Usable Insight - Leadership Defined
Leadership is creating the possibility of a future
that wasn’t going to happen otherwise
and then enrolling others
into taking action to fulfill that future.
- Ivan Rosenberg, CEO, Frontier Associates
Through The Effective Leader Program, Ivan and his company recently did that with the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino who had previously seen themselves as simply a provider of low cost housing for the disadvantaged. When looking from the present forward they didn’t think they could do anything to reduce the waiting period of 8 years because of limited resources.
After working with them to imagine beyond their imagination, they committed to everybody having a stable and enriched quality of life. And housing is the first stepping stone to accomplishing that. By standing in this new future, and looking backwards to the present, they were able to develop a doable strategic plan for reducing the wait time to 10 days.
If you’re like me, you also love both smart and wise approaches to solving problems.
For those of you who like listening to something that is really smart, you won’t want to miss, Dan Heath’s Virtual Seminar, Creating High-Impact Ideas that Work, a great live presentation for you and your team on August 28 presented by the Center for Great Management.
And one of the best opportunities to get a huge serving of wisdom will be to catch leadership guru, Warren Bennis, co-author of the recent book, Judgment, and just released book, Transparency, when he is interviewed on “Leading for a Lifetime,” a free TeleForum on Tuesday, July 29 at Leading News, hosted by Marshall Goldsmith and Patricia Wheeler.
(c) 2008 Mark Goulston
July 17th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Leadership… Can leadership be defined or is leadership its own dictionary? As a young aspiring leader I have found it difficult to put leadership in a single multi-functioning definition. I believe this is a good thing because it keeps us from falling into a series of “silos” that narrowly define the word leadership. I often use the following words in regards to leadership.
Leadership is: influence, vision and mission work, removing load barring walls, change, an endless journey, an opportunity, relationship, and I am sure many more can be added to this list.
I have learned from my mentor that I must learn as much as I can about leadership so when I become a leader I can avoid two things: The duck on the pond leadership of, looking clam but really paddling hard under the water and floating aimlessly on sea of cluelessness.
I also try to incorporate leadership in to my daily teaching because leadership is going to be a much desired skill in this changing and globalizing world.
I have found Dr. Goulston’s work and that of many other strong leaders like him to be very helpful! Thanks for all you do.
Greg
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
sea definitionUsable Insight - Leadership Defined