Skip to main content

Lessons from Obolensky

 

Obolensky Asks Questions

In chapter 1, Obolensky (2010) asks three reflective questions and if I were able to respond, I’d say a number of things related to leadership over time.

I strive to learn from those around me, but that doesn’t always end up being the case. Most of the time I’m open to other’s knowledge about subjects and some of that rubs off on me. As is the case with leaders, I’ve had a lot of them, and some were great and others not so much. But my attitude has changed about the leaders in my life. I’ve learned to understand which ones I can align with, which has improved my overall career experience. My attitude towards leaders has changed directly because of my understanding of how leaders have impacted my life. I want to be around empowering and transformational leaders, but also those that use situational awareness and are authentic. These attributes are what I find that influences me to be more successful.  

I’d like to tell you a story about my grandparents, who were from the greatest generation and my dad is a baby boomer, which makes me a Gen-X’er. The differences in authority/leaders from each of those generational groups is as different as night is from day. I believe that society normals have changed so radically from the shirt and tie dinners around the table to long hair hippies to plaid shirt wearing grunge rock that along with it, leadership has changed, as well. It had to change, because using the top-down management structure from the early 19th century doesn’t work well in our technologically advanced world of today. There was less push back towards the leaders of this time and their authority over my grandparents when they were young. Such leaders call for sacrifice in the pursuit of moral principles and higher goals, validating such altruism by looking beyond the present moment to frame a future worth striving for (Goodwin, pg. 235). As my dad grew up, the revolt towards authority was everywhere as younger people pushed back against rules and order. Now, we see during my life certain pockets of society calling for the change or end of authority as we know it, while other groups call for control over reproductive and/or religious rights. There is certainly a trend in the attitude of leadership throughout the last several generations. That trend is to change, and I believe this has occurred for several reasons. Whether leaders and their followers know it, the constant in the last few years has been change. The earth is moving at thousands of miles per second through our universe and the same can be said about our communication. Because humans need to communicate and because it is happening so quickly, we must adapt to the environment by closing the gap between quality leaders. This is accomplished by providing more leadership training, either through degree programs, continuing education or workplace-based training. The emphasis needs to be on both the employer and employee or student because both sides will come out winners in the end.

In summary, society’s role in our ability to advance as a species will no doubt be tied to our communication with one another and other lifeforms, foreign or unknown. I would like to think that the experiment we’re performing on ourselves to find the best leaders will bring us to the conclusion that treating each other respectfully is the start to any leadership plan.

References

Goodwin, D.K. (2018). Leadership: In Turbulent Times. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership: Embracing paradox and uncertainty. Burlington, Vt: Gower Pub. Limited.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tipping Point

  Tipping Point There are many ways to describe how a lot of little things can add up to make a big deal. Historically speaking, the city of Detroit, Michigan, where I have spent a lot of my time as an adult, experienced “white flight” in the 1960s, where white families reached a tipping point and moved to the suburbs when black families moved into predominantly white neighborhoods. But from a career or work perspective, it can be really easy to let small, almost meaningless things cause us to reach out tipping point, or snap. “Emotional intelligence (EI) is a convenient phrase with which to focus attention on the underlying emotional components of human talent” ( Boyatzis , 2006, p. 124).  As I continue to learn and grow more into the leader I know I can be, EI continues to be at the forefront of many discussion I have with people. Most recently, I experienced a tipping point at work where I was frustrated with the lack of effort by our legal team in getting back to me wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Strengths and Weaknesses

  My Distinctive Strengths I feel like a lot of what I do I do really well. When I put my mind to it, I believe I can do whatever I want. I know that I’m well organized, I’m a great communicator, I’m someone that recognizes strengths in other people and I’m also great at building people up. My Potential Strengths I know I can do better in some areas, but certain things prevent me from accomplishing them. Namely, if I don’t already have work in my queue, I’m really not that interested in adding it. This also adds to a lack of focus, which is something I know I should do better. Also, I think I could do a better job at remembering things if I applied myself more to the situation. Dispositions That Support Me My positivity is at the top of the list for me that I don’t want to change. I get so much of my mojo from being and staying positive that I can’t see myself changing this. I also think that my faith is something that I wouldn’t change, unless I did it for myself. That i...
Post a Comment
Read more