Scanning various social, economic, and geo-political landscapes, one finds a story of leaders, but sadly not always of leadership. In spite of active efforts from Leadership Development practitioners and collective industry alike, this remains an area of substantial investment but unconvincing impact. If little or nothing has changed in the last 100 years in the way great leaders lead, then perhaps it’s time for the industry to re-examine its assumptions and acknowledge a key truth: a leader is not the sum of their skills but the expression of their true nature.
Leadership Starts with the Individual: The 4P’s of Soul Leadership
The questions of talent, potential and self-worth, and one’s ability to realize and live these aspects of oneself have long been a source of inspiration for me. Spending the better part of the last decade within a large global brand provided an excellent playground for exploration of these questions, where time in various commercial roles and leading the Learning and Development function, surfaced rich insights and evidence from which the differential concept of Soul Leadership was borne.
Discussion with leadership peers, experts and leaders alike frequently highlighted for me an uncomfortably significant premise of how leadership has been studied and practiced. Fundamental leadership theory only echoes that throughout the ages leadership has consistently been defined as a variation of the two expressions:
- In terms of its relationship to followers, with countless texts and models choosing to focus on the performance and engagement a leader can harness from their team.
- Anchored in the question of “how can the organizational machine be made to work better?” In summary, these are actions leaders are encouraged to take to deliver the highest possible profitability-influencing yield from each team member and/ or their function or business.
Whilst both interesting and important questions in an organizational context, perhaps a clue to the question of why the industry has yet to find the mechanisms to make lasting and impactful leadership changes is that with those two external orientations (focus on follower and performance efficiencies) the departure point is apparently skewed – leadership starts with the individual.
By contrast, a cross-section of significant leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Oprah W infrey, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Mother Theresa, W alt Disney or Mark Zuckerberg did not begin their leadership journey with the promise of money and power over followers if the good of an organization was served. They led from a dream inside each of them for a different tomorrow. They are distinctive in their leadership because of their clarity of purpose, their expression of passions and because in their respective areas they dared to explore and act on the possibilities that came from asking “what if (it were
different)?” They are Soul Leaders expressing what I call the 4P’s of Soul Leadership – leaders of substance who by living the truth of their unique Purpose, following their Passions and highest Possibilities for themselves, came to find their Place in the world – inspiring movements of change and a following as a result.
Academics and industry leaders have attempted to distill the skills and qualities of such leaders: visioning, leadership identity, influencing, persistent learning, good decision-making, creativity and innovation – typically with the assumption that to develop these qualities will improve the performance of followers and the efficiency of the overall organizational machine. My experience is that without an individual’s awareness of their 4P’s thes e development efforts struggle to stick because they have little or no personal context or meaning to resonate with – more often than not developing ‘strong weaknesses’ rather than enhancing unique talents. In these situations organizations can quickly ring up the $50BN plus bills that make up the leadership and learning industry without obvious return in the way of a deeper and more ready bench of leaders, nor individual and therefore collective organizational growth. W hilst organizations may still be undecided about the type of leaders they seek to develop, they are most certainly united in there being no surplus resources for trial and error leadership investment.
Self-Knowledge is a Super-Power
Soul Leadership is not about training or embodying the qualities of leadership to an agreed norm, but about the very core and essence of the individual. Soul Leadership is not exclusive, nor is it bestowed by birthright, circumstance or talent planning: it already exists in every single individual. It is the process of self-discovery that connects individuals to their 4P’s and therefore activates and magnetizes the leader in everyone.
Viewing the prevailing talent crisis through the lens of Soul Leadership reveals that there is less a shortage of leadership and talent and more an epidemic of individuals at all levels that have not yet made a connection to th eir 4P’s. Without clear knowledge and utilization of their passions, without a sense of a bigger purpose beyond the role or organizational context they’re in, and without acknowledgement of higher possibilities for themselves, it becomes almost impossible for individuals to know their place in the world with conviction. W ithout clarity around their 4P’s, they are unable to display the necessary attributes to lead through a world of which even authorities are increasingly uncertain.
