Brock { Abroad }

In a presentation given to us by Pieter Spinder, the tribe-cheerleader himself, he describes his vision of what leadership could mean in the 21st Century: Leadership can refer to: The process of leading, the entities performing one or more acts of leading, or as wikipedia puts it, “the ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission designated by the leader”. According to him, a leader is an individualized and responsive person that can make an impact because he or she feels a sense of interconnectedness within the world and believes that change can be built from the bottom up, inside to outside. He believes that to lead you must be able to follow. Because without followers, there can be no leaders. Leadership qualities that he firmly believes are integral to be a successful leader both for yourself and the world include: humility and integrity. Integrity, he believes, is the bedrock of leadership. “If you lose your integrity, you lose everything.” A leader must be decisive and a risk-taker. Even if it’s deciding when a consensus has been reached and it’s time to act, sensing when the time is right to both lead and follow is crucial. Even more important is having the courage to fail and learn from it is essential to being a successful risk-taker. The emotional resonance, or capacity to understand what motivates others and to inspire individuals into action is necessary to what has become what I believe to be the most important tool for a leader to develop: the talent to build a team. Leaders create productive teams that draw the best from people. The 21st Century leader can coach teams in collaboration, consensus building, and conflict resolution. In regards to the individual leader, the necessary self-knowledge to protect you from overreaching and understand your personal passion bring him/her to lead.

“If you are passionate about something, that’s where you will lead.” Building on this passion requires a conviction that believes in what they’re doing to the very core. It also requires a dedication, spending whatever time and energy is required to get the job done, rather than giving it whatever time you have available. It’s making the time for what matters. Further qualities Spinder addresses include magnanimity and openness. A 21st Century leader is gracious in defeat and allows others who are defeated to retain their dignity. They are able to listen to ideas outside their own beliefs and are able to suspend judgement until after one has heard someone else’s ideas. Spinder concludes the topic by adding that performance, vision, initiative, commitment, and character are crucial elements to what an organizational leader needs to have in order to, as the man himself always says, “make things happen!”

on the book, Power in Creation, given to us at a recent round-table discussion at De Baak, a leader is described as the following: “A leader must have vision, must engender respect, be determined and honest, must be able to bind people and analyze, inspire and motivate, must be able to listen but take decisions. A certain degree of charisma is also desired. It’s a combination of vision and perseverance on one hand, and modesty and openness on the other. “ Perhaps the most interesting theory I’ve read comes from Paul Nobelen. The author of About Leading, he states “The younger generation of leaders seems more principled than previous ones.”

So, what are your principles?