by Elmer S. Soriano
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
“Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”
A friend of mine was sharing with me that the senior faculty at the school where she teaches at will all be retiring in a few years, leaving the challenge of leading her her school with her generation. The trouble is, she's only in her early 40's and she will have to take over the role of somebody who has some 20 years more preparation than her. This ontop of having to deal with the rapid changes in her domain. In that conversation with my friend, the challenge was described as Future Shock + Leadership Shock.
How might a country prepare a pipeline of mature, global, public leaders to lead in the present and the future? Drawing from Warren (1995), we imagine a series of stepping-stone arrangements to cultivate a country's stock of leaders. We assume that each citizen is called to be good leaders, and that mature and capable leaders everywhere help advance the project of nation-building, from Parent-Teacher Associations, to churches, to government agencies, to elective positions in cities and national government.
Level 100 - Commitment to Share/Volunteer
At this level, young adults are encouraged to participate in volunteer work so that they get a glimpse of the world of sharing and generosity. Volunteering opens up the eyes of an individual to his capacity to give up his time to benefit another. Sure, the intentions may not be as pure, but the experience opens up the psychological space beyond egocentric gain. Volunteer weekend activities such as Gawad Kalinga builds may be done out of curiosity, peer-pressure, boredom, or adventure, but they open up the mind to one's capacity to share.
Longer-term service programs such as the year-long Jesuit Volunteer Program or the two-year Teach for the Philippines program are more likely to have profound effects on a young adult's life, opening one up the the possibility of a career devoted to public service.
Level 200 - Commitment to Leadership Growth through Leading Project or Innovation Teams
A young adult may get stuck in casual volunteering.
Ideally, an elder, possibly parents, supervisors, or mentors, guide and challenge young adults to step up and start leading teams. Often done in parallel with sharpening selected technical skills, project and team leadership equips an individual with a growing sense of agency, where she begins to recognize her capacity to effect change in the world by mobilizing other people.
At this stage, the individual should be guided toward understanding the larger structural adaptive challenges facing her generation and her sector. In preparation for Level 300, adaptive leadership, political analysis, and social network analysis are key competencies to acquire at this stage. Leading small transnational projects or enterprises is one approach top schools do and should be encouraged for high-potential individuals.
Those in the private sector might not be able to find project like these assigned to them, so they should go out of their way to find or create projects for themselves. They may find a nearby orphanage and commit to co-create a project over an extended period of time, rather than sporadic piecemeal volunteer events of Level 100.
Level 300 - Cross-boundary Leadership and Governance
It is easier to lead office subordinates than stakeholders outside one's organization. At this level, a growing leader should be guided to take political risks, speak to power, and mobilize individuals and groups beyond her own boundaries formal authority. Through informal authority, a leader at this level builds alliances and transforms her organization and others through her efforts.
At this change, opposition and failures become a costly reality. Demands from family will also put a strain on a leader striving to grow in mid-career.
Level 400 - Societal Change Leadership
At this stage, the leader devotes his or her energies energies to consolidating the gains and paving the way for the successor generation. A number of them actually begin starting up leadership schools and injecting their life's work of insights into this school which serves as a repository and multiplier of the competencies that they have seen to work. The Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative focuses on this segment and reimagines what is meant by retirement.
In order to adapt to Future Shock, leaders also have to start evolving in their awareness from 1.0 to 4.0 as described by Scharmer. Level 4.0 is often seen in senior leaders, but this has to be cultivated earlier in the leadership journey so that young leaders have a global and ecosystem-level consciousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment