LEADERSHIP
Scaling Leadership
WITH BOB ANDERSON
WE DEFINE self-leadership or personal mastery as creating outcomes that matter most . If we can create the life we most want — organizations we believe in , great families and relationships , a better world — we think that is self-leadership . Personal Mastery is the capacity to create the life that seems to want to come through us . Self-leadership and personal mastery are prerequisites to leadership .
Leadership is something more . Leadership enhances these very same capabilities in others .
LEADERSHIP IS SCALING THE CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY OF THE ORGANIZATION TO CREATE OUTCOMES THAT MATTER MOST — TO CREATE ITS DESIRED / OPTIMAL FUTURE .
Leadership scales capacity and capability in others , through teams , and within the organization . Leadership scales the capability of the organization to thrive by constantly and agilely reinventing itself in the midst of volatile , ever-changing conditions . Leadership At Scale Andrew Millstein , the president of Walt Disney Animation Studios , once said to us , “ Our leadership was exposed at scale .” He told us that when they attempted to scale their business from one film a year to two , the capacity and capability of their leadership was exposed .
Leadership that works at one level of scale is likely to run into serious limitations at the next level of scale . Leadership is exposed at scale . Is your leadership built for scale ? Or , are you already beyond the level of scale and complexity for which your leadership is optimized . If so , you are likely feeling in over your head .
You may be getting great results , but at ever higher energetic costs — diminishing returns on ever higher expenditures of time and effort . You may have a gnawing sense that working more hours is not the solution . The harder you go , the more you get in your own way . You may even be canceling yourself out . If so , you are facing a significant development gap . If so , you ’ re in good company .
The Development Gap
In 2008 , Bob Johansen , one of the foremost futurists in the world , wrote a book titled Leaders Make the Future where he said , “ In my 40 years of forecasting the future , the direst forecasts yet are in this book .” He went on to describe a “ VUCA ” business environment — constantly escalating volatility , uncertainty , complexity , and ambiguity .
We spoke with Bob recently and he said , “ We ain ’ t seen nothin ’ yet !” The level of disruptive change that is coming at us is unprecedented . As leaders , we must learn to navigate permanent white water that is becoming more and more turbulent . This is the world we are in . We have no choice about it . We either rise to meet that challenge or get swamped . Is your leadership built for scale in this environment ?
For most of us , complexity ( the “ c ” in VUCA ) is outpacing our development . Escalating complexity is a given and it is requiring that we adapt and evolve or perish . It continually confronts us with our own development gap . We often ask leaders where they would rank the business reality they face on a scale
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