"There are more words on leadership rained down upon us than there are stars in the universe."
by Author
Finding the Hidden Spring of Leadership Energy
There is certainly no shortage of daily leadership advice. It's like a comet circling the earth with an infinite tail of disconnected frozen and meaningless nuggets.
Let's check the global facts. Current leadership really is in serious trouble.
- The Great Resignation is underway. Turns out people don't like their bosses. (Up to 85% according to current surveys.)
- Global leadership training and development - 400 billion dollars annually - turns out to be a waste of time and money. It has little impact on either behaviour or performance. (HBR research article.)
- CEO lifespans have been reduced to little more than a McDonald's burger flipper.
- The half-life of organisations is declining rapidly. It seems we really are clueless after all.
- The 'nonsense language' of business and leadership is turning organisations into zombie-lands and dangerous cults. (Philip Collins in his new book No Bullsh*t Leadership)
Energy and Evolution - Drivers of Life, the Universe and Everything
We know that the two essential drivers of life, the universe and everything are energy and evolution. Where energy is the essential 'fuel' needed to do work. And evolution is the natural software that allows for the continuous emergence of infinite possibilities.
Organisations are driven by exactly the same two drivers. And it is the absence of a thorough systemic understanding of these two elements that has led us down the destructive leadership path defined above.
Worded differently. The leadership wordsmiths of today spend most of their time looking at leadership through the rear mirror. We end up with buckets full of values, visions, missions, goals, change managements, organisational transformations - the list is endless - as if somehow all of this will miraculously lead to a change in leadership behaviour and capability.
Let me be really clear. None of these words or concepts drive energy. They are merely reflections of actions that have already taken place.
We therefore need to go deeper to find the actual source of leadership energy.
Obsession and Imagination
In my last post I spoke of Leadership Energy and the Genius of TheGCIndex, a new and ultra-smart measure of a leader's potential energy.
What is of great interest is the thorough research undertaken to establish this powerful tool. The goal was to understand what drives the genuine mavericks and game changers upon whose shoulders the modern world is built.
What is it that drives the Mozart's, Musk's, and the Steve Jobs' of this world?
Just two key factors emerged. Obsession and Imagination. The brave new world of leadership energy. The hidden spring revealed.
The Linkage
And here is the reason why I wrote about the genius of the GCIndex.
The universe and organisations run on the same two things. Energy and the evolutionary software defined above.
And the high energy game changing leaders run on obsession and imagination.
Consider this. Obsession - the vis vitae, determination, vitality - is precisely the source of human energy or leadership energy. It defines the 'fuel' or 'capacity to do work'. It is the leader's Potential Energy.
And imagination. What exactly is this? It is the evolutionary capacity to think and act on a continuously changing landscape. It is the ability to review the past and present and create a new and powerful future. It is a measure of the leader's Kinetic Energy or energy in action.
How is all this useful?
It is useful because we now have access to the hidden spring that drives leadership energy and leadership capability. We can stop the endless tirade of telling leaders to be more of this and more of that. That path has led nowhere.
What we need to do now is learn how to fully understand the thinking and training that develops obsession and imagination, the real source of leadership energy.
In our own practice we have taken this two steps further.
- We have linked the potential energy revealed in the GCIndex to the kinetic energy of the organisation itself. (We also measure the kinetic energy of the organisation, which reveals the level of obsession and imagination in the culture of the organisation.)
- We link our behaviour change intervention directly to energy and evolutionary thinking and capability, to developing leadership obsession and imagination. Just as you would train a professional sportsperson in the real world, so too can you train a leader to increase his or her own energy levels and related performance.
Welcome to the brave new world of the leadership hidden spring.
If any readers are interested in learning more about this exciting new leadership pathway - you are welcome to contact me for a deeper discussion.