Awareness,

1
Awareness, Dialogue, Mental Models Shared
Leadership
by KURT A. APRIL FT Leadership
September 2004
2
SELF LEADERSHIP Inside-Out Success

• Highly effective people have learned to
  integrate a localized focus with comprehensive
  awareness. They zero in on the present moment
  without losing the broader sense of their vision
  and purpose. Being deeply focused, yet
  simultaneously aware of the meaningful context of
  our lives is one of the keys to inside-out
  success
• Kevin Cashman, CEO of LeaderSource

BEING
DOING
3
SOME DEFINITIONS ON MANAGEMENT

• Management is more disciplined than
  leadership, more concerned with today and
  tomorrow, rather than
• five years time
• 
  (Clive Hershen, ex-MD
  Foschini Group, Australia)
• Managers are people who do things
  right and leaders are people who do the right
  thing
• 
  (Warren Bennis Burt
  Nanus, US Academics)
• A manager will only manage within the
  parameters of a given situation, without aspiring
  for
• improvement both for herself /
  himself or for those within her / his circle
  
• 
  (Roger Godwin, Apple
  Computer)
• Leadership has to do with people,
  management has to do with systems. Leadership
  has to do with
• defining reality, setting high
  expectations and goals for the future, and
  inspiring others to share those
• definitions and goals. Management
  has to do with the method one uses to keep track
  of progress
• toward the goals
  
• 
  (Dr. Lawrence Peck,
  Vice President BP-Amoco Oil, USA)

4
SOME DEFINITIONS ON LEADERSHIP

• Leadership is authentic
  self-expression that creates value
  
• 
  (Kevin Cashman, CEO of
  LeaderSource)
• Anyone can manage in a successful,
  well developed economy. Leadership is creating
  value for your society,
• your community, your employees, your
  family and yourself in demerited, tough times
  
• 
  (Professor Takanaka,
  Tokyo University and ex-President of Chu San Ren)
• Leadership requires a responsiveness
  to other people, and a willingness to see how
  they view the organisation,
• its objectives, capabilities, and so
  on and then try and incorporate that somehow,
  because you do have to lead
• committed people who want to follow
  
  
• 
  (Kate Jowell, Board
  Member of Sanlam First National Bank, South
  Africa)
• Good leadership consists of showing
  average people how to do the work of superior
  people
• 
  (John D. Rockefeller,
  Rockefeller Foundation, USA)
• Leadership is a function of context
  different individuals are likely to be leaders in
  terms of particular activities,
• because of the nature of that
  activity, what needs to be done, what the person
  actually brings to the role, the
• ability to get the group of people to
  proceed forward in a manner which gets toward
  achieving the objective
• and leadership is about getting that
  to happen

5
Colin Hall Executive Chairman, Wooltru, SA
Board Member, MS, UK

• I think that the fundamental flaw in the concept
  of management is that it assumes that you manage
  people. Now if you have a view about people
  that they are exponential, and the world we live
  in is about relationships, its systemic then
  you cant manage that. So the myth is that
  managers manage people. The only way you can
  direct humans is to lead them. You cant manage
  them they arent manageable. The moment you
  try to manage them, you reduce their capacity
  you dont enhance it. Leadership, for me, is
  when you win, or earn, the willing and
  enthusiastic followership of one other person.
• TESTS OF LEADERSHIP
• 1. Vision (You have an idea that is
  sufficiently captivating to attract me)
• 2. Competence (Do you know where youre going?
  How to get there?)
• 3. Trust (Do I trust you? How much am I
  willing to risk?)
• 4. Courage (I think you have the courage and
  responsibility)

6
Kurt Aprils view

• Leadership begins with the knowledge that we
  become
• whole, when we exercise our efforts, emotions and
• spirituality to make others powerful.
• Leadership is thus the ability to live on
  purpose,
• by being authentic and consciously aware
• of oneself and others, thereby creating
• value for yourself and others

7
METASKILLS METACOGNITION

• METACOGNITION an individuals deep awareness of
  his or her own cognitive and emotional processes,
  and his or her ability to control these processes
  by organising, monitoring and modifying them as a
  function of environmental factors.
• METASKILLS are the personal skills that we
  need, in order to bring about the above
  awareness. They are the skills needed to step
  back and examine ourselves, the secondary
  processes, the irrational or subconscious
  processes that influence our feelings, behaviour
  and actions, examine why we are here, how we
  operate and how we affect others and our
  environment (colleagues, family, work, community,
  the world, the universe).
• Together, they give you the bases for
• PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

8
Leadership starts with each of us

• BEHAVIOURS
• THINKING ( PARADIGMS / MENTAL MODELS )
• INHERENT ENERGY

9
Systemic Leadership Learning Disabilities

• I am my position
• Focus on an individuals job, rather than on the
  purpose of the whole organisation.
• The enemy is out there
• We blame others when things go wrong. Yet, in
  here and out there are part of the same
  system.
• Mistakes mean Incompetence
• Risk taking is not encouraged / no learning
  culture.
• The illusion of taking charge
• Taking charge is often an aggressive solution
  solving a problem without considering how the
  problem has arisen, or how you may have
  contributed to the problem (in order to come up
  with a solution).

10
Systemic Leadership Learning Disabilities

• The fixation on events
• Focus on short-term events, means that we dont
  notice the slow gradual processes which occur
  over the long-term.
• The parable of the boiled frog
• Not detecting subtle changes in the environment
  until it is too late.
• The delusion of learning from experience
• We learn best from experience, but many of our
  important decisions impact most on others. If we
  act in isolation and fail to share our
  experiences and learnings with others, then there
  will be unintended consequences of which we
  remain ignorant.
• The myth of the management or top team
• Teams may appear cohesive, and function well on
  routines, but they are full of internal conflicts
  and can fall apart under pressure

11
Understanding Self

• Person you most admire? Why?
• What do they have that you dont have?
• What do they have that you do have?
• Aspect(s) that others can write about you that
  they admire?
• To become the person you want to be, what is
  missing the gap(s)?
• What is causing the gap(s) from (a) you, (b)
  world?
• What is the first step(s) to remove that block?
• Why havent you done it yet (Energy Gauges)?
• Why are you allowing energy-takers in your space?

12
Appendix 3 Responsibility Identification

• Complaint Pay
  Off Environment
  My
• 
  
  Would Be Choice
• No Voice Less
  conflict Not DO
  Humane, Trust Choose to
• 
  rocking the boat
  Honesty do nothing
• 
  Not exposing oneself DONT
  Hidden about it
• 
  
  Conflicts

FACT
INTERPRETATION
CONSEQUENCES
RESPONSE
13
SUCCESS - REWARDS

• WHAT DOES SUCCESS MEAN
• FOR YOU AND HOW WOULD
• YOU LIKE TO BE REWARDED
• TO ACHIEVE THAT SUCCESS?

14
Appendix 2 Dimensions of PERSONAL VALUES
FAMILY
LEAVE A LEGACY
INDEPENDENCE
RISK
RECOGNITION
WEALTH
TIME
15
Contact Details

• KURT A. APRIL
• Sainsbury Fellow Academic Director (USA-SA
  CLPV)
• Graduate School of Business (GSB), Breakwater
  Campus,
• University of Cape Town (UCT), University Private
  Bag,
• Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa
• Telephone (Home) 27 21 794-0261
• Telephone (UCT Office) 27 21 406-1411
• Fax (UCT Office) 27 21 421-5510
• Mobile / Cell Phone (SA) 27 82 780-4668
• Mobile / Cell Phone (Holland) 31 65 054-2091
• E-Mail aprilkur_at_gsb.uct.ac.za
• 
  kapril_at_iafrica.com
• 
  kurtapril_at_zonnet.nl