The first Three Principles of Leadership are Reality, Adventure and Tenacity, and they are described in this post.
1 – Reality
I described the difference between myth and reality in a previous Chapter. Realities of circumstances can sometimes be clouded by prejudices, hierarchies, and what people like to believe rather than what people in distress are experiencing.
Simplicity, clarity and respect are essential in naming realities – particularly if they contain truths that might be uncomfortable to a listener or reader, as they may be when describing families whose members are involved in crime and imprisonment. (For example I felt challenged when I was describing the Focus Group).
Maintaining focus will always be challenging, particularly when leadership is inclusive of stakeholders who may have strong opinions, or who may be uppity.
Remember that we are inviting people to be involved, so we need to garner support for what needs to be done and what will work rather than disrespecting or dissing what mightn’t be working. Having the wisdom and courage to name what is real will always assist this process.
One of the most productive things about focusing on reality is that people love common sense which is the result of acknowledging, and being in touch with reality.
2 – Adventure
In the Chapter on Energy I mention how important excitement is in an organisation. This is where adventure is relevant. (I will revisit it again briefly in the Chapter on Organisational Matters when I discuss playfulness).
I believe that a sense of adventure is very important in motivating people. Big things can be achieved by allowing people to take manageable risks. In adventure, there is always a bit of trial and error, and organisations generally do not like error.
Risk-aversion is common among leaders that are not that adventurous, confident or experienced. There is a bit of a catch-22 situation here because in order to take a risk we need to have experience and in order to get experience we have to take a risk!
(Remember the child learning to cycle in the early part of the book in the Chapter on Cause and Effect)?
When we take a risk, master a new skill, and put it in practice, something will change – so leaders need to be ready to embrace the challenge that the change brings, just like Mam and Dad are ready to embrace the change that their child mastering the skill of cycling brings to them.
We may allow someone to take a risk but we cannot really predict where it will take us. This is, of course, because living things (and organisations are living things) have the property of emergence. In this, we need to be able to be a little flexible in determining whether or not some new venture is bringing us where we want to go.
For leaders, the important things to remember are to have support and supervision built in to build up confidence, get experience – and – have patience!
3 – Tenacity
A vital element in human development is learning from our mistakes. Once again referencing the child learning to cycle – it is her persistence and tenacity – and learning from her mistakes – that brings ultimate success.
If we don’t learn, we will (obviously) keep making the same mistakes over and over again. This will gnaw away at our enthusiasm which is so important in building tenacity.
For a small child, encouragement, reassurance and praise from her parents or carers does this. As we grow older, wider influences impact on us, e.g. teachers, people we look up to, peers, older siblings, perhaps cousins or classmates and eventually employers. But the foundation is laid down in our preschool years.
In making a mistake it is important to put the mistake in perspective, and determine what needs to be changed to rectify it.
It is worth remembering that sometimes when mistakes are made people may be angry with the person who made the mistake – particularly if it disadvantages the organisation, or people in the organisation – or causes hurt to a person in distress. (The post on how trauma seeps into teams is relevant here).
If we work in an organisation that has no knowledge of the effects of trauma (or pays lip service to it) mistakes have the potential to blow up into major conflict. The role of the invitational leader, in such cases, can sometimes be holding the suffering of the people affected while at the same time enabling accountability.
One of the reasons why organisations are risk-averse is that taking no or very few risks reduces the incidences of mistakes. In respect of tenacity, it is all too easy for practitioners to give up on those who present with problems that are so acute that mainstream cause-and-effect strategies will not work.
To sum up, to achieve anything in such situations, risks must be taken.
So if we work in a very risk-averse agency that has a punitive response in respect of mistakes, or where there is negativity towards what we are trying to achieve, it is important to get support for ourselves!