with support of Phillip Collins The essential guide to transforming you as a leader LeadershipbyDesign from the author of The Umami Strategy Aga Szóstek, PhD
For Łukasz – it will forever fascinate me how your brain works.
For Maja and Kacper – I hope you will never cease to occupy the driving seat of your lives.
For Dominika, Weronika and Agnieszka – the design dream team.
In loving memory of Maddy Janse – the director of the User System Interaction programme at Eindhoven University of Technology who gave me the most important wild card of my professional life.
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Introduction 10 List Of Contents WEEK I Getting Started 18 WEEK II YourUnderstandingInnerVoice 36 WEEK V YourDefiningRhythm 88 WEEK III The Best Version of You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 WEEK VI Expanding Your Worldview 104 WEEK IV Leading With Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Outro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 End Notes 230 WEEK VIII Daring To Dare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 WEEK XI anBecomingInfluencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 WEEK IX Developing RelationshipsInfinite 150 WEEK XII Your Wabi-SabiLeadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 WEEK VII Building Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 WEEK X Making Decisions 168
To be a good leader for others you must be able to lead yourself first. Rob van der Tillaart I have never done it before so I think I can do it. Pippi Longstocking
Getting Started Are the leadership models uselful then? Design-inspired approach Reflective practice The secret power of experimentation This week’s challenge WEEK
Many organisations and communities have a technological debt, and they also have a leadership debt. When you join a new institution, you are presented with an implicit and undefined set of assumptions on how to lead. I guess it is an amalgamation of the ghosts of the past and present leaders, with their good and bad habits amplified by the general organisational culture. So, it is safe to assume that there is no single answer to the question of what ‘good’ leadership is in a place you find yourself. Any answer you come up with is a good one as long as you feel that your approach suits you and helps others around you develop their potential. You probably already have a sense of what you appreciate about the leaders, supervisors and managers you met on your path so far and what you want to avoid at any cost.
31Getting Started Define your first experiment. Think of something small, like starting a meeting differently, or answering emails only in the afternoon. Hypoth esise what would be a result of this experiment. Perhaps your team open up more when you start a meeting with humour. Maybe you will pro gress with working on strategy when you don’t have to attend to emails every minute. Try it out for at least three days and then evaluate. What changed? Did it help? If yes, how could you improve on it further? If not, what can you learn from that? YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENT FOR THIS WEEK IS: Describe it in three sentences Positive observations Your deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . Positive reactions NegativeNegativeobservationsreactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... Your Whatconclusiontoimprove further? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
YourUnderstandingInnerVoice IrrationalBeliefs ThisEmotionalbeliefslabourweek’schallenge WEEK
47Understanding Your Inner Voice CORE TASKS
Am I hoping that by some miracle it will resolve itself? YES / NO
Am I bothered by the thoughts of what I or others ‘should do, act like, think, or feel’? YES / NO
Am I burdened by the fear of what others will think of me in this situation? YES / NO
Am I going round in circles trying to solve this problem? YES / NO
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1. Do some detective work to find out what angers you. You could include others in this task too, if they were involved when you got angry recently. Investigate the context in which it happened. List five beliefs that seem to underline your reaction.
Do I know what the solution is, but I am paralysed to act? YES / NO
2. Take one issue that angers you the most as a leader (you can select one from the list from above or think of something new). Answer the fol lowing questions.23
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Am I the owner of the problem or am I angry because the owner of the problem isn't solving it? YES / NO
· Do I find myself using a lot of ‘yes but’s’ in discussing this problem? YES / NO
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4.2.1.3.5.
Do I keep on saying how this situation ‘should be,’ rather than facing how it really is? YES / NO
Is there something in me that keeps me from taking the necessary action? YES / NO
YourExpandingWorldview TheGroupthinkwisdom of a diverse crowd Just enough alignment Is empathy enough? This week’s challenge WEEK
testing integrationdecision
173Making Decisions
But, if its ramifications are significant and impactful of your’s or some body else’s life you can be sure grief will most certainly turn up.
When it does, first, you need to accept the fact that it sucks to find yourself in a situation like this. Next, try to analyse what went wrong, and consider which of these elements were under your control, and which were beyond it. Now, consider where you can go from here, what are the options ahead of you that you can choose from to resolve the situation
shock denial anger and frustration depression
Outro Practising self-experimentation Learning through reflection Emotional support
