Leadership Lookout

In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (February 15, 2009), an article by reporter Barbara Mahany entitled “Your Emotional Stimulus Plan” led me to think about a “Leadership Stimulus Plan.”

We’re most definitely in the midst of “a detectable change in the internal or external environment” (Wikipedia’s definition of stimulus). This blog entry explores whether this is “something that rouses or incites [you] to activity” (Merriam-Webster’s definition of stimulus), and whether that activity will positively affect your leadership, your team, and/or your firm.

Mahany posits 6 key psychodynamics that relate to stress and change. She says we respond in varying degrees to the first three–anxiety, depression, and shame–and we employ to our advantage the last three–flexibility, creativity, and resiliency–also in varying degrees. We don’t view this as a linear progression, in which you’d have to go through anxiety, depression and shame in order to advance to flexibility, creativity, and resilience. Rather we see it as an inventory of dynamics that depend both upon natural-born tendencies and upon learned responses.

So we began to think about leaders… and what it would look like if leaders had a “stimulus plan.” It seems to us that resilience is the key to a leadership stimulus plan. We challenge leaders to do something like the following:

Assess their own personal dynamics, and then work as quickly as possible to move through any anxiety, depression, and shame so that they might mobilize, readjust, bounce back, and envision new alternatives for themselves and their organizations.

Here’s a pulse-check on your own dynamics, especially as they impact your effectiveness in a leadership role. On a scale of 1 to 5, (1= no capacity, 5= full capacity) rate yourselves on your current capacity to:

1. maintain momentum
2. regain perspective quickly
3. maintain focus
4. display self confidence
5. envision a positive future
6. inspire others
7. transmit optimism
8. handle VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, chaos, & ambiguity)
9. keep people connected
10. separate what you can control from what you can’t control

We’ve observed that leaders who’ve dealt with any anxiety, depression, and shame and accessed their flexibility,creativity, and resilience are the ones who display many or all of the above capabilities. And that those are the leaders most prepared to lead. What do you think?

If you are interested in more ideas about resilience, here are a variety of interesting resources on the topic of leadership and resilience, the core of a leadership stimulus plan.

Want to listen to a podcast or read an article? Check out this presentation from the Center for Creative Leadership. “Becoming Resilient: Leadership, Uncertainty, and Learning to Thrive in Times of Change.” (In Printed Transcript or Podcast)

Want to read a book? The Resilience Factor: 7 Essential Skills for Overcoming Life’s Inevitable Obstacles, by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte.

Want to take a quick self-test on Resilience? Try one of these:

• Resilience Self Test (Elizabeth Scott, M.S.)
• Resilience Test (Queendom.com)

Want to find a consortium of senior consultants working on understanding and applying concepts of resilience at all levels? Go to http://www.globalresiliency.net/

Next, what would go into a leadership stimulus plan?

Thanks for reading.

Filed under: Article, Book, Discussion, From Rebecca, Podcast