{"id":2993,"date":"2011-01-11T14:16:12","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/?p=2993"},"modified":"2011-01-13T17:52:07","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T00:52:07","slug":"on-alchemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/?p=2993","title":{"rendered":"On Alchemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find myself empha\u00adsiz\u00ading intra-per\u00adson\u00adal learn\u00ading for cor\u00adpo\u00adrate lead\u00aders because time and again I\u2019ve noticed that the inter\u00adper\u00adson\u00adal or com\u00adpet\u00adi\u00adtive risks they voice can mask a deep\u00ader inte\u00adri\u00ador risk, one where there is a reluc\u00adtance to move beyond the per\u00adson\u00ad\u2019s estab\u00adlished sense of iden\u00adti\u00adty. They may be skill\u00adful in their con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions and rela\u00adtion\u00adships, and they can argue any busi\u00adness ratio\u00adnale they please, but they still are hun\u00adgry for an inner kind of sat\u00adis\u00adfac\u00adtion. They are still vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble \u2014 to them\u00adselves \u2014 and to the hunger that dri\u00adves them to con\u00adceal them\u00adselves in ever more skill\u00adful ways. <\/p>\n

Yet there are those who break out.<\/p>\n

One of these is a CEO<\/span> acquain\u00adtance of mine who many years ago had an awak\u00aden\u00ading about how he was inad\u00adver\u00adtent\u00adly rob\u00adbing his orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion of its implic\u00adit pow\u00ader. When peo\u00adple asked him for deci\u00adsions he made them; when they asked for advice, he gave it. He did this in a spir\u00adit of ser\u00advice, but what he awak\u00adened to was how much his own voice dom\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded in rooms, on projects, in con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions where anoth\u00ader\u2019s voice and judg\u00adment would do as well or bet\u00adter than his own. He went anoth\u00ader step. He began to ask for feed\u00adback gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly from employ\u00adees and peers, assem\u00adbling the infor\u00adma\u00adtion into his own ele\u00adgant self-appraisal. This was an appraisal he had not been asked to do. He did it real\u00adly only for him\u00adself. But he then pre\u00adsent\u00aded his assess\u00adment to his Board, open\u00adly shar\u00ading areas where he felt he could change his own behav\u00adior, iden\u00adti\u00adfy\u00ading what he saw as key blind spots. The Board agreed with his self-appraisal and com\u00admend\u00aded him for his work. He then took anoth\u00ader step, ask\u00ading his board in an inquir\u00ading (not defen\u00adsive or aggres\u00adsive) way why mem\u00adbers had nev\u00ader talked open\u00adly to him about these blind spots, when in fact they all seemed to see what he was now see\u00ading, too. There was no answer. It was sim\u00adply some\u00adthing that was a lit\u00adtle too far out of the norm for that par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar group. This expe\u00adri\u00adence opened his way fur\u00adther \u2014 to exper\u00adi\u00adments and changes in the cul\u00adture of his orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion by fos\u00adter\u00ading the out\u00adright lead\u00ader\u00adship of oth\u00aders in an open and trust-based way. The intra-per\u00adson\u00adal nut had been cracked the only way it could be: from the inside out. <\/p>\n

I have asked myself a mil\u00adlion times how this occurred; how did this leader come to his insights about him\u00adself? He was a mem\u00adber of a peer group of CEO\u2019s for a very long time (and I saw him in this con\u00adtext a time or two), and I sensed that his pres\u00adence in the group was absolute\u00adly com\u00adpelling to the oth\u00ader mem\u00adbers. There was some\u00adthing about him that super\u00adcharged their con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions. Uni\u00adver\u00adsal\u00adly com\u00adpas\u00adsion\u00adate, his gen\u00aduine smile after anoth\u00ader\u2019s com\u00adment might be the great\u00adest chal\u00adlenge that per\u00adson had faced, pre\u00adsent\u00aded in a way that expressed no ego at all, only the will\u00ading\u00adness to notice in a friend\u00adly way a telling moment. <\/p>\n

My answer to that ques\u00adtion of how these insights occurred \u2014 and you can see that this is where my own per\u00adson\u00adal edges are, and my inter\u00adests \u2014 is that he will\u00ading\u00adly took the inner risk, one that had been like going over a water\u00adfall from which there can be no return. It left him changed. When asked about this risk, he may tell you some\u00adthing of his per\u00adson\u00adal life, but the essence in his own words was that he \u201clost a dream of him\u00adself.\u201d And this so strength\u00adened him and gave him such insight that exte\u00adri\u00ador \u201crisks\u201d seemed to have less valence than they once did. He had gained \u2014 my words \u2014 a cer\u00adtain trust, not only in him\u00adself and oth\u00aders, but in the foun\u00adda\u00adtions of a benef\u00adi\u00adcent uni\u00adverse. He learned to trust his life. I see peo\u00adple try from time to time to act that out from an intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal per\u00adspec\u00adtive, but I\u2019m sure you too have seen those whose expe\u00adri\u00adence is so real their dai\u00adly pres\u00adence changed, per\u00adhaps the result of final\u00adly allow\u00ading them\u00adselves to come to the truth. <\/p>\n

The dream my friend lost of him\u00adself caused him regret and pain, that is cer\u00adtain, but much of that ener\u00adgy was ulti\u00admate\u00adly trans\u00admut\u00aded into a pro\u00adfound gift to all those he leads.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of alche\u00admy<\/a> I am most inter\u00adest\u00aded in.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Lichens<\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: Consciousness<\/a> and Openness<\/a>. Link to blog posting<\/a>. Link to Oestreich Associates website<\/a>.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find myself empha\u00adsiz\u00ading intra-per\u00ad\u00adson\u00adal learn\u00ading for cor\u00adpo\u00adrate lead\u00aders because time and again I\u2019ve noticed that the inter\u00adper\u00adson\u00adal or com\u00adpet\u00adi\u00adtive risks they voice can mask a deep\u00ader inte\u00adri\u00ador risk, one where there is a reluc\u00adtance to move beyond the per\u00adson\u00ad\u2019s estab\u00adlished sense of iden\u00adti\u00adty. They may be skill\u00adful in their con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions and rela\u00adtion\u00adships, and they\u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading On Alche\u00admy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consciousness","category-openness","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2993"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3000,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2993\/revisions\/3000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}