J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
The Invisible Leader ON INTUITIVE LEADERSHIP AND THE BIOLOGICAL BROADBAND By Jens Schultzer 1
J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
” It is about holism – about making room
for the person as a whole; not only for the rational part of us with its technological and professional qualifications, but also the underlying qualities that really drive us. Our power, aura, energy, creativity, intuition, joy and emotions. Once we allow room for these aspects, we can begin to utilise our full potential, and we will then possess unlimited resources which we can also apply in our professional lives.
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
FOREWORD 6
By Kai Hammerich AUTHOR’S PREFACE 9
Do we really need another book about leadership?
INTRODUCTION 15
Introduction to invisible leadership and mind economy
1 GOAL 21
The five claims about invisible leadership
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THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD 25
Ego and leadershipe time and present circumstances Ego and leadership
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THE LEADER’S PREJUDICES 39
Fifteen prejudices about leadership
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FUTURE DEMANDS AND OPPORTUNITIES 53
Future demands and opportunities New motivational forces Be happy: Maslow or not Challenges of future leaders
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I, WE AND THE WORLD 75
The other pyramid Leadership and transcendental needs Organisational model Level-specific leadership
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CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE LEADER’S JOURNEY 97
The consciousness model The leader’s journey The 6th gear The bridge to higher awareness
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THE BIOLOGICAL BROADBAND 115
Intuition in leadership The pure consciousness Access to the pure consciousness
Listen to your body Case story: Nokia Alps
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THE ’SAILING MASTER’ METHOD 135
The three roles of the leader The organisational role The innovative role The leader as a sailing master The leader’s new tools
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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LEADERSHIP 165 Authenticity and authority Practical tools for invisible leadership THE INVISIBLE LEADER 183 Discover the invisible A story about a soldier
Epilogue 189 With great ability comes great responsibility Appendix 193 THANK-YOU
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LITERATURE 197 NOTES
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
FOREWORD by Kai Hammerich
Managing Director at Russel Reynolds Associates When Jens asked me to read the manuscript for The Invisible Leader, I was anxious to learn its content. The Invisible Leader is a groundbreaking book about leadership that follows the spirit of the time. In my opinion, the book describes ideas and methods within leadership that are ahead of their time. Forwardthinking ideas that can be very beneficial for progressive companies but that are far from being mainstream leadership theories. I know Jens as a leader as well as a human being. As a leader he has proved that he is capable of successfully leading soft and hard values alike in companies such as Nokia. My experience with Jens as a coach has also shown me how well he conveys his broad, philosophical insight and how easily he can relate to other people’s situations. Jens believes in value-based leadership and has a positive view of humanity, but, as far as I’m concerned, The Invisible Leader takes it one step further than most other books on leadership. Jens introduces us to a completely new kind of leadership. It sounds simple but entails a sea change for the leader and the way companies are led. In addition to his holistic approach and spiritual overtones, Jens brings new elements into leadership. As such, these elements are not new at all. They have always been around, but consistently working with these elements in professional leadership is a novel idea, even if we recognise them from present and past unique leaders who have become role models – and deservedly so.
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
When one works with corporate culture and leadership professionally and personally, one cannot help but recognise Jens’ five thought-provoking claims. It is provocative to claim that one can achieve more by doing less, or that inaction can be the only solution at times. However, even though this conflicts with the nature of many leaders, there is some truth to it. One must know when to act and how as a leader. Surely we all know that once things have had time to find their bearings, a solution will appear by itself. Jens describes the modern leader as a sailing master who leads by a common set of values, respect for the individual, truth and love – and by stepping aside in favour of those who are more competent. Jens’ ‘sailing master’ method compares leadership to launching a boat. You give it a push in the right direction and let it sail by itself. Together with his other claims – that one can only make a decision in the moment and that one can only lead oneself – these ideas lead to the cornerstone of Jens’ leadership philosophy: the biological broadband. The brain has enormous capacity that we don’t use. If for instance we are faced with a problem that is difficult to solve, the brain works on this by itself without our knowledge. We are not aware of what it does – it just does it – and the result appears by itself, e.g. once we have slept on it. That is intuitive leadership. These are the endless resources that Jens unveils and puts into a leadership context. We must have faith in and trust our intuition. It can be used as a tool on a daily basis and opens the door to the brain’s unlimited and subconscious resources – the biological broadband.
