Some Key Tenets in Adaptive & Transformational Leadership
At the end of every calendar year, I read my top five leadership books. These books have been transformational in my thinking about leadership; and, thereby, have been transformational in my leadership behaviors. Each book and each author has provided something critical to my growth as a leader – in my position in the marketplace, in ministry, in my community, and at home.
One of those books is called "Canoeing the Mountains" by Tod Bolsinger. It was pivotal for me to better understand both transformational and adaptive leadership via the leadership journey of Lewis and Clark's expedition (and the author's incredible writing and leadership insights).
Since I just re-read this (again), and it hit my head and heart in such a big way (again), I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.
Out of the twenty-three tenets that Tod has from his "Reorientation Recap" on pages 217 through 218, there were five that were the most critical in my mind:
You were trained for a world that is disappearing. In the organization I previously worked at, we used to say all the time, "everything has a shelf-life." The equipping and training we had received as leaders had us ill-equipped to meet the ever-changing and dynamic community/society that each new month, quarter, and year would bring. Whatever undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate school had offered up in your past season of equipping has probably lost a lot of its relevance. The world is changing quickly. Your industry is changing quickly. Your company or business is changing quickly. If you and your organization don't realize this and aren't doing something to keep up with the changes quickly, then your business will lose its narrative in the world. And, as sobering as it sounds, it's true that as each generation is birthed, this becomes more and more the case.
Before people will follow you off the map, gain the credibility that comes from demonstrating competence on the map. I don't think this means you have to be a subject-matter expert in everything in your business. For example, if you are a C-level executive that is leading out in Sales and Marketing, you don't have to know all the intrinsic details that a Chief Financial Officer knows about the finances. BUT you do have to know how to understand a Profit and Loss spreadsheet, how to manage your budget, and how budget changes within your sales and marketing teams will impact the rest of the organization. In regards to understanding Sales and Marketing, if you are the team lead for Sales and Marketing, you need to have that down stone cold. And if you don't have it down cold, because someone hired you to fill that role because you are a "great leader," then take yourself to task and learn all of the blocking and tackling that's required to be a bona fide subject-matter expert in the lane that you are leading.
If trust is lost, the journey is over. This concept was not even in one of my six core tenets in my first leadership philosophy that I drafted a few decades ago. Instead, it preceded the six tenets and was a stated "non-negotiable" to leadership. One of my life mentors (Dr. MaryKate Morse) told me, "we can't have good leadership without great ethics." If you, as a leader, break trust, the team is done – the mission is over. You can't recover from that. I'm sure there is a unicorn example that I could stir up from my memory banks that would say the opposite, but I'm burning calories right now trying to think of one example. I can't. Trust has to be maintained, always. I have changed my leadership philosophy a bit over the years, but this non-negotiable concept of "trust" has remained intact. It will always precede any other statements in any leadership philosophy that I espouse.
There is no greater gift that leadership can give a group of people on a mission than to have the clearest, most defined mission possible. Clarity trumps everything – it trumps shiny, new, best practices, and great strategy. If there is no clarity amongst the team, things just unravel – or never get off the ground. Over 90% of conflicts have to do with communication – poor communication, confusing communication, or lack of communication. That happens over objectives, goals, strategies, tactics, sub-tactics, organizational structure, market dynamics, and the list goes on and on and on. Yes, it's a tall order to have crystal clarity in each of those dynamic variables that I just mentioned. But to not have the clearest, most well-defined MISSION for you and your team? It's borderline criminal. Your team needs that clarity; the entire organization needs that clarity; YOU need that clarity. As egregious as it can be if you don't have the mission defined with clarity, the opposite stands true – it's a beautiful gift when you and the team have 20/20 acuity over the mission. Fight for mission clarity, relentlessly so.
Uncharted leadership is absolutely dependent on the leader's own ongoing exploration, learning, and transformation. We can't lead well if we aren't well. We can't lead a team or a business into uncharted territory unless we have gone into uncharted territory with ourselves. Said more bluntly? You can't lead others well if you don't lead yourself well, and you can't lead yourself well unless you know yourself well… REALLY well. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses, passions and triggers, likes and dislikes, what gives you energy, and what depletes you. You need to go to task on understanding yourself at such great depths so that you can reach down deep to empty as much of your leadership/servant cup as you possibly can for those that fall under your leadership purview. This has been a mantra for me for years; and as I go through this life, it is absolutely affirming that I need to dig deeper and deeper and deeper.