader?
Leadership is a complex activity and difficult to define in a simple yet meaningful way. A renowned management expert, Henry Mintzberg, presents leadership in the shape of a triangle.
The three elements of the triangle are:
1. Science. This is the theoretical knowledge of leadership
2. Craft. This is experience based actions
3. Art. This is using intuition to solve new situations.
The Mintzberg triangle is used to illustrate a leader's management style. Each leader has their own position in this triangle. Some want to use specific theories and methods. Some rely on prior experience, while others trust their intuition. No one uses 100% of only one element; everyone works in some combination.
Meet Peter. Peter is a very rational person. He uses proven theoretical knowledge as a foundation for his actions. Peter likes to analyse his experience and then plan for his next steps. He does not trust gut feelings. Therefore, his location in the triangle is nearer the science corner, a moderate distance from the craft corner and very far from the art corner.
All these elements can be developed with practice, and according to Mintzberg, a balanced leadership style is the most preferred.
The usual way to improve is to try something new, see how it works, and iterate. But learning through practice at work can be slow and limiting.
You might be impacted or restricted by your place of work's corporate culture. For instance, how can you learn coaching leadership skills in an authoritarian organisation?
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Or maybe you work daily with people who do things in a typical, usual way. As a consequence, you might have developed some non-productive habits but don't receive good quality constructive feedback.
Or you may be overloaded with work with no time to stop, reflect, and make changes.
All these factors stop leaders from growing elements of their leadership style. So how can you get off this wheel, gain awareness, and raise the quality of your leadership? Is the only option to quit your job and switch to another company?!
This question bothered me for years until an idea was born. An idea to create a place where leaders can come together and challenge one another with their work conundrums while also running safe and meaningful experiments. Now such a place exists and is named the Casehub: Leadership Fitness Club.
At Casehub, we see the Mintzberg leadership triangle in a 3-dimensional way. We have added a vertical axis to show the leader's quality in the three elements.
Peter joins Casehub and meets leaders who have different combinations of leadership elements. He brainstorms leadership cases with them and can see how different approaches work. For instance, he may discover that intuitive decisions have their place and can work quite well.
How leaders upgrade their leadership quality at Casehub:
As a result, Peter can still decide how he wants to behave and modify his leadership style, but his decisions are now based on broader experience and knowledge. And the quality of his management naturally improves.
Our goal at Casehub is to provide the closest experience to real leadership situations we can. All in a safe space together with other inspiring leaders for all to enjoy the process. To visit the club click here: www.casehub.pro
By Ivar Lukk, Founder of Casehub. Ivar Lukk is an ICF Master Certified Coach with 25+ years leadership experience in telecommunications, banking, manufacturing, and real estate.