Leadership

It used to be that leadership was seen as something one person (the leader) did to others. The goal was to get others to do what you wanted them to (to "follow" you). That is no longer the case. Like everything else in this world at this time leadership has changed. It might be hard to tell if you listen to the main stream as those schooled in the old style still hold sway in the media and in many corporations. The conversation changes if you talk to the younger entrepreneurs and to younger folks in general. Power over just won't do.

The answers are all around us, if you know where to look. Many years ago the word "paradigm" took the business world by storm. It has filtered out into everyday language, at least to some extent. Joel Barker, a futurist, brought the insights Thomas Kuhn made in his book, Scientific Revolutions into the business world in the 90s and the lessons are just as true today.

Paradigms

Some things that are true about paradigms:

1. They are a "map" abut how the world works and about we understand the world.
   
2. The "map" constrains what we are able to see. If what we see doesn't fit the world, then we:
1. distort what we see (what we are seeing really means...)
2. discount what we see (this doesn't really apply because...)
3. disappear what we see - we actually DON'T see it, don't hear it and don't remember it.
3. This means that we try to solve new problems in old ways - because that's all we know and believe to be true.
4. This also means that we are blind to new information that would help us solve these problems because if doesn't fit into the old understanding.

What's changed?

The world is moving a a pace we've never seen before. Everything is shifting and changing much more rapidly than it ever has. The pace alone, requires a new way of  interacting.

The world is a smaller place. We are more interconnected that ever before. What happens in one country affects every other country. What happens in one part of the world everyone knows about in a matter of hours.

The internet provides more information than has ever existed before. We know more now than people in the past knew in their entire life time. Not only that, information is growing at an exponential rate.

Our impact on the natural world is causing changes that we have no control over and that, once started, will impact us for the rest of our lives. We have assumed that the world would continue to act as it has in the past. As the Earth heats up everything is shifting, seasons, plant, insect and animal ranges, growing seasons - all the underpinnings of life are adjusting to the additional heat in ways we can only begin to imagine. This will, in turn, impact our ability to live with our accustomed ease.

We are living longer. this increases the pressure on resources, both human and natural.

In the United States our internal systems are close to collapse. Our medical and educational systems  are in dire need of fixing. Our political system is showing signs of cracks, our food system is faltering. We need to rethink and repair or redo much of what we have taken for granted.

The internet is a wonderful
window into the future. Web 2.0 and 3.0  are the "physical" expression
of the new urges to work together that are percolating just under the surface of human desire. This desire, this need to work together is one the key drivers for a shift in leadership. The move from power over to power with is huge and not much understood or trusted by mainstream leaders.
 


The Book

Why am I writing this book?
What I want to prove is that people have gifts they WANT to contribute
- the leaders job/purpose is to let them do it!

This book
has two messages: 1) we are all leaders and 2) leadership has changed
significantly in the past few years. I'm writing to bring together my
15+ years as a consultant working with the leadership in organizations
and my spiritual journey, including my victory over cancer. We are at
the beginning of a new era! What has worked in the past will not
continue to work. The issues we are facing; as a nation as a world need
to be met with NEW answers and not the same old, same old. How do we do
that?

Awaken Leadership is designed to help people come to grips with the new leadership and engage with the process of self-development in all its aspects. I look at leadership from the personal level, the organizational level and at the social/global level. What are the shifts in understanding at the personal level that need to happen to allow a person to grow personally and to develop others? I explore the skill sets and offer exercises to expand awareness and strengthen capability.

Organizationally, what does it mean to work differently? How do you do that? I will share my insights into how to create a more participative environment, the implications of technology for leadership and how this new way of being shapes leading companies today and those of the future.

I'm using this web site to both advertise the book and to ask for your involvement! This is an opportunity for you to:

1. get chapters as they are written and before they are officially published
2. help edit and contribute by signing up and using this web site for feed back

If you want to participate, click on the "Join Me" button - welcome aboard!!