What is Natural Leadership?
We believe that a number of elements are essential to leadership in the 21st century.
Connection is a key concept in this new approach to leadership. Everything is connected to everything else, and once you recognize this as a leader, you become fully aware of the bigger picture and ensure that your personal interests as an organization or individual align with that bigger picture. The most important thing is to establish a deeper connection with yourself, the people around you and with nature.
Learning is a central goal. It is important that we are always willing to seek new insights, gain new skills and adopt new attitudes by being open-minded and non-judgmental. Change is a continuous process, a fact that constantly calls us to innovate.
Synchronicity is an alertness, using all your senses, to what presents itself. It can be an invaluable tool and greatly enhance one’s ability to renew. The key is to become receptive to apparent coincidences or unexpected encounters. In many cases, we are actually surrounded by signs – the only thing is that we have to be aware to read them.
Intuition is invaluable to natural leaders. But often we have to learn how to follow our intuition, how to understand something through our feelings. Even if we know the solution to a challenging problem, we don’t always have the courage to implement it. How do we know we are on the right track? Usually, a lengthy analysis of the past yields only limited value. A more effective approach is to accept that something is the way it is and from there find a way to improve things. The key is to identify what is important in the here and now and what the situation demands.
Dialogue helps people to work together more independently of existing hierarchies. You give those involved the space to share their deepest truths. Often this in itself is sufficient to get things moving within the organization.
Attention. How can we consciously direct this attention and where is it channeled within the organization? These are familiar questions for the natural leader, who does not forget that attention plays an equally important role in our personal lives.
Reflection helps us see what is going on, recognize patterns, and take a moment to consider our own contribution to specific situations. Reflection is another crucial building block for learning.
Simplicity helps clarify things. There is quite a difference between restructuring an organization to cut costs and restructuring to reduce complexity. Addressing each other directly, being open and honest about what’s going on within the team, and avoiding a lot of headaches and paperwork can help tremendously to improve the efficiency of an organization.
