Is your leadership Reality or Illusion?

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination”

— John Lennon

The Final Face of Leadership, face Eight, is Reality or Illusion? This is an edited version of the original chapter from the 2017 book by Dave Evans Leadership or Leadershit. We reference and update the initial findings, research and ideas to include updated neuroscience, global pandemic reflections and overall, the ability to ensure that we as RLC Global continue on our learning progress and challenge our thought process, actions and thinking. All integral parts of being “real”,, relevant and also progressive. We pride ourselves on being what we say we are, doing what we coach and consult, and being willing to correct our collective and individual perspectives, boundaries, and understanding.

“Reality and not illusory stuck on labels of expert, we embrace generalist, rebel and learner.”

— RLC Ethos

The Grand Leadership Illusion 

In the movie The Truman Show, a man is living his life on the set of a soap opera, where everyone knows he's the star of the show, but he has no idea that his world is not actuality and all created.

Imagine going through such an experience yourself?

How would you feel if you found out the truth?

What would be the impact on you?

 Chances are, it would be alarming and also challenging to comprehend. Now imagine this analogy with leadership. Real Leadership bears little resemblance to illusory leadership, and I think we have all been deluded by the latter grand illusion over time. 

Due to systemic educational systems, parents, culture, stories, books and the media, most of us have imbued with the word 'leadership' as if it were a proven principle with given laws and set procedures that should never be questioned.

Admittedly, business people have started to review and debate the subject more over the last few decades. Yet, sadly there isn't enough analysis going on, which is why I wanted to contribute to this critical subject if I can do so. 

 Compelling, practical, strategic, edgy, and successful leadership is perhaps not synonymous with what people generally believe it should be. This doesn’t mean that classically attested leadership roles such as a Prime Minister, President, business owner, and Captain of a vessel, are always leaders. They can be, and often are, but that solely depends on the results. We may have to suspend our core beliefs and everything we were ever fed on the subject of leadership.

 When Margaret Thatcher led Britain through the Falklands crisis, I suggest she was in results-leadership mode. However, when she attempted to deploy the poll tax, she was in classic leadership mode, completely missing something she could never envisage. The former example is about collective spirit, powerful messaging, detailed planning and people motivation. The latter was about assuming that a set of leadership principles can be applied to anyone or anything and will always work. 

 So, someone like Stephen Hawking can be an influential leader, but not everyone sees this. Instead, they prefer the label of cosmologist or similar. 

 The non-prescribed, non-systemic leadership thinking indicates that the type of leader that produces excellent results is more like an agent in a chemical reaction, a catalyst if you will. He or she may remain unseen and perhaps have no direct interaction with anyone. That's why a good football manager can be a fantastic leader from the sidelines, whereas the team captain could have been failing on the pitch, even though the players and crowd see them as the peak of the pyramid.

What if ultimate leadership is a combined collaboration between the manager, captain, players and supporters? There doesn't always have to be one person leading the way. It can be several or everyone. 

 Appreciating the difference between illusion and reality in today's world, are we attempting to

1. Re-invent?

2. Discover?

3. Unearth?

4. Changes what we already know from the past that does work?

 Probably all four of these things, but in a recipe that suits your specific needs. Belief in the leadership principle 'persistence' espoused in many a leadership book has been a critical failure component for many business owners over the years.  

Referring back to Stephen Hawking, when he tells you what a black hole is, compared to what a sixth former suggests as a passionate amateur astronomer, 99% of people will want to accept the former's view, even though neither of them can know for sure.

 For example, Madam Curie was an expert who inadvertently killed herself with her discovery; she had some knowledge but lacked the overall picture. This makes understanding and succeeding in leadership a tricky dilemma. I have already mentioned authenticity, mindset and exploration as things we should consider keeping, but what if these are complete red herrings?

 One way to deal with this is to flip the idea.  What if we were to set aside everything we ever thought we knew about leadership and instead laid out a different strategy to understand the concept? 

 7 Leadership Realities 

1. There is no one example of the perfect leader 

2. Leadership Principles are still a matter of opinion and must be personalised

3. There is a guaranteed success model for leadership 

4. Leadership is of no value without results 

5. Results are always more important than leadership itself and welcomed 

6. Poor leaders like the label 'leader.' 

7. Good leaders have no interest in any label 

 If you look at this list of 'realities', you can also work out the illusions. We can philosophise and deliberate on anything for decades, but sadly we all have this leadership factor called time, and it drives us to decide, act, and win, or fabricate, waits, and lose. So, at some point, we have to make the best of it. I had the same tussle just before I started writing. Let’s explore the illusory element of leadership

Leadership Illusions

The Outward Bound Leader

Imagine Mahatma Gandhi. Seen by millions as a classic leader, but now imagine him being sent on an outward-bound course as a way to become more successful.

