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Why Don’t We Get The Political Leaders We Need?
This is a new version of a blog article I wrote in May 2011 that struck a chord judging by the comments I received. I felt an update was timely with what’s happened politically this year in the UK and USA.
I’ve met people who feel our political leaders aren’t leading us anywhere. They suspect that while maybe they’re solving short-term problems, there’s no sense of destination … that the same old issues keep recurring. Like boom and bust. Or fighting wars we don’t support. Or house prices outstripping earnings so fast that even people with jobs are being turfed out by landlords when they can’t afford the rent. Or politicians making silly or insincere pre-election promises and quietly binning them when they take office.
Others believe there is a sense of direction, but don’t like what they’re seeing. I suspect people who didn’t vote for Brexit or President-elect Trump feel that way.
How are those who feel there’s no direction … or don’t like the direction they’re seeing … reacting emotionally?
From what I’ve seen their response ranges from anger to apathy. Apathy often accompanies feelings of impotence and resignation; the sense that life won’t ever improve.
But there’s another factor at work. A factor that’s making the atmosphere even more unpredictable: people’s worldwide distrust of political leaders. Continue reading →
How do I get rid of the False Self the fastest way possible?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the seventeenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q16. The question I was asked at a leadership workshop was: How do I get rid of the False Self the fastest way possible?
Answer:
“Consider this, how long have your False Self fears been inside your mind? I realise you won’t have an exact answer, but you can be pretty sure the answer is, “Most of my life.”
Now what’s the average age of the people on this programme? 40 years? So in other words, the chances are that your False Self has taken the best part of 40 years to develop.
So what do you regard as “the fastest way possible”? What is “fast”? Continue reading →
How Do I Stop Others Taking Over as Leader?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the sixteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q16. The full question I was asked was: If I share leadership, how do I prevent others taking over from me? The questioner posed this during a discussion about shared leadership.
Answer:
“You may want to consider whether your interpretation of “leadership” is getting in the way here.
In my book, The Three Levels of Leadership, I described leadership as a four-dimensional process. More Continue reading →
What Went Wrong at Chelsea (Part 3)
Why did Chelsea football club go from runaway English Premier League champions to relegation candidates within 16 games in 2015?
It was an extraordinary collapse that no one foresaw. In 2014-15, Chelsea won the English championship by eight points having lost just 3 games over a 38-game season. But 16 games into the 2015-16 season Chelsea were only one point above the relegation zone, having already lost 9 games. Experienced commentators said they’d never seen anything like it before in professional football. So what happened? This three-part post explores the possible system story behind the club’s on-field collapse which led to Jose Mourinho’s sacking … and what leaders can learn from it.
On Monday I posted part 1, defining what I mean by a system and a system story. Yesterday, in part 2, I posted the Chelsea story. Today, in the final part we’ll analyse the story to see what leaders can learn from it. Continue reading →
What Went Wrong at Chelsea (Part 2)?
Why did Chelsea football club go from runaway English Premier League champions to relegation candidates within 16 games in 2015?
Here was a collapse that no one foresaw. In 2014-15, Chelsea won the English championship by eight points having lost just 3 games over a 38-game season. But 16 games into the 2015-16 season Chelsea were only one point above the relegation zone, having already lost 9 games. Experienced commentators said they’d never seen anything like it before in professional football. So what happened? This three-part post explores the possible system story behind the club’s on-field collapse which led to Jose Mourinho’s sacking … and what leaders can learn from it.
Yesterday I posted part 1 and defined both a system and a system story. Part 2, in which I tell the Chelsea system story, follows today. Tomorrow in part 3 we’ll analyse the story to see what leaders can learn from it.
Imagine This Story…
What Went Wrong at Chelsea (Part 1)?
Why did Chelsea football club go from runaway English Premier League champions to relegation candidates within 16 games in 2015?
Here was a collapse that no one foresaw. In 2014-15, Chelsea won the English championship by eight points having lost just 3 games over a 38-game season. But 16 games into the 2015-16 season Chelsea were only one point above the relegation zone, having already lost 9 games. Experienced commentators said they’d never seen anything like it before in professional football. So what happened?
This three-part post will explore the possible system story behind the club’s on-field collapse which led to Jose Mourinho’s sacking … and what leaders can learn from it. I’ll argue that the story’s main actors (the official leader, the people who commission the leader and the “followers”) must stand back at times and see the whole emerging story rather than let its individual elements blind them. That way they’ll have a chance of steering their organisation away from a downward spiral into crisis. However, this intellectual truth will count for nothing if – while mired in the crisis and feeling the pressure – the actors don’t remember it and find a way of seeing the big picture. The key? It’s self-mastery, the ability to choose your emotional reactions under pressure – a continuing theme of this blog. Today I’m posting part 1. I’ll post part 2 tomorrow and part 3 the day after.
What Do I Think About Strengths-Based Leadership?
Several readers of The Three Levels of Leadership have written to ask: what do you think about strengths-based leadership? So I thought this would be a good subject for the blog, but before answering this question, it’s worth summarising the key ideas of strengths-based leadership. They are as follows: Continue reading →
What Is Self-Mastery & Why Is It A Game-Changer?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the fifteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q15. What exactly is self-mastery in the context of leadership and what makes it game-changing and beneficial for leaders? [This was asked by Joe Scherrer of the Leadership Crucible in the course of an interview in October 2013 for his website.]
“Well, self-mastery, in essence, is inside-out-based change… change from the inside out … where you become aware of what’s happening in your mind and gradually take command of it. This allows you to express your highest potential…not just for your benefit, but in the service of others. Continue reading →
Self-Mastery & Leadership
Lao Tzu, the Chinese sage (not the bloke who wrote The Art of War – that was Sun Tzu), said this about self-mastery: “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
I agree. In my book, The Three Levels of Leadership, I talk about self-mastery as the key to taking command of your thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the service of others as a leader, especially when you’re under pressure. I believe it’s the essential discipline of the third level of leadership that I call “personal leadership”. Continue reading →
Where Did My False Beliefs Come From?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the fourteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q14. Where did my False Self beliefs come from, especially my negative self-image ?
“In a sense it doesn’t matter where they came from. What only matters is that you have a False Self self-image.
I say that not to dismiss the importance of the question, but to focus you on the practical challenge before you. You see, it’s interesting to understand the origins of your False Self beliefs, but it won’t necessarily help you move beyond them, to let them go. Continue reading →
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