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
The Invisible Leader is a contemporary way to lead a progressive, multicultural business with creative and innovative individuals who possess values and self-esteem. They refuse to be bossed around by command and control. The leadership principles presented by Jens in The Invisible Leader are a great read for leaders and those who are led as well. It is the art of leading. It is the way to lead well-educated individuals and inspire them to join together and create a harmonious organisation. The Invisible Leader is not directed at everybody. For some people, these principles seem foreign and rationally difficult to accept. I believe and hope, however, that many progressive leaders will enjoy this book and reap the many advantages that can be achieved by themselves, their staff, their family and people in their surroundings by applying Jens’ tools. London, September 2009 Kai Hammerich Managing Director of Russell Reynolds Associates, a global leader in the recruitment of CEO’s, board members and other uniquely qualified leaders. Kai is based in London, England, and has managed a number of different areas, including the company’s global technology sector. He has comprehensive leadership experience as a CEO of Maconomy and through positions with Apple, AMEA, Hewlett-Packard and Russell Reynolds Associates, for whom he opened their first Nordic office in Copenhagen in 1997. Kai holds an MBA with honours from Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, and an MSc in Economics from Århus University, Denmark.
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Author’s preface times of change, learners inherit the Earth, � Inwhile the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
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Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer and philosopher
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any books have been written about leadership, so why add yet another one to the comprehensive library of good books that already exists on the topic? Naturally, my answer to this is that I feel that I can contribute something new to the competencies that our leaders already possess. Many capable leaders realise at some point that they have reached the top of their performance curve. They have tried everything they learned through their education and their daily experiences. They feel that they need a breath of fresh air, new inspiration or new tools that correspond better to the increasing demands of the future. Similarly, many companies find themselves stuck in product development, or feel that nothing is happening in their organisation. The energy is gone and the same applies to some of their best colleagues.
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Employees are not sufficiently challenged. It is difficult to find or retain good talents. But, most of all, many leaders feel poorly equipped to cope with the demands that the future will place on them. Demands from their customers, staff, people in their surroundings, owners, society, the environment, etc. They feel that things are changing too quickly, that they are too far-reaching and too unpredictable. It is simply difficult to keep up – let alone be at the forefront – in these times of constant change. Where does one find an anchor or learn to identify the demands and opportunities of the future? New times demand new leaders or new leadership styles. If we hold on to methods of the past, we will get stuck in the past. There is nothing wrong with what we have learned up till now, but it will not suffice in the future. ‘Business as usual’ is outdated and no longer enough to move the company forward. The market and our society are developing rapidly, and if a company wishes to be at the forefront, it requires a quantum leap. But where should it come from? Where can one find it? Which way should one go in order to get on the right track? I have been fortunate to be in the very situation in which many leaders find themselves today. For instance, in the 1990s, the mobile-phone business was in the same unpredictable, changeable and dynamic situation that many markets are heading towards these days. That is why my experience from that industry corresponds to the challenges that future leaders will meet, or have met already. As opposed to many other authors, I am not going to offer a complete system for better or more-efficient leadership. On the contrary, I will introduce you to a new way of viewing leadership. A new way of view-
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
ing the leader’s role and an alternative context in which to place your company. I hope to appeal to all leaders, regardless of their position in the company, organisation, authority, etc. And whether you are a top executive, midlevel manager, department manager or self-employed, there is a leader inside us all that we ourselves are responsible for developing. To me, corporate leadership is very much a question of attitude and ethics – but this book is not only about that. It also includes a number of specific tools that you can apply to the extent that your situation warrants. None of the facts and methods that I will bring forward in the following chapters are new or revolutionary in themselves. However, it is a new idea to put it all into a business context and try to put it into a leadership perspective that is geared towards the demands of the future, rather than being stuck in leadership philosophies of the past. You will view your company and your role from a new perspective and I am going to provoke you and challenge your preconceptions about leadership, business, and society – even your way of thinking and viewing the world. I am going to question the reality that you are used to and open the doors to a world that most successful business leaders have experienced subconsciously, but whose existence they perhaps barely acknowledged. Leading in this way is a question of faith. Faith in oneself and one’s possibilities and in accepting conditions that one may not be able to relate to through common sense. However, this is neither religion nor a 12-step self-help programme. Nor does it replace good old-fashioned industrial-age leadership.
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
I am not asking you to throw away all your knowledge and skills. We must apply all our knowledge and all the techniques and methods that leaders have enriched us with for generations. We must acknowledge, however, that it takes more to be a leader in the future. It is this ‘added dimension’ that I will try to make suggestions about. I will introduce you to a method and some tools that will allow you to become a better leader, achieve better results, do less and yet feel content and happy. As opposed to many other books about leadership, this book is not based on theory that I have tried to gather examples for throughout the world. As a matter of fact, my methods and tools are a result of many years’ successful leadership in a number of leading companies in various countries, cultures and markets. It is a form of leadership with proven opportunities and success, after which I have studied, read about and analysed why things went the way they did. It is a form of leadership that has been used and that proved successful, leading me to study, analyse and research why things went the way they did. You see, I had to acknowledge that my methods were not particularly valuable to others unless I could identify and build up a theoretical framework for my principles and possibly find reference points for them with other leadership philosophers and thinkers. I have sought to explain the added dimension that produced such significant results at the top levels of multi-cultural organisations such as ISS,
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Nokia and other progressive companies, who focused on global brandbuilding, multi-cultural values and who, to a large extent, depended on innovation and innovative thinking. This search for a foundation of ideas turned into a journey that lasted several years, from one continent to another, from book to book, seminar to seminar, and mentor to mentor. I gathered a large part of my insight from in-depth studies of transcendental psychology. It is within this – and from many current authors of transcendental leadership principles – that I found each building block that is part of the big picture that I am drawing in this book and that, as far as I know, cannot be found anywhere else in its entirety. This book is aimed at leaders and businesses of tomorrow. It is for leaders who wish to accomplish something and who are not afraid to try something new. We must think ahead. If we don’t have an open mind and are not ready to embrace the new, it will be difficult for us to keep up with the increased speed of change. Only by applying new methods and ideas will we be able to keep up with the new times.
” Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” Sun Tzu (approx. 5th century B.C.) Chinese military strategist
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Introduction here is my secret, ”And now a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) French author of The Little Prince
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hat is essential is invisible to the eye, says the Fox to the Little Prince in the masterpiece The Little Prince by the French writer and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The same applies to the leader’s role in the future society. Here, what matters is also invisible, intangible, hidden beneath the surface or behind a veil of prejudice. What is essential is invisible to the eye. It is at other levels than our tangible, physical lives. These circumstances are not visible to our rational eye. We must apply other means because, as the Fox says, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly!” Our society and its institutions – including businesses of all types – are subject to constant change that is happening deeper and faster than ever before. The industrial age, which characterised society for almost two decades,
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J e n s S c h u lt z e r : T h e I n v i s i b l e L e a d e r
has been replaced by the information society, which – according to most – is on its last legs. We can only guess what we will name tomorrow’s society. My suggestion is ‘mind economy’ – because we are going to put mind above matter, and mind economy is both essential and invisible to the eye. Mind – because the minds of employees and leaders – brains, emotions and mental qualities – will become more important than tangible, professional qualifications. Mind – because the picture of the company in the minds of customers and people in the environment will determine whether companies will be successful or even accepted and allowed to exist. Mind – because the ethical attitudes and the values in the minds of leaders and employees will determine the company’s survival in an increasingly attitude-orientated society. Mind – because the corporate culture will lead to success or failure, rather than hierarchy, processes and lines of authority. Mind economy – because these factors are the company’s assets, more so than capital, even when it comes to the company’s results. Our society, businesses and their leaders will be measured against these invisible values: ethics, culture, environment, responsibility, balance, serving people and humanity, being there for others and putting others ahead of themselves, and creating harmony, as opposed to conflict. It is not only a matter of results, but also about the means through which those results were achieved – whether one was considerate or inconsiderate.
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the invisible leader
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The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
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Anonymous
The invisible leader – it sounds like a paradox, particularly in this day and age, when visibility is often put above all at any price. So, what do I mean by the invisible leader? I don’t mean the hidden leader or the secret leader, who secretly feathers his or her own nest. Naturally, the leader must be present, make decisions, lead development, allocate resources, find and develop employees, etc., but the invisible leader is present in an entirely different way to how traditional leaders usually manifest themselves. His or her contribution to the organisation’s development is going to be different to what we have been used to. Nowadays, when leaders are appointed, one of the most important factors to be considered is whether they are willing to use power. This willingness must be there, of course, otherwise the leader will not get the job. The invisible leader is not afraid of showing character, but he or she does not use their power in an apparent way, and is instead operating behind the scenes. They know that the best and most sustainable solutions come about when employees reach them on their own. If they do
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not have this “aha!� experience themselves, the leader will have to help them on their way. The invisible leader is not an autocratic commander, but rather a sailing master, who inspires, motivates and lets his staff come into their own. Read more about the sailing master in Chapter 8. By the invisible leader I am referring to the leader who acknowledges that there are aspects of leadership and development that are not visible with our conventional, rational way of thinking. Leaders of tomorrow will not be identifiable by big cars, fancy offices, private jets, impressive titles and other power symbols. Nor will we see the leaders as figureheads in comprehensive hierarchies held together by regulations, commands, inner conflict, professional career races and bonus schemes. Future leaders will be applying principles that are not easy to spot in a conventional sense. These are principles that are different from the textbooks in many ways, and that apply methods which are not easily visible. The reason behind the invisible leader is a paradigm shift in our surrounding society and culture that will increasingly focus on less-tangible factors, as opposed to specific accounting figures. These are the invisible factors that will determine the fate of businesses, more so than profit and proceeds. The environment’s cultural and moral acceptance will determine the existence of businesses, and their ability to satisfy the transcendental needs of employees and of things as a whole will determine their futures.
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The competition for increasingly picky customers will involve intangible elements, such as innovation, authenticity, trust and relations, more than it will involve visible factors such as price and technical specifications. The leader’s role will change from being the autocrat, who controls and gives orders, to the bearer of the company’s culture and values. Culture and ethics will become a company’s most important assets and these are the invisible resources that future leaders must develop, nourish and communicate. This will happen largely through invisible means. The leader of the future is unselfish and applies less-tangible means during a time when intangible values are crucial for a company’s future. It will be his or her task to see the invisible, feel the intangible and achieve the impossible.
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JJeennss SScchhuult ltzzeerr:: tThhee iInnvviissiibbllee lLeeaad deerr
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1. Goal The five claims about invisible leadership and how these can lead to better decisions and improved leadership.
Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ ” I dream of things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish writer
Invisible leadership is very different from conventional leadership principles. One of the reasons for this is that invisible leadership is based on the world that we are entering, rather than the one we are leaving. New times require new ideas and new leadership methods. Seen through the glasses of the industrial age, the invisible leader turns everything upside down, particularly his or her attitude towards their role as a leader and how this is prioritised and practised. Do you want to create results or not? If the answer is yes, you must think ahead and try to create the leader and the company of tomorrow. And in the nature of things, this must look different to what we know today. Imagine achieving success by doing less. That is a dream for the vast majority of business leaders. In the corporate culture that the majority of the world finds itself in, the
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