I was recently listening to a couple of authors extolling the virtues of their ‘ground-breaking resilient leadership model’ …. and (£20.95) book. I wondered whether this really was a new and emerging style of leadership, with some solid empirical research to back it up. Or simply some clever product positioning aimed at a world of work experiencing the pain of volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity.
For me, personal resilience is a precursor of strong leadership. Without resilience, the resolve, bold thinking, personal energy and support network required to start a leadership journey will be missing.
Developing Personal Resilience
In my coaching practice I am spending more time helping my clients to develop the resilience to tackle the challenges they face. I find the framework developed by Kelly Ann McKnight (The Resilience Way) to be an extremely practical and effective tool for this. It is only once the pillars of resilience are in place that the leadership journey can start.
Leadership is leadership. There are numerous examples of both good and bad leadership to examine. The theory is not difficult. There is no shortage of researched models and viable development frameworks out there for us to learn about. The tough part is … the practicing; the making mistakes; the asking for feedback; the learning from trying; the implementing the learning…… The doing of leadership!
The Quest Approach to Developing Leaders
At Quest, we definitely subscribe to the 70:20:10 approach which holds that 70% of knowledge comes from experience of trying to lead, 20% from coaching, mentoring or other interactions and only 10% from a formal education event. Our involvement with our client businesses reflects this. We provide sufficient framework for everyone to be taking a similar approach. Then, we coach the leaders to apply their knowledge to the challenges that their organisation is facing and to learn from their experiences of trying to lead change.
So do we need yet another book? Is another take on leadership helpful? It probably depends if you are a spectator or protagonist … A know-er or a do-er.
One things for certain – a ‘Non-Resilient Leadership’ is not a book that will sell well.
What do you think?