As the world moves into the so-called “conceptual age” [1] it is only fitting to acknowledge that the relationship of power and information has fundamentally changed and with it the developmental focus needs to shift. The industrial age and its hangover was constructed around the premise that knowledge is power and saw suitably aligned training programs imparting kn owledge and skill investments at the upper end of the hierarchy. W e’ve seen this challenged on the grandest scales in the information age. This has subsequently revealed a new framing – that access to knowledge is power; and we see with the surge of technology and community-enabled development efforts that focus on delivering scalable learning solutions across growing global audiences.
Today, a number of leaders, institutions and authorities alike cite the biggest challenge for leadership, as having to face increasing change and complexity for which there is no precedence. W ith nowhere else to go to inform a response, no historic reference, leaders will have no choice but to go inside themselves to find the answers and grounding to weather such relentless change. The leadership and individual development premise that will come to define this age is the realization that in fact self-knowledge is the only true power.
The Only Way Forward is In
To some, the notion of mass empowerment is threatening or seemingly impossible. To a Learning and Development industry whose assumed Purpose is to ignite human potential; whose Passions are people, growth and development; that has long entertained the Possibilities that come from asking, “what if everyone was the best version of themselves they could be?” To this industry, I would offer that the facilitation of Soul Leadership and connecting people with their 4P’s informs our Place and role within organizations and communities. It is the best possible foundation for future learning.
As with any powerful self-reflection learning methodology, it invites the executive question, “what if we invest in people and they leave?” Perhaps a more pertinent question in today’s complex global trade and economic climate is “what if we don’t, and they stay?” In a recent talk John Hagel [2] highlighted that the average life expectancy of a company in the S&P 500 has dropped, from 75 years (in 1937) to 15 years in a more recent study. The strongest organizations are those that are magnetic in their clarity of their own 4P’s, attracting Soul Leaders intent not on taking a job in exchange for a wage, but drawn to living the truth of their 4P’s in every moment and actively contributing in a connected, systemic organization.
This change will happen with or without the industry’s assistance. The sheer pace and demand of today’s world is already prompting talent to question the meaning of what they are doing and their unique purpose. Rather than be threatened by this and the changes it asks of the development industry, our role is to celebrate and accelerate this. The industry stands on the cusp of a defining moment for global leadership: the opportunity to facilitate a movement of mastery – of lasting impact aligned with the values of truly realizing human potential.
There are however some critical responsibilities to meet with this tipping point:
- as catalysts of change – educating ourselves and others about the need to create and sustain leadership from within; and refocus investments to achieve this.
- as activists of human potential – stretching ourselves, organizations and individuals into an understanding of how to acknowledge and live the uniqueness of their 4P’s and the role this plays in bridging change.
- as futurists – holding a vision of how Soul Leadership is a necessary component of organizational, social and political structural changes (think Jon Husbands’s Hierarchy to W irearchy work [3]) that will facilitate continuous growth, connection and indeed a new way of being.
Perhaps the toughest aspect of activating the 4P’s of S oul Leadership is that it challenges the very architecture of our society. It starts an evolution – from the pursuit and acquisition of perceived power over others (through monetary or hierarchical means) as a source of motivation, to a conscious empowering of self and others. In acknowledging their own uniqueness and 4P’s, i t challenges leaders to seek, encourage, trust and value this in their organizations and indeed in the nearly 7BN members of the global community that they live and trade in. Soul Leadership brings with it an understanding that when a leader truly stands in the uniqueness of their 4P’s, there is no competition or need to pursue material power because they are truly one of a kind – and that changes everything.
If one pauses to think about it, why would one tolerate a leader who has yet to connect with their individual purpose, passions and possibilities and who accepts that their place in the world is determined by the next promotion? And yet this is a daily practice. So the next time you meet a leader, ask them what their purpose is and how they are living their truth. To tolerate anything less than leadership of substance, purpose and of the soul is as much a reflection on us as it is on the leader.
[1] Daniel H. Pink – A W hole New Mind
[2] John Hagel – Running Faster, Falling Behind: John Hagel III on How American Business Can Catch Up http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2523
[3] Jon Husband – http://www.wirearchy.com/
