Leadership’s Inner Journey

Rick Lash (2002) talks about the necessity for leaders to develop self-awareness; this is an under rated skill in an age where “strong” leadership became synonymous with directive or charismatic leadership. It is time we moved on from that, world leaders teach us that there is no place for machismo in leadership, there is a better way. Inner Journey Self Awareness Leadership

2002 seems a long time ago in terms of what has happened in the world in general and in education in particular, but Rick Lash, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a leadership symposium in Washington DC just after this article was published, writes about the “inner journey” and how leaders can move forward from self-awareness; his longitudinal research with Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman identified five conditions for successful leadership:

• Direction: a clear and compelling direction for the team and organization
• Structure: a focused team with established procedures and norms of conduct
• People: technically competent and emotionally intelligent members
• Support: members are properly trained and their efforts are adequately rewarded
• Development: team performance is reviewed and members learn from their successes and failures.

But, most of all, what is required to lead a successful team is emotional maturity and intelligence in its leader and the ability to communicate and engage people in a common vision.

Lash’s leadership journey has five stages:

• • The call – the realisation that this is what you want to do; to take responsibility, to inspire confidence in others, knowing yourself and your strengths and weaknesses and; being true to yourself, these are the foundations of the inspirational leader and the starting point of the journey. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a headteacher until my Head went off sick for the best part of a year; I suddenly realised that this was something I could do well and wanted to do.
  • Preparation – this might be a leadership qualification or an apprenticeship such as a deputy head role or it could be addressing those areas in which you have identified that improvement is required. In my own case it was my headteacher going off sick and having to lead the school; he was uncontactable and so I could not ask him for advice, I had to find everything out for myself.
  • Crossing the threshold – for many it seems that acquiring a leadership position is the end of the journey, they have reached the goal but this is far from true. Your first leadership position is still near the start of the journey; this is where you start to develop as a leader, you will learn a lot and make many mistakes these will help you to grow as a leader and expand your leadership toolkit. In this process you will need help and support but it is important to grow in your own way. Lash cites the following examples of helpers: 
  • • Obi-Wan Kinobi from Star Wars
    • Virgil, the poet in Dante’s Divine Comedy
    • Gordon Bombay, the coach in the film Mighty Ducks
    • Hagrid and Hermione, in the Harry Potterbooks
  • The road of trials – there will be trials and set-backs, mistakes and what appear to be disasters but you will learn from them all; I have always talked to new leaders about how we learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes and it is important that you model this as a leader because this is how you would want your staff and pupils to behave; acknowledge mistakes, learn from them and move forward. Challenges often increase in intensity as you move along through the leadership journey.
  • Facing the abyss – in this stage you will face a challenge that appears to be insurmountable; this is characterised by a loss of confidence, self-doubt and fear of failure. Lash believes this builds the leaders greatest strengths. This reminds me of taking on the leadership of a school for my Local Authority; the headteacher had been suspended for the second time in two months, pending a police enquiry; the staff, the parents and the community were divided, half the teachers were off sick, the remaining ones were traumatised and the governing body had been abolished. I learned more about leadership in the two years it took to stabilise the school than I have learned at any other time; here is life after the abyss!
  • Transformation and return – due to the previous steps, you will now know yourself as a leader in a much deeper way than before; you can emerge from the brink of the abyss with more knowledge, more skills and more commitment to the job and to the growth of others around you. Some people believe that leadership is a lonely place to be but it doesn’t have to be; good leaders identify and nurture leadership in others and do not feel threatened if those people are more able than themselves, they use that ability to improve their organisations and lead with a sense of shared purpose and shared responsibility.

  The leadership journey, especially facing the abyss, gives leaders a different and wider perspective; in time, effective leaders can take others to the edge, show them the vista and coach and support them in facing the abyss.

  “When we stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon, we get a perspective on life, a perspective that enables better choices and useful possibilities. We look across the abyss and see the enormity of time revealed through layers of ageless rock, and get a sense of something that exists beyond your temporal existence. It takes your breath away.”

  (Rick Lash: Top Leadership: Taking the inner journey.” 2002  Ivey Business Journal.

  Inner Journey Self Awareness Leadership

  https://kindleadership.co.uk/quiet-leadership/