“If we were meant to stay on one place we’d have roots instead of feet”

Todays blog will be this Januarys deep dive…

Background, to begin with I will clear out about the context in this article. The leadership area is complex and very wide, so I need to frame it somehow. In this article it will be about the fact; can anyone become a leader? And what does agile leadership mean? I will also look into leadership from a guide perspective according to this areas.

The first and a very important question will of course be: can anyone become a good leader? This is a main factor due to if it not possible to read and learn to be a leader, then it will be waist of time for doing it if you don’t got the right condition for it . Due to research within the area the dominate perception is that generical factors, intellectual capacity and personality got meaning. This meaning you must got a minimum out of potential in these respects for becoming a good leader. One more factor that also will be boundary, is the motivation to become a leader and wanting to develop as leader. Some are natural talent, but lacks the will to be leaders. Others lack the conditions to become leader, but feel like taking on such tasks. The Israel Armed Forces has framed a formula for this. L= P x M L stand for Leadership development and P stand for Potential. The M stand for motivation. Ok, so what does all this means then?  Well, two conclusions. The first will be: everyone cant become good leaders. Some missing the necessary potential or motivation. The second will be; many can become leaders and they can be improved in the task.

Bloggers comment: My experience from the “field” is the same as concluded here. Some people are “born” leaders. But at the same time, it is possible to develop as a leader continually. I really think that it is a must. A good leader find out his moral and ethical code, choose a direction and continually develop.

Leadership styles. The developing leadership model is the one that is used as a “modern” leadership comparing to the conventional leadership. The developing leadership characterized by exemplary action, personal consideration and inspiring. But what does this mean in the relative? It means that give support, tutorial and/or training. This is also both in profession as well as in private life. When it comes to model, it means that having a ground base of values. The second will be to live as one learn. The third and last will be responsibility. The charisma is vital for a recognized leader. Personal charisma combined with humanistic values should be desirable. A charisma with egocentric and totalitarian values will be devasting. Inspiration and motivational leadership, a leader can be inspiring for his/hers coworkers. A strong personal charisma is not necessary, but will be helpful. A quite and withdrawn person could inspire others through actions that make an impression and convince. encouraging participation and encouraging creativity.

Blogger comment: What leader will you become? Who is the leader you want to follow when the ships sink? Where are you on that scale? Do you have a role model that you can compare with? As a guide it doesn’t matter of how good you can handle a Tranciever, if you cant organize a rescue patrol at the avalanche. A charismatic leader will always win in the long run, so how charismatic are you? How can you improve it?

Agile leadership. This is a method/term that has come from the IT area. It implies of that we using a leadership that follows the “outside world” and adapts to it. The background is that the organization shall be able to adapt and using all employees fully potential. A way of erase the hierarchy in the organizations. The leader shall in this type of organization, create the best conditions for staff to succeed in their tasks. You identify the value streams and dispose the leadership after the value streams. A delegate responsible to the teams, and see it as an investment. Abolish the managers. You can see the leadership in agile thinking as a burrito. The thin bread is the manager keeping the good filling, the content in place. Leadership just in time and just enough. When applying agile structure and way of working in a organization, it means that the coworkers got a great freedom(but within certain limits) in  to choose how the work will be done. That’s why you can’t combined an agile leadership together with a detailed driven leadership. It must be a trust between management and coworkers.

Bloggers comment: I might be wrong here, but let’s say we don’t look from a historical perspective which I think speak for it selves. Today such mature organization that got the ability to see and understand the customers as well the markets need, would be very rare. My thoughts about this is that the reason for a need of this type of organization can be found under the first chapter in this blog. With deficient leaders, yes we need it. But with good leader, this is a naturally part of the leadership. So either bad leaders or employees who relate to the second ones of the two different type of leaders. So it really means that the organization need to secure good leaders, instead of novelty and buzzwords..

Leadership in temporary groups. This is a area were the Outdoor guiding would have an interest. I have wrote about this area in an earlier blog(30/4 2017) and one main part there was to get trust in leaders when leading temporary groups. So the main word here is trust, there it is where it all begin. There is a very limited research in this area in Sweden. As in many cases connected to leadership Israeli Armed Forces is a pioneering in the area of research. So from there we can find material. When people is a part of a temporary group, the involved will become stressed. A quick trust will reduce the stress. What will the others in the group think, and how will they act in different kind of situations? One of the scientist means that fast confidence can be divided into three parts; the propensity to take risks, share the skills and finally to preconceived expectations of the group are toned down. Also the ability to improvise from the leader will become a success factor. So ok, how can I improve my ability to improvise then? This will be a side track but whatever…More time at school, studying will help. Workout will help you, reading books, learning a new languish, play an instrument, sporting, play games counter-strike. Watching crime series, networking with others, 5g of creatine each day can improve your intelligence with 15 points after 6 weeks. My suggestion will be challenge yourself with a new adventure of some sort…

Bloggers comment: Here it is a lot to learn. How can you as a guide force the feeling of trust in the group you are going to guide? Train to become better to improvising. Clear out how people think and how the “group” will act. What is the rules for the guiding session etc. Keep an extra focus on your own body language, live as you learn even in the body language. And try this with a agile leadership, that will become interesting…

Bloggers summed comments :Leadership will be a crucial part of a guides competence. This area must be developed continually. I fully agree about the point of who can become a good leader. With seventeen year in the Swedish Army as officer and twenty years as a manager in the IT Business area and twenty years as a Outdoor guide I think I got a broad view of this area. One of my most important findings is that it really make sense to become a charismatic leader, to listen and understand your clients/employees. And never think you can lean back on old victory’s. Never stop exploring. When it comes to agile, I must take a stand. For me this is provoking. This because for me this is something that’s included in the adapted leadership. By the way the organizations is build up today, it will be very hard to drive this form of leadership. With the generation X.Y, Z do a try to make it work. I wish you good luck. The manager shall always create the best conditions for staff, but someone shall also got the three-way thinking ahead. For who will take care for it otherwise? And who will secure the competence within the staff etc. I might get myself out on thin ice now, and become a bit provoking as well. But from my perspective this is something invented from persons who can’t or have not been promoted as managers or got less skills of the area. By have been working with lean and Scrum, which I really enjoy and like, Agile as such get my mind of today’s school in Sweden. An environment where the student decide by them selves what to learn. With a less good result. But don’t get me wrong, I think lot of todays companies use a lot of the thoughts from the agile thinking. And many leaders use the “agile” tools without using the “total” set up. Good leaders ha already adapt to this form of leadership, and got the structure and the focus for the business.

So what does all this words and text boils down to? Well this will be the conclusion.

-All leadership is decisions making.

-The first decision will be: do I want to be guide(leader) if the answer is yes, next step will be to understand your own ethical and moral index.

-For being able to lead others you need to able to lead yourself first.

-Work with how you make decisions, what is your ground for judgement and what and how should you develop within that? That’s the key for becoming the one they will follow when the ship is sinking. But how will that be done? Well as Rudyard Kipling said -That is another history…(and might be told in the future on this blog)

”My five coins”

When it comes to mindfulness, I think I might have been going a bit too far. Looking into the core of what it is, it might have been to commercial as all become when you can smell a profit within it. Maybe it is time for some mindlessness? How do you use your time of today? I think we have to speed down and reflect over what is important, and choose to do that. We only know what we have right now, and not how tomorrow will be or looks like. So slow down and live your real life, learn how to enjoy it. The really nice with this is that it is only you who can tell you how to enjoy it. How will you remember your life, that will be the key of how to live your life…enjoy it.

Ulf Bergman

See ya soon…