 Do you see the challenge with this?

Would go on an outward-bound course on the British Bodmin Moors have made him any more resilient, focused, or ultimately more successful than history tells us he was?

 He was not prepared to fight, renounced violence and created an impetus that fired up a nation, finally defeating the British in 1948. Gandhi's methodology was probably an afterthought rather than a critical strategic choice. The way he handled things seemed to him the right thing to do, even though he would probably have never believed he could defeat a superpower simply with protest, without the use of violence. Yet when you think about it, choosing to do nothing was a significant form of impetus, even when the temptation would have been to do the exact opposite.

Leadership paradigms are rife in our fractious and fragile world, particularly in military communities that are responsible for many illusory myths, and it's not about aligning with pacifism or renouncing acts of heroism in the fight for freedom. It's disengaging one's thinking from paradigms that imprison our more effective thinking. Thinking that is so powerful that it can free us from 'The Grand Illusion'. 

The classic Military Leader

In the Falklands War, 1982, Colonel Harry 'H' Jones gave his life in an extraordinary act of heroism, winning him the Victoria Cross for valour posthumously. There's no question that he showed classic leadership qualities. In a military context, it could be seen as crass to question his contribution to the war, which was undoubtedly enormous.

 However, even in military circles, a conversation ripples around this selfless act of courage and questionable leadership choices. Ben Fenton of the Telegraph newspaper reported: 

 The best-known Victoria Cross award [a] of the post-war era was surrounded by controversy from the earliest days and questioned at the military's highest levels. Newly released documents have revealed that Lt Col Herbert Jones, universally known as 'H', was awarded the Victoria Cross for charging Argentine Positions whilst defending Goose Green during the first land battle of the Falklands conflict. He died in the act, but his men, the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment (2 Para), went on to take all of their objectives against heavy odds. Sometime later, authors and historians began to report doubts about the award, suggesting that his actions were ill-judged and rash, much to his friends and many former comrades' anger. But files show that even by the time the first recommendations for medals were received in London, less than six weeks after the Falklands' final recapture, these doubts were already circulating. 

At first, the point here is that what at first appears as 'obvious' leadership, linked with courage and bravery, is no longer 'obvious' when it becomes blurred with the future's leadership ideals. 

 Leadership and Paradigms 

Defining paradigms, our set beliefs, as we say “set in stone”, assume they are true without question. 

“Paradigms are like glasses. When you have incomplete paradigms about yourself or life in general, it’s like wearing glasses with the wrong prescription. That lens affects how you see everything else.”

— Sean Covey

We experience paradigms as an integral part of coaching and consulting. Our experiences across workshops and coaching sessions are that people resort back to a paradigm's comfort rather than change it and create a paradigm shift.  I've taken people through the tortuous journey of understanding what paradigms are, only to get an agreement upon their understanding and then watch them slip back into the paradigm they are fervently living.

It is like proving to someone that sugar is bad for you, as they reach for a tin of cola, saying: "that's really interesting". 

 I have yet to come across a great definition for the word paradigm. We get descriptions like 'model' and 'accepted of something'. I like to think of a paradigm as an illusion of potential truth. It's an alternative perception that others may see but not yourself. The whole point is that by realising what is potentially false versus what you perceive to be accurate, making definitive change allows you to get closer to your dreams and goals. One person's paradigm is another person's truth. 

 Who is to say that anyone really knows the difference?

Five years ago, coffee was bad for you, but now it's accepted that 4 cups of coffee a day apparently reduce the chance of early death by 66%.

 It's also true that some paradigms save lives. Others take lives. We are on dangerous territory when we try to make sense of it all. We all succumb to paradigms in life. The key is to check for paradigms around important decisions and solve a problem that appears excessively large. 

20 Top Leadership Paradigms 

 I now intend to be totally tongue in cheek with 20 ideas, some of which I reverently believe in, yet I want to flip it around to give you leadership paradigms. So, when reading you can test your perceptual positioning skills too when I argue against what I have already said the opposite about. 

1. BE A ROLE MODEL

An excellent idea, but is it a good one? The challenge with being a role model is that you are potentially creating many tiny versions of yourself. If you know absolutely that you are perfection and have nothing you need to change about yourself, this may have merit; but the reality is that no one can profess to know their path is the right one, let alone be the walking template for others. The basis of any kind of cult, political following, or focused organisation is where the self-styled role models are copied, followed and sometimes even worshipped. 

2. HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED

There's an adage that knowledge is power, and there's truth in this, of course. But is it the leader's job to hold the knowledge?

Does the leader need knowledge anyway?

Henry Ford was taken to task in his early career. Fingers pointed at a man who had no formal qualifications. What made him qualified to run a growing automotive company? When finally quizzed on this specific point, his response rang loud bells in his favour.

