"You are not born a leader, you become one! We are all potential leaders", reminds the professional coach Pierre Nénert at the beginning of this new webinar entitled "5 steps to mindfully develop your individual leadership". About twenty members of the Cala Learning Hub network were connected on May 13th 2022 to learn more...

A brief definition to start with: according to The Leadership Circle, leadership is about deploying yourself and adjusting to the context to create results that count. "It is therefore more a question of attitude than of qualities specific to each individual," says Pierre Nénert. Leadership has a direct and positive effect on an organization's performance.

Leadership and complexity of mind

According to the American developmental psychologist Robert Kegan, the mental complexity of individuals increases according to their life experiences, i.e. the number of trials or events they go through (sanitary crisis or other...). "Thus, they develop new stages of awareness during the course of their lives," explains Pierre.

Five stages have therefore been defined in the course of life, with periods of transition of varying lengths (adolescence, mid-life crisis, etc.). Stages 1 and 2 (known as "impulsive" and "imperial") concern childhood, while stages 3, 4 and 5 (known as "interpersonal", "institutional" and "interindividual") concern adulthood and correspond to increasing complexity of mind ("socialised mind", "authorial mind" and "transformative mind").

A majority of reactive leaders

According to The Leadership Circle, 80% of people are reactive leaders (which corresponds to stage 3). 15% are creative leaders (stage 4) and only 5% are integral leaders (stage 5). Depending on the context or challenge, certain types of leadership will be more appropriate. For example, in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) context, creative leadership will be more appropriate. And in a climate crisis situation or when it comes to diversity & inclusion, it will be integral leadership.

5 steps to mindful leadership development

  1. Where do I come from? Where am I exactly? 
    • The aim is to identify the level of consciousness at which you are currently operating as a leader. This is done through an assessment with the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) in a self-assessment or 360.

  2. Understand how your leadership has developed over time based on your own experiences
    • The idea is to do a complete debriefing of one's LCP profile, being especially kind to oneself.

  3. Identify your specific personal goal to progress as a leader.
    • For example: work on my tendency to be very demanding demanding or my perfectionism, be more creative...

  4. Clarify your development plan by identifying and being aware of your choices
  5. Implement new leadership behaviours and measure achievements.

The length of this whole process depends on the individual and the goal set. "In general, it takes between 12 and 18 months to reach an ambitious and achievable goal," says Pierre Nénert.

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Blog article written by par Laure Blancard : https://www.linkedin.com/in/laure-blancard/