DANCE OF LEADERSHIP
A vision without a task is just a dream.
A task without vision is sheer drudgery
But with vision and task together,
One can change the world.
~Black Elk
DANCE OF LEADERSHIP:
MASTERING THE ART OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE USING YOUR AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP STYLE
If you’re reading this, then you want to make a positive difference in the world – in your way, using your skills, not as a clone of many of the leaders we hear about today. You also want to influence others to achieve shared goals. That’s leadership!
Leadership is the intentional use of power and influence to initiate, empower, encourage, and direct action that has impact for the achievement of shared goals.
Dr. Robin’s talks, programs, and coaching identify leadership styles and role models from a wide range of multicultural leaders. She also discusses strategies to nullify behaviors that hamper leadership effectiveness – including glass ceilings, muddy floors, and sticky walls. These barriers might be invisible communication style differences or stereotypes that cause people to miss or discount their own or other people’s leadership because their way of leading is not familiar. Or maybe the barrier is internal because you are not leading from your authentic self.
What we have learned from almost 500 years of investigation into leadership is that predicting leadership effectiveness is as difficult to do, as leadership is ubiquitous in the world. We know good leadership when we have it. We find it everywhere – all through time, all kinds of people, many different styles. We have strong views about who has been a really effective leader. So leadership is ubiquitous – ever-present, everywhere.
Yet, leadership defies our ability to accurately define and predict it.
Gender won’t tell us.
Culture won’t tell us.
Age won’t tell us.
Intelligence won’t tell us.
Interests won’t tell us.
Personality alone won’t tell us.
Charisma alone won’t tell us.
Position won’t tell us.
Passion alone won’t tell us.
No one trait will tell us if someone will be an effective leader.
All of those traits – Gender, culture, age-experience, intelligence, interests, personality, charisma, position, and passion have been researched thoroughly for their ability to predict leader effectiveness. Without success!
While traits and characteristics can all help a leader be effective, traits alone do not predict leader effectiveness. What does seems to matter for leader effectiveness is an alchemical blend of the person, their skills, and the call of the situation.
Effective leaders know who they are, what they do best, and when to do it!
WHO is personality and purpose. We are born with certain characteristics, traits, interests, predisposition, and intelligence. And we are born for a purpose – our life has meaning. This is the born part.
WHAT is learned though acquired skills, role modeling, training, and experience. That is the made part.
Your leadership style is a blend of your WHO and WHAT. Defining and developing your unique leadership style is the major focus of DANCE OF LEADERSHIP - Helping you know, at a core level, who you are and what you do best … Your authentic leadership style.
WHEN is the situation that calls forth the true-you with your unique skill-personality mix, your temporal, physical, emotional, geographic context. No single leadership style is effective across all situations. So it will be important to know your style, learn to flex when you must order to be as effective as possible, in a range of situations. Sometimes you are called to lead by followers - they see your potential before you do and decide to follow you.
Leadership is inherently relational. if you look over your shoulder and no one is following, you are not a leader - no matter what your title or position is. Leadership is in the eye of the followers. Followers call you to lead when they believe you have the character and skills needed to make a positive difference in any given situation.
It is my wish that after encountering the DANCE OF LEADERSHIP approach you will be more clear about who you are, what you do well, and be willing to answer “YES!” when you are called to make a positive difference.
There are many different leadership styles. These leadership styles can all be effective when used in the appropriate situations. The DANCE OF LEADERSHIP model identifies 5 styles with multicultural role models and strategies for being effective in appropriate situations with each style. The 5 Styles use names from Gabrielle Roth’s Rhythms of Life. They are Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness.
The FLOWING leader takes things one step at a time—seeing how each movement informs and causes the next. These leaders take their time to assess where movement is in the organization. Theymove their organizations slowly towards shared goals. These
leaders avoid blocking the flow, knowing the power required to
stop movement is much greater than the power needed to channel that energy into desired directions. Their goal is to guide the energy of their organizations to move in ways consistent with collective purpose.
stop movement is much greater than the power needed to channel that energy into desired directions. Their goal is to guide the energy of their organizations to move in ways consistent with collective purpose.
As a leadership style, STACCATO is an extraverted “push” style. Staccato leaders assert, direct, coerce, and tell folks what needs
to be done. They break rules, take risks, experiment, challenge
the status quo, go for the gold, take action—in short they do!
Some Staccato style leaders love dramatic flair with their actions; they come in, shake things up, and get everyone energized and moving. Direction of movement is not always as important as taking some action, doing something!
CHAOS style leaders know they do not have control, do not have all the answers, cannot save everyone, maybe not even
themselves—but on some deeper level they believe in people,
they believe in their purpose (even a divine purpose), and they
have a deep trust in the Universe-God-Spirit-Divine Organizing principle. Chaos leaders often take a degree of pleasure in smashing the boxes and boundaries many of us hide in so that we feel safe and in control. They show us how the categories we live with may be comfortable at times, but way too tight if we really want to grow and solve our more complex problems. The Chaos leader lives-thinks out of the box, and encourages followers to do likewise.
As a leadership style, LYRICAL tends to be more introverted and
involving—you might call it more of a “pull” style if you were to
contrast it with the more assertive “push” style of Staccato. The
person using the Lyrical style is likely to encourage, engage,
inquire, and empathize with others, drawing them out of their shells and into the Lyrical leader’s orbit. Often these people exercise
influence behind the scenes—for which they are sometimes acknowledged,
sometimes not.
Leaders who resonate to STILLNESS use silence, and know how
Leaders who resonate to STILLNESS use silence, and know how to listen to both the inner and outer voice, how to role model the
behavior they want others to emulate, and provide information
that helps followers to listen to the guide within and move from
following that guidance. Stillness leaders seem to be evident and effective in situations that call for values-belief changes. There is something about their ability to tap into our deeper, shared desires that allows them to get below the surface disagreements and bring our places of shared value to light.
The DANCE OF LEADERSHIP will help you identify your style profile. By using the DANCE OF LEADERSHIP approach you will learn when to flex your style, and when to hold firm in order to maximize your influence and achieving your goals.
If you are ready to be a mover and shaker in the world using your authentic leadership style, call 760.202.7777 or email Robin@DrRobinJohnson.com.