Inner Leadership 8 Universal Intelligences for Balance Introduction The leadership landscape is constantly evolving. Almost every week it seems there are calls for a new leadership – principle-centred, spiritual, servant, courageous, resonant, authentic etc. The call is getting louder as organisations struggle with the leadership challenges that ambiguity, unpredictability, and globalisation bring. What many of the calls for new leadership have in common is that the required qualities cannot be learned by the established approaches to leadership development. They require a shift to ‘whole person learning’ and inner leadership, and this way of teaching is still in its infancy in the corporate world. However, valuable approaches come from some surprising sources. In this article I explore some of this evolving leadership landscape and an approach to whole person learning that has its roots in ancient wisdom cultures that had a more sophisticated and integrated perspective on human and leadership potential. The Calls for New Leadership Prof Cary Cooper, in a recent paper, calls for ‘transformational’ leadership. He makes the distinction between transactional leadership – “a more punitive and controlling management style using contingent rewards and punishment to manage the behaviour of subordinates” and transformational leadership which “requires charisma to communicate new ways of doing things down the line. It needs to involve all workers in the decision making process to achieve the vision and inspire them to come up with innovative solutions.” The Harvard Business Review calls for another style - ‘breakthrough’ leadership, which they define “as multivalent – it points in several directions at once. Certainly it involves breaking through old habits of thinking to uncover fresh solutions to perennial problems. It also means breaking though the interpersonal barriers that we all erect against genuine human contact. It’s leadership that breaks through the cynicism than many people feel about their jobs and helps them find meaning and purpose in what they do. And it breaks through the limits imposed by our doubts and fears to achieve more than we believed possible.” A publication from the Institute of Management, ‘Leadership – the Challenge for All’, reports on a survey of almost 1500 practicing managers. The leadership characteristic most called for from leaders was ‘inspiration’. Although 55% wanted this quality in their leaders, only 11% thought their leaders displayed it. This survey went on to look at 14 different approaches to leadership development and found “none of the leadership development methods listed are positively associated with inspiring leadership”. It seems there is a huge gap not only between what is being called for from leaders and how leaders generally perform, but also between what is called for and the development approaches to cultivate these qualities. What these new styles seem to have in common is a calling for the re-integration of our inner selves with our outer selves, our ‘being’ and ‘doing’, our intention and behaviour, our character and competence, in the task of leading at whatever level. The call is for a deeper level of self-knowledge and self-discovery than our traditional approaches to leadership development have enabled. The characteristics of transformation, breakthrough and inspiration, along with visionary, imaginative, innovative, trust creating, collaborating and many more, cannot be learned by the same approaches that teach strategy, finance and marketing. Whilst not directly linked to leadership, Ken Wilber’s integral Four Quadrant model emphasises the importance of the ‘individual interior’. All four of the Quadrants are vital to the understanding of any behaviour in any situation, yet we have tended to ignore or avoid the inner self. C Otto Scharmer in Illuminating the Blind Spot of Leadership links this to leadership when he says “What counts is not only what leaders do and how they do it, but the inner place from which they operate”. Finally, work from the Globally Responsible Leadership Foundation, (influenced by the work of The Oasis School) suggests that an ‘intellectual’ awareness of the ways we are all interconnected does not positively affect behaviours to take this into account as well as a deep inner knowing of our interconnectedness does. Historically, the development of the whole person or the inner self have been taboo subjects in organisations. The unwritten agreement might be that I will sign over my hands and my brain to the organisation, but my psyche is private! But however much we try to separate who we are as a human from our work environment we are doomed to fail. We think we are leaving our emotions aside but emotions are ultimately the source of most conflict in organisations. However difficult it is to acknowledge spirit, we know when the creative spirit of the business in missing or when a group has no team spirit. Now more than ever we need the contribution of ‘whole people’ to overcome the challenges we face. Even the most intelligent people are not able to solve problems that do not yield to logic. Our organisations are not machines but complex adaptive systems and we need to embrace and move beyond logic if we are to successfully address the challenges we are creating in them, both for the individuals who work their and for the planet that they inevitably effect in some way. I’ll leave the last words here to Henri-Claude de Bettignies of INSEAD, in 'Enron and World Finance: A case study in ethics': “The leaders are indeed expected to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty, to reduce the sense of insecurity, to articulate a vision, to propose meaning. “At international, national and corporate levels, we are short of trustworthy leaders who can attract followers through their vision, the role model they provide and the confidence they inspire. Excellent captains of industry are in particularly short supply, yet we still do not know how to produce such skilled leaders, despite some corporations eternally attempting to create ‘leaderful organisations’.” So where do we look for new approaches? “Poised at the millennium, we confront two critical challenges: how to address deep problems for which hierarchical leadership alone is insufficient and how to harness the intelligence and spirit of people at all levels of the organization. “Our responses may lead us, ironically, to a future based on more ancient - and more natural - ways of organizing.” Peter Senge, Harvard Business Review There are many wisdom traditions on the planet but none seems so relevant at the moment than the wisdom teaching that come from the indigenous cultures of the Americas – the Toltecs, Mayans and Native Americans. It’s relevant because the focus of their wisdom was very practical – how do we survive as a tribe or people? It literally was life and death for them and so they developed very pragmatic tools and practices to balance the individual and the collective in a way that ensured all flourished. In particular these old teachings held a design of Eight Universal Intelligences that make up a sequence of wholeness and an inspiring approach that involves painting an image of what it is for a human to be operating at full potential and then asking what was needed to move towards that potential. This is a refreshing alternative to our current pathological approach which attempts to measure what is broken and then prescribe some action to fix it. When we talk about the whole person or the inner self it raises many questions about what it is to be ‘whole’ or what is the ‘inner’. Fortunately these wisdom teachings left many designs and maps that can take us on a learning journey of deep self knowledge and self discovery. Eight Universal Intelligences In this context we are using the term intelligence to mean the capacity to manifest; the ability to turn chaos into effective self-organising systems. It is present not only in our human systems but in the universe at large. Think for a moment about a drop of water at freezing point. It forms into a precise crystal of amazing beauty. We might ask what intelligence can manifest such precision and symmetry? Our organisations too are self-organising systems and balanced intelligence is needed to create the precision, beauty and symmetry that will enable them survive and grow as they meet the needs of all their stakeholders. The Wheel of Eight Universal Intelligences (C) Ehama Institute To meet today’s challenges, leaders, at all levels, must first learn to evoke these intelligences in themselves. Before leaders can transform their businesses, they must first transform themselves. As Gandhi said ‘you have to be the change you want to see in the world’. They must then evoke these intelligences in others. For it vital that everyone in the organisation learns self leadership also. It is the only way that people can avoid vesting all of their power in others who might turn out to be less than capable or benevolent. These eight intelligences are innate qualities in all people. We may think we have a ‘talent’ for one or two of these but, in fact, all can be developed to a much higher level. Here are some fuller descriptions of this powerful framework that, developed collectively, will create the transformational, breakthrough and inspirational leaders that are needed in today’s organisations: Creation Intelligence The capability of a leader to access his spirit of boundless creativity and self-expression in developing the business. What business is not looking for more creativity, imagination, innovation and inventiveness today? Perceptual Intelligence The capability of a leader to be fully aware of what is happening within herself and in the business and be able to communicate this without blaming or judging. In the busy-ness of today’s organisations, who would not benefit from a few minutes stillness now and again to really pay attention to what is going on and to ask what is needed? Emotional Intelligence The capability of a leader to ensure the business is open and trusting in its power and alert to internal and external conflict than might threaten its well-being, particularly in times of change. Emotions are a valuable source of information but too often they drive unconscious behaviour that creates conflict and wasted energy in businesses. Pathfinding Intelligence The capability of a leader to keep everyone aware of the business purpose, clear about their identity, mindful of the learnings from their experience and focussed on their direction. In these unpredictable times, organisations need leaders who can find the path ahead and keep the organisations actions aligned with it. Sustaining Intelligence The capability of a leader to ensure the sustainability of the business by identifying what’s needed for the balance and maintenance of structures and processes that will ensure regeneration, strengthening and growth. For an organisation to be healthy and strong then all its members must be equally healthy and strong. How well do leaders balance the care for the people with the need to get the next task done? Predictive Intelligence The capability of a leader to ensure mindfulness of the rhythms and cycles of the business and of the web of cause and effect that shapes the future. How able are leaders to forecast the consequences, both positive and negative, of their actions? Decisive Intelligence The capability of a leader to foster courage and clarity among people and to draw upon their resources to take the necessary clear action. How courageous are leaders engaging more of the collective genius of their organisation to develop and implement strategy? Energia Intelligence The capability of a leader to make certain that all the voices are heard and to ensure a vitality and energy of enthusiasm exists among the people. How well do leaders inspire others and call them to right action though their words and actions? Application of the Universal Intelligences Here I take four of the Universal Intelligences and explore some of the ways they might contribute in practice in a business. I look from both the inner perspective of the leader and their organisation together with the corresponding outer perspective. Creation Intelligence Let’s start with Creation Intelligence because everything starts with Creation! The need for more creativity in our organisations is vital to stay ahead by finding new and innovative ways of meeting the fresh challenges that change brings. Nothing new starts in a business – new products, new ideas, new approaches, new thinking – without Creation Intelligence. We can all think of great painters and inventors who exuded this Intelligence and let their creative expression flow in their lives. Everyone has this innate Intelligence but for many it has been suppressed – many were told at school that they can’t draw, can’t sing, can’t write. We are born with this spirit of creation that won’t be suppressed. We know what ift feels like to work in organisations that discourage this Intelligence coming forward. Many people have hobbies or other occupations outside of work simply to feed this fire that burns within them to bring forth the creative sparks. To transform organisations, we need Individuals, at every level, who can access their spirit of boundless creativity and self-expression in sustaining and growing the business. A leader might ask herself “Am I free to express to myself and others who I truly am?” I constantly meet managers who say ‘I could not do that/say that. What would my team think?’ Sometimes we are just not aware of how our freedom is constrained. Opening up this question of freedom might lead to more questions: Am I free to create powerful visions and share them in ways that engage and enrol others? Am I free let my imagination run wild – unbounded? Am I free to play with ideas? – its is said that the inventor of the Palm Pilot carried a wooden model in his pocket which he used to test how many ‘taps’ were needed to carry out tasks so he could reduce them. This is what we mean by being playful with ideas. The leader might then ask similar questions of his organisation, for example “How much freedom of expression and creativity do we have in the business?” Leaders would be interested in the culture of creativity. How is it encouraged and rewarded. What leads to out of the box thinking? Do people get punished for new ideas that don’t work? Is there a real willingness to encourage new and innovative thinking? Then new leaders might turn their attention to the External Environment and their relationship with the wider market, country or world and how this frees or constrains thinking within the company. It is well known that much innovation comes from small companies outside of the corporate culture. Emotional Intelligence In the south of the Wheel of Eight Universal Intelligences is Emotional Intelligence. Much work has been done by Daniel Goleman and others to begin a real conversation about the role and value of emotions in the workplace. However, in this old wisdom way, emotions are a natural part of our humanness and powerful source of information for us as we explore the fullness that life’s experiences offer us. Too often we get trapped by our emotions or blame others for it – ‘you made me angry!’ And then we react, sometimes in ways that we regret later. We lose the emotional flexibility we see in children and carry our emotional scars with us, often for a long time. The new leader pays attention to their own emotions, moment by moment, and does not suppress them but extracts the valuable information they bring. These leaders can put time between the stimulus and the reaction that allows them to choose how they respond to the emotions rather than being caught by them. Emotional Intelligence encourages a questioning, for example, if I am feeling angry, what is it in this situation that is bringing forward the anger? Why would that make me angry? What am I afraid of here? And what is the best way for me to respond? If we don’t learn and understand how our emotions are affecting us, then over time we close down our trust and our child-like qualities of curiosity, awe and wonder and adventuring. And the world becomes a dull and boring place. We are in a rut. An Individual with well developed Emotional Intelligence is asking “Am I open to the adventure and discovery in my life? Do I have the resilience that will enable me to bounce back from whatever comes my way? Am I able to stay calm under pressure so that I can draw on the many other resources I have at my disposal? New leaders will extend their own learning in this area to their Organisation. They will pay attention to the level of alertness and engagement among members in developing the collective power of the organisation and in surfacing conflict and addressing issues that confront the business. They have a strong sense of team and community and ensure there are methods for dealing with conflicts for they know that these can weaken or endanger the business. They see change as an essential part of business and call for building a climate of confidence and trust to ensure that all needs are responded to. In the wider External Environment, new leaders stay alert to the quality of interaction and relationship outside the organisation. They stay alert to the changes happening in the world so that if dangers exist they can be met. They seek trustworthy and open relationships with all of their stakeholders. They seek out collaborative and co-creative ventures and new markets and export opportunities. Sustaining Intelligence Sustaining Intelligence in the west of the Wheel of Eight Univeral Intelligence is often under-represented in our lives and organisations. The old wisdom cultures would often look seven generations ahead for the impact of their actions. We are sometimes lucky if we see beyond the next quarters results. A healthy organism will always have a better chance of surviving and growing in a rapidly changing world than an unhealthy one, yet many organisations give little thought to this. Might this be because caring is largely a feminine quality and our organisations are predominantly run by very masculine males. This is not to say that men do not have their feminine qualities but there is little evidence that they are rewarded in the Board Room. From an Individual perspective, a new leader with strong Sustaining Intelligence will maintain balance in all areas of their own life. They will be fully aware of the connection between their mind, body, spirit and emotions and will be sensitive to the changes within themselves when these are out of balance. They will take care of diet, sleep and exercise as well as practices that heal, strengthen and balance their mind, spirit and emotions. It is hard to imagine how leaders who do not take care of their own self would have any insight into what is needed for the balance and maintenance of structures and processes within the Organisation. A new leader would call attention to what is needed for sustaining the business. Health and wellbeing of all would be important. Recent litigation suggests that organisations may be responsible for the mental health of people it employs. Hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation have been awarded to people who suffered illness that resulted from the stress they suffered. So there is a direct bottom line connection when little attention is paid to the quality of life of individuals or the quality of the contribution they are making. In the context of the External Environment, a new leader pays attention to the changes outside the influence of the business that impact the ability of the business to remain balanced. This calls for a great sense of the interconnectedness of the business and its markets and the world. A number of our manufacturing and work practices have been shown with hindsight to be positively dangerous to people. Sustaining Intelligence would prefer to be proactive rather than wait until there is ‘enough evidence’ and the effects are already being felt. In response to the economic conditions (or maybe it was the fad for re-engineering) many companies downsized in ways that they found later to be unsustainable. They fired many of their most talented people – they were often the most costly – and then found they had to hire them back at higher rates as consultants. This may well make good sense from a short-term profit and loss perspective but probably not in the context of the long term sustainability of the business. Decisive Intelligence Finally, we will explore Decisive Intelligence in the north of the Wheel. In our Western culture this is usually the one given the most prominence. In our businesses we want plans and strategy; we want action! Decisive action is vital for our organisations but without the balance of the other intelligences it can often be misguided, illegal, poorly implemented or sometimes just plain wrong. The role of the new leader is to foster courage and clarity among people to draw upon their resources to take necessary clear action. The new leader might ask “Am I using resource and strategy to take clear action in my own life?” They know that to be decisive requires courage – it is very difficult to make key decisions that affect people’s lives and the survival of the organisation. They know that this courage comes from a deep place within them. We would say it ccomes from the heart mind. It is said that when we are faced with a challenging decision, the heart know immediately what is needed. However, we often miss this signal because the brain kicks in about 0.3 seconds later and applies logic to the situation and we can let this overrule our deep knowing of what is needed. At the Organisation level, the leader might be asking “What is the business’s ability to access the resources of its members for use in effective strategy?” The great strategists tell us that you must create a strategy based on the resources you have. In the planning cycle, resources come before strategy. Many businesses have come unstuck by trying to do this the other way around – particularly in the area of mergers and acquisitions. They have created and implemented a ‘great’ strategy only to find the resources – people, talent, time, attention – are not available to carry it through to success. New leaders ensure everyone helps identify, locate and direct the assembly of the needed resources and involves as many as possible in creating simple strategy and plans for effective and efficient action that lead to successful implementation. With respect to the External Environment, the new leader might ask “How well does the business use external resources in the effective achievement of strategy?” The recent rapid increase in sub-contracting large parts of the internal service provision has come about through this sort of questioning. So has the increase in collaboration, partnership and clustering, even with competitors, as it is realised that resources outside of the business can make a difference to competitive advantage. Epilogue In the words of another wisdom tradition, the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” sums up what inner leadership is about. The question it leaves unanswered though is ‘what is the self?’ The Eight Universal Intelligences offers a very sophisticated map of the self that emerged from people’s who studied the self organising properties of the planet systems as well as plants and animals and learned to apply their learning to humans. To quote again from Peter Senge in 'Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society': “Virtually all indigenous and native cultures have regarded nature or the Universe or Mother Earth as the ultimate teacher. At few points in history has the need to rediscover this teacher been greater” Mike Bell Feb 2007 © The Wisdom Meme 2007