What tools will help you become a better leader?
Leadership in a VUCA world
Our world is in a state of VUCA. The term was coined already in 1985 by two economists and university professors, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, but it is only now that VUCA is living up to its true meaning. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is putting a lot of stress on us as leaders to show up in the world with the right leadership. And, it also provides an opportunity to transform.
What tools will you acquire to become the leader you want to be?
So, what are the tools you need as a leader to navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that characterises leadership in modern workplaces?
Let us first talk about the obvious fact that leadership needs to be redefined for us to have a chance to meet the challenges and transform our ways of operating in this uncertainty.
Leadership has gone – and continues to go – through a transformation. Today we have come to talk about leaders needing to be inspirational and not authoritative. The leaders of tomorrow, though, will need a lot more tools to address the challenges we face. It is not only about the psychological safety of the group at work but it is a matter of the whole.
Understanding the system’s challenges, how we as humans operate in that system, and how we as a company or organization can contribute, co-create and also be successful. The relationship between you, others, and the world, and how you show up as a leader has never been more important. This is often referred to as ‘Responsible Leadership’ which is a combination of the three leadership styles, Authentic Leadership, Servant Leadership, and Transformational Leadership.
The qualities of a ‘responsible leader’
The qualities that we are looking for as outcomes in our programs at Eudelics align well with the qualities that the research suggests are at the core of leaders who are able to meet the challenges we see, and also have the capacity to transform. The qualities of a ‘responsible leader’. We have aligned our desired outcomes of participants in our programs with the Inner Development Framework (IDG) and I have picked a few of them to illustrate how they can be important to your development.
Empathy and compassion is defined by IDG as the ability to relate to others, oneself, and nature with kindness, empathy, and compassion and address related suffering. As a leader in tomorrow’s world, it is imperative to understand your co-workers and everyone around you, to be able to relate and form solutions that will grow the business as well as the humans delivering and developing. Through psychedelics and mindfulness, the research suggests that you can explore and develop this capacity.
Connectedness is defined by IDG as having a keen sense of being connected with and/or being a part of a larger whole, such as a community, humanity, or global ecosystem. As leaders of tomorrow we need to see the whole, and not perceive ourselves as individuals separated from others or the world. Einstein said it well, even if misquoted and misinterpreted at times:
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Through psychedelics, set in the proper context, social and also nature connectedness is improved by the use of psychedelics.
Trust, as IDG defines it, is the ability to show trust and to create and maintain trusting relationships. The leader we want you to be is a leader that can build relationships built on authenticity and connectedness. In uncertainty you need to show up vulnerable and curious about how to solve the problems we cause, and if you do that you build trust. We believe that psychedelics and group sessions, as we do in our programs, help with developing these capacities. Some research that borders social connectedness and trust has been done on groups, and the results are promising.
Presence in the IDG framework is the ability to be in the here and now, without judgment and in a state of open-ended presence. The importance of bringing all of you to your relationships, in and out of work, has been proven over and over again as one of the most powerful tools to create meaningful relationships. As one HBR article explains it well:
“To truly engage other human beings and create meaningful connections, we need to silence our inner voices and be fully present – and being more mindful can help.”
At Eudelics we continuously monitor, and participate in, the industry research to improve our programs and retreats to be able to meet you as participants in your needs to develop into a more authentic and compassionate leader. We are redefining leadership and equipping leaders with the tools they need to address the challenges in this and tomorrow’s world. Our programs are designed to give you the foundation to transform and acquire the capacities to not only meet the VUCA world but also, maybe more importantly, to flourish as a human being.
If you want further information on the IDG, these were the results from their second report on what qualities the respondents deemed most important:
- Co-creation skills
- Complexity awareness
- Communication skills
- Connectedness
- Empathy and compassion
- Courage
- Self-awareness
- Appreciation
- Openness and learning mindset
- Inner compass
