« Family constellations | Main | The process of accreditation »
July 14, 2008
The future of leadership: developing a coaching culture and approach
I really enjoyed a session with Sir John Whitmore at my local West London Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) branch last Thursday evening. He posed some provocative questions about the current paradigm of leadership in a capitalist society and invited us to consider the differences between consumerism and sustainability.
We considered the many challenges facing leaders today in a global economy, where short term delivery can take precedence over long term, responsible awareness. He offered a very convincing argument that highlights the essential weakness of a leadership approach determined by hierarchy, and the impact that this has on developing self-autonomy and personal responsibility.
This formed the platform for his proposal that we need to adopt a coaching management style to ensure lasting success and achievement when, by contrast, the current trend of "top down" authority, where potentially fear-based control dissolves trust and commitment. This in turn results in a loss of individuality, creativity and people failing to take personal responsibility.
With a coaching approach to leadership, individuals learn to think and make decisions for themselves, they develop a self-sufficiency that then enables them to become interdependent and collaborative, and in turn work with natural systems rather than trying to control them.
For Sir John, we need a new paradigm of leadership for our world to survive. To address the global issues in the organisational context and beyond, we need to be looking for leaders who demonstrate agility in terms of responsiveness and openness to change; authenticity and the accompanying emotional intelligence to support this at an individual and group level; the capacity to self-manage with its associated openness, honesty and humility, and a self-awareness and freedom from fear to enable innovative and courageous thinking and creativity.
For further details about CIPD activities, events and membership, visit their website. And follow this link to find out more about John's work.
Philippe Rosinski is running a three-day Cross Cultural Coaching Seminar in Brussels in November. Find out more here. You can also get hold of his book, Coaching Across Cultures, here or at Amazon.
Posted by Alison at July 14, 2008 03:57 PM
