We need to reset the way we develop leaders

Climate change, the bush fire emergency over the Australian summer, the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic and subsequent economic and social challenges, and calls for long overdue transformation to address systemic Indigenous inequality in Australia given fresh impetus by the Black Lives Matter protests in the US and across the world have made it very clear that we are living and working in very turbulent times. In such times, both pain and the opportunity for transformation are present. Citizens and communities are engulfed with a sense of anxiety and stress as well as a sense of positive potential as society faces major inflection points and old ways of living, working and being are changing and re-setting in real time. 

Leading in such times cannot be based on old models of leadership. Leadership that is only concerned with the accomplishment of tasks or outputs or year on year profit growth is outdated, as the strategic and operational context that shapes how such outputs and tasks can be accomplished are in a state of ever increasing flux. Disrupted business models, broken supply chains, blocked access to markets, unpredictable events and globalised flow-on -effects weaponised and hyper sped by digital technologies destroy old models and create new models of business, government and even civic participation.

Indeed, the very relevance and nature of those outputs and tasks are called into question as leaders, organisations, governments and citizens pivot continuously to fast changing circumstances and as old assumptions and ideologies are seen to be irrelevant.

 It therefore stands to reason that the development of leaders cannot be based on old ways. The developing of leaders calls for fresh eyes and new methods which must be better able to help leaders to develop the necessary capacity to deal with complexity. Leaders are required to lead with a new maturity and a new sophistication because the increasingly complex environment demands of ourselves greater mental and emotional complexity.

This is not just about being more resilient or more emotionally intelligent. As leaders we need the ability to continually grow and develop mental and emotional complexity and to operate in transforming environments by being transformative ourselves. The world is full of ready examples where people in leadership roles clearly do not have the mental and emotional complexity to deal with actual complexity, let alone transform anything. Not only incompetent, they do real damage as they actively retard opportunities for societies, communities, institutions and organisations to transform. Indeed, they destroy and their form of destruction is not of the creative kind.

The maturing leader

The greater the complexity in the context, the more mental and emotional complexity is required of leaders. The 'self authoring' mind and the transforming mind represent, as Adult Development researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lehay tell us, greater complex mental and emotional states and correspondingly more complex or mature forms of leadership.

Developing self authoring or transforming leaders to lead in the times we currently lead in, must require a break from past models of development. Development is not achieved by coming together in traditional classroom environments or expensive hotel ballrooms to learn about how to manage stakeholders or some other technical topic or to play with toys, build towers of straw or Lego, listen to guest speakers who are from our own echo chamber or to dance to loud music, fun as all that might be. People can do that on their own, with their iPhones, their books, Google, you tube videos, Ted talks, podcasts or from a myriad of other sources, without needing to gather.

Rather, meaningful development requires a coming together of minds and hearts to do Inner Work as well as Outer Work. Inner Work refers to the beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, and biases that leaders have (unconsciously or unconsciously) and to transform these positively. Inner Work is facilitated by deep dive guided meta reflections to uncover and confront attitudes and to foster deep self insight.

Outer Work entails developing new relational practices and skills to give life to new beliefs and attitudes. Relational practices refer to how we relate and connect with people in ways that unlocks their potential as well as ours and dismantles social barriers that prevent people from rising to their potential.

There are particular things that transformative leaders need to know, to do and to be and its vital that any leadership development program can empower participants to be transformative in their leadership work as global and local contexts transform continually.

Leadership programs therefore need a new form of curriculum to guide the way leaders are developed but not just based on the things they need to know and do or the behaviours that they need to display, but on the kinds of people they actually need to be.

For more than ever, we need people to actually be leaders.