This Learning Kit is a summary of the key foundations, mindset-shifts and resources from Module 1 of the ELP, Grounding Myself. Its aim is to enable you to revisit your leadership learning journey in one place. While it recaptures the themes from Module 1, its most constructive use is in conjunction with your own reflections from Miro and/or any personal journal notes you may have taken.
Module 1 Summary - Grounding Myself
Let’s reconnect with where we began. The ELP started with you because leadership starts with you. We began therefore by connecting with our own foundations and the values we live by. The Values Tree was our guide in populating the mosaic of what is foundational for us, what’s self-fulfilling and what contributes to the greater good. Exploring where these values appear and disappear in our lives and leadership led us to conversations around authenticity with those who know us best.
The context that our values and leadership find themselves in is a world best characterized by constant change. Complexities driven by technology, globalization and remote life are resulting in continual new challenges for leaders. The digital space is disrupting business and operating models of organizations.
Resilience and learning agility were therefore the next building blocks we introduced and explored various self-development practices both individually and in our learning pods.
Values
Helping to shape leadership perspectives that matter is a core goal of the ELP. How we shape such perspectives begins therefore with our values. Values inform every choice we make, the way we act, respond and live. They are, to coin Mr. Presley, like fingerprints impacting everything we do in our leadership. Which brings us to the depth and beauty of the Values Tree. We have roots that ground us, a trunk that gives us our posture and purpose, and of course the fruit connecting you to a greater good.
The benefits of proactive values work
A growing body of evidence shows how being proactive in your values, i.e. naming, framing and living them out rather than being reactive and passive, improves health and performance. The proactive naming and framing as we have done in the Values Tree has been proven to lead to improved health, sense of purpose and greater resilience.
Learning agility
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
- Alvin Toffler
When our world is in a constant flux and our work is increasingly complex, there are no simple fixes to the challenges we face. We cannot expect to find the right answers residing with just one person. Instead, we need to collectively explore and learn together and adopt a mindset of learn-it-all instead of know-it-all. We need to lean towards progression rather than perfection. Our individual and collective Learning Agility, in this sense, becomes the core process and predictor of whether we will succeed or fail in our endeavours as leaders.
The behaviours of effective Learning Agility include:
- Flexibility - Being adaptable, not rigid, when trying something for the first time and getting feedback as soon as possible
- Speed - Trying new approaches quickly and learning about the consequences in the moment
- Experimenting - Trying new behaviors, e.g., approaches, ideas, to determine what is effective
- Performance Risk Taking - Seeking new activities, e.g., tasks, assignments, roles, that provide opportunities to be challenged
- Interpersonal Risk Taking - Discussing differences with others in ways that lead to learning & change
- Collaborating - Finding ways to work with others that generate new opportunities for learning
- Information Gathering - Using various methods to remain current in one's area of expertise
- Reflecting - Slowing down to evaluate one's own performance in order to be more effective
Resilience
“Adversity doesn’t discriminate”
- Dr. Lucy Hone
Resilience is the ability to weather the adversities we face in life and work, and weather they well. It keeps the direction of our ship on course. And sometimes even keeps our ship indeed afloat! One of the world's leading experts on resilience is Dr. Lucy Hone. Hone has helped shape models of resilience around the world ranging from the US Military to leading organizations. Her top 3 secrets of resilient people are applicable to both your personal and professional life. She found that resilient people:
- Know that adversity doesn’t discriminate - immense challenges/difficulties will come one day to you if they haven't already.
- Are able to choose to focus their attention on the things they can change, and on the things they can’t.
- Are able to ask in every scenario, “Is what I'm doing helping me or harming me?”
Dr. Hone’s findings point to an aware mindset, in tune with reality, and oneself. Both agile and aware.
We also unpacked some useful practices to apply in building resilience...
