13 Individual Leader

Introduction

Sustainable organizational transformation includes systems change, culture change, and personal change. Implementing the leadership style and system consistently, and maintaining enough persistence to change the culture, requires authentic behaviors and activities. 

Leadership activities (system) and behaviors (style) are observable to the followers. However, hidden dimensions support these activities and behaviors, including personality, ego, perspective, attitudes, and motivations. Successful leaders who drive transformation to sustainable excellence share five characteristics that increase the odds of achieving and sustaining high performance.

Purpose and Meaning – High-performance leaders have deep personal meaning and a sense of purpose focused on serving people.

Humble but Confident – Successful leaders of organizational design and transformation are humble but confident.

Integrity – Transformation leaders have a high degree of integrity that increases their credibility as role models.

Systems Perspective – Organization architects have an uncommon worldview. They view the world as a dynamic, interrelated system rather than a static, zero-sum game.

Attitudes and Motivations – Successful leaders' attitudes and motives were consistent with the behaviors and activities required by the tasks of design and transformation.

If the individual characteristics below the surface are not consistent with the behaviors and activities, then the collaborative leadership style and activities are an unsustainable facade. The good news is these characteristics are changeable.

Read Chapter 13, Individual Leader, in the [Re]Create Book.

Objective – Understand the Individual Leader concepts, components, and relationships and how they contribute to leadership and organization [re]design for sustainable excellence.

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Are you motivated to create the organization you really want? In this lesson, you will apply the key individual leader characteristics to yourself. Specifically, identify and understand your attitudes and motivations. Then, develop your personal mission and purpose.

Personal Attitudes and Motivations 

Video 0:35

Objective – Identify and understand your personal attitudes and motivations.

1. What do you enjoy doing most at work?

We begin with personal attitudes and motivations: what you enjoy most at work, and what activities bring you the greatest joy when working. Identify them, reflect on them, and describe them. Describe the feeling and why, so go beyond just a simple list.

2. What do you procrastinate doing at work?

Then, what do you procrastinate doing at work? In other words, what activities do you enjoy the least? If you pay attention to how you spend your time when you have the freedom to choose, that might help you with these first two columns.

3. What things do you want to be really good at?

Then what things do you want to be really good at? What is your personal vision? What would you like to be? What would you like to do? How would you like to spend your day?

Personal Mission & Purpose 

Video 2:55

Objective – Develop your personal mission and purpose.

1. What Do You Do?

Describe what you do at work. What are your key responsibilities? What do you produce? How do you want to spend your day? What do you want to do?

2. Who Do You Do It For?

If you do it better or worse, who would care? Whose job is affected? Identify who you do these things for. Who do you serve? Who uses what you produce? Who do you want to serve?

3. Why Do You Do It?

Describe why you do what you do. What is the purpose of your work? How is your work used by those you serve? What difference do you want to make for those you serve?

Conclusion

Creating sustainable value for multiple stakeholders is a noble way to run an organization. Those who succeed at transforming their organizations to achieve sustainable excellence are special — special in the sense that they are uncommon but precisely what we need to address the organizational and societal challenges of the 21st century. The good news is you can choose to lead [re]design and transformation and achieve sustainable excellence. It is a choice. That is all it takes to start.

A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step” — (Tao Te Ching)