He said:

 "If I need to know anything, I simply pick up the phone and ask someone who does know. I always have the right information to hand". 

Modern Millennial entrepreneurs seem to have less time or inclination to acquire significant amounts of knowledge personally. In the past, when we couldn't google things, there could be a case made for knowledge acquisition. Today it seems rather unnecessary. More than knowledge, common sense, good soft business skills and a great way with people can be great winning ingredients to success. 

3. IMPLEMENT THE LEADERSHIP PLAN

This is a good one because this appears to be straightforward. However, let's flip it. To have to implement any plan can be daunting, mainly if the plan is untested and at considerable risk. We can often feel as leaders that we must implement - if we don't implement, who will?

Yet equally, when plans are implemented, and they fail, what then?

My belief (or is it a paradigm?) is that there are many steps to every strategy, and it can be better to look at things in bite-size chunks and deal with a piece at a time. 

4. MAKE TIMELY DECISIONS

In 1986, you could pick up a flat overlooking prestigious Park Lane for £180,000. Today it would be worth about £4.2m. Had people realised this to be a good buying decision, many people would have done just that. It would have been a timely decision.  

Of course, it's outstanding leadership to make a timely decision, but expecting that people know how to make the right timely decisions every time is unrealistic. It's the same as telling someone always to think positively and expecting your advice to become an unchangeable habit from that point onwards.

Making timely decisions is excellent and always celebrated in retrospect. I have never met anyone who can do this every single time without fail. 

5. KNOW YOUR PEOPLE & LOOK AFTER THEM

What a quaint idea! It's a bit like having children or a collection of pets. Knowing all about them, then rewarding them for an excellent job well done, or in terms of the pet, it behaves itself.  As we all know, children can quickly start to take advantage of this carrot reward mechanism and most certainly outgrow it. Equally, wouldn't there be a need to increase the reward each time for maximum impact with an adult version? The other disturbing thought is that you are creating robotic thinkers who see you as their life compass and owner. In a business, this can be rather unhealthy. An alternative approach would be to support the people to get to know themselves first, choose what they would like to improve upon or change and offer them a way of looking after each other—self-determination over being determined to 'do the right thing' for the people. 

6. BE A GOOD COMMUNICATOR

No kidding! Yes, good communication would be helpful in any situation. And if you're going to make this work truly, might it not be an idea to become an extraordinary, exceptional and compelling communicator? Whether in front of a large audience, small group or one on one? More critical than communicating is undoubtedly how you communicate in the current technological age we live in. In addition to the how, there's the what, where, when, all of it should start with the why. Why this message? Why not that message? 

 Too much communication can be confusing. The media carries a heavy burden in an over-communicating world, declaring the truth as far as they can. Yet, often they go with sensational news, as it sells more newspapers and online subscriptions. For leaders, failing to communicate what is true can have catastrophic consequences, and there will be times to delay a communication rather than miscommunicate. So, it's less about being a good communicator and much more about focus on the right kind of communication. 

 The global pandemic has exposed communication in its many forms, from new language[1]- “woke”[2], cancel culture[3], calling in and out and many more. Within leadership, the reality is the divide and polarisations, generational differences, paradigms and controversial conspiracy theories of real and illusory leadership. The do as I say and not do exist and co-exist with intentional actions and unintentional outcomes.

 Our ability to navigate with honesty, vulnerability and good communication is not a “nice to do”; it’s a necessity. Intentional communication is a prerequisite of leadership and the individual.

7. FOSTER TEAM SPIRIT

Are we talking about the rah-rah, positive thinking, motivated individuals and other things that historically foster team spirit? Motivation, true motivation, can only originate from the inside out and never outside in. The latter will work for a relatively short time, rather like a recreational drug, and then the 'coming down' can be painful, depressing, and something never to be repeated. Knowing how to inspire so that people can motivate themselves has always been a big realisation in coaching successful leaders. 

8. SEEK OUT RESPONSIBLITY

A bit like saying: "Go and find the Bogeyman". Great. But what happens when you've found him? Getting people to seem to be responsible is a big ask if there's no support around this big venture. The conceptual leadership 'graveyards' in businesses worldwide are stacked high with the 'leadership corpses' of people who had sought responsibility, found it, and then floundered soon after. Seek out responsibility is more about understanding the nature of accountability, deciding it's something you want, use the tools trained and associated with it, and then being guided and supported until the individual is comfortable with their new mantle. 

9. MAKE AN IMPACT

Come on. This can't be a serious principle? Make an impact? If the new CEO of the world's top computer company takes the stage, falls over a lead, breaks her foot and needs to be taken away on a stretcher, that certainly makes an impact. As a piece of advice-making an impact- has got to be one of the easiest things to do. Yet using these three words as your new leadership mantra should be avoided at all costs. Impacts are always perceived retrospectives. With hindsight, we can see who made an impact and how they made it. Artificially constructed plans to impact, particularly the more adventurous and risky ones, should be avoided at all costs. Make a planned and manufactured impact at your peril. Unauthentic[1]resonates with scripted and also disengaging. Make an impact is about belief, doing, actionable reality. Are there ways to make an impact, albeit looking back in time? These impacts are usually the best ones. 

[1] Authenticity is a oxymoron topic in leadership, as reality is we have to be inauthentic at times to deal with the situations that occur. Stepping out, leaning in, calling in and calling out others is not a natural authenticity action- its intentional action. Seth Godin writes about authenticity so well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJtuaFebtA

10. ACHIEVE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

Not quite sure what should be inferred by this? Professional as in one's standards? And competence in terms of one's level of ability?

How does one go off and attain professional competence when joining an organisation for the first time?

Will there be a School of Competence?

Online competency training?

This, instead, sounds like setting someone up to fail. The message here is confusing, pedestrian and uninspiring. If, however, there was a fast track to reach a level of measured competence, a competence level to be the norm for everyone else in the team or business as a whole, this would be a different proposition entirely. Competence is a defined prerequisite, yet it can create limitations, apathy and also is set by bias. Competence relies upon IQ, EQ and personal preference, so it’s ambiguity. You can reset this through language and skill share, up-skill, self-assessment and most of all, outcomes, results and what your customer needs.

11. ITS OK TO MAKE MISTAKES

Absolutely not. No way. It is not OK to make mistakes! (Whoever conceived this stupid idea isn't a surgeon, dentist, airline pilot or nuclear arms technician). You should never get the impression that mistakes are OK. They are not and should be avoided linguistically and in action.

There are many ways mistakes can be circumvented if there are excellent systems in place for the business. Mistakes do happen when a business process has been poorly designed or doesn't officially exist. Or it could be expressed as "if you make a mistake, ensure that you learn from it in a big way, and share your learning with as many people as possible". 

Mistakes are not failing, not achieving. Failing is acceptable always. Failing means an attempt with a positive intent to improve, take action, do or create and start something new. Failing is learning. Mistakes are repeated activities that contribute to paradigms, disengagement, ego and ultimately laziness and ignorance of doing right. Change this language, and you change cultural outputs too.

12. BE QUALIFIED IN WHAT YOU DO

Yes, but only up to a point. Where you need to be a qualified doctor to practice medicine, you don't need an MBA to be a brilliant entrepreneur. Of the scores of 'dragons' in the TV franchise, Dragon's Den all over the world, very few started with a business degree. There are also millions of business degree holders worldwide who have never run a business in their lives. Qualifications are important when the knowledge is critical to your role, but there are many roles where your university degree has no bearing on what you now do. It's much more about attitude, behaviours, and beliefs that match your desired outcomes in such circumstances. 

Educational achievement is not a direct correlation to skill and ability[1]. You could be excellent at retaining information yet lack any ability to apply it. Accreditations are not also a correlation to quality, talent, delivery or ability to achieve. Many are commercial accreditations that you “buy” and create a false perception of actual skill. Demonstrated excellently in the coaching and learning and development industries as many think a coaching qualification makes a great coach -it does not. Life skill, experience, empathy, communication, connection, rapport, awareness, listening skills, storytelling, analogy awareness and most of all, solid, consistent, “lived’ and clear values and qualities. Coaching, as an example, is not about money-making (which many make it about). It’s about transformation, change, self and personal growth, ability to connect others to apply their learning. None of this is achieved by doing a qualification or having accreditation; it is only achieved through a desire to make a difference first.

13. TAKE THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH

Why? Surely you should go for taking the smooth[1]. Who would want to believe in this nonsense? Take steps to be aware of what 'the rough' constitutes. Be mindful of ways of avoiding 'the rough'. Know also the many paths 'to smooth' and focus on them more than the opposite. The 15th-century term is having to accept the negative in any good situation. Is this reality? Is there always a negative with a positive in outcomes?

Get to smooth (positive) as soon as possible, then aim to remain there. If this line refers to dealing with problems and adverse circumstances, there are tools for these unexpected circumstances and being adept and using the tools will keep you out of the rough. Manging mindset, linguistics, ability to communicate, being curious, and ensuring that you are aware of your bias whilst working and leading others is critical. At RLC, we see this statement as validation for poor behaviour, weak leadership and poor communication. A great technique to use is 4MAT to override and have an accurate, clear understanding- Why, What, How, What If. [2]Why are we doing this? Why is this possible/not? What do we need to change? What do we want to achieve? What are the current obstacles? How do we do this right now? How do we overcome the difficulties? How do we identify risks and opportunities? What if we did this/ didn’t do this? What are the pros and cons?

14. ACCEPT THAT THERE WