Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results

challenge leaders with the question of vision: what would you do if you could? These questions (How am I playing not-to-lose? How am I getting in my own way? What do I really want? What would I do if I could? How would I lead if I knew I could not fail or would not be fired?) are key developmental questions for the evolving Creative Mind.

Warren Bennis said, the process of developing extraordinary leadership is the same process as becoming an extraordinary person. To fulfill the Leadership Imperative, we need to rethink how we develop leaders. Our efforts need to be long-term and systemic (not piecemeal and episodic), individual and collective, and integrative of the inner and outer

The Biblical Hero's Journey story of Jonah describes this process precisely. Jonah is walking along the beach one day, minding his own business, when God says to him: “Jonah, I want you to be a leader. I want you to be my prophet to Nineveh.” Jonah tries to deflect the request: “My calendar is a little busy. Sorry, can't make it.” God repeats the r

Strategy charts the course of how to get from wherever we are to the vision. Vision is the capstone of strategy, a description of the business, as we most want it to exist at some point in the future. Vision is a response to the current reality of the marketplace, but it is not limited by the constraints of that reality. It is strategic because it

TAKING STOCK Without vision the people perish. What, in your organization, is perishing? Fear is information. It can also be F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real). If you wade through both, what is left for you to do? There is no safe way to be great. No great way to be safe. Where do you stand? Is our culture one that turns achievement into fai

TAKING STOCK What is the organization that, if it existed, would put you out of business? What would the soul of your organization say about its enduring reason for being—beyond money or stakeholder value? What are your individual, team, and organizational non-negotiables? If the system had a voice, what would she say to us right now? What voice of

TAKING STOCK How long has it been since your world was rocked to its core by something you learned? What refusal have you been postponing (Block, 1993)? What's the toll of not living your truth each day? Each moment? When it is all over, what do you want people to say about you and what you contributed? Where do your passions and talents intersect

What is the deeper intuitive knowing, hunch, or gut sense that you must now usher in through your leadership? What is it that most wants and needs to happen in the system in which you find yourself?

“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.

FIGURE 6.5 Optimal Leadership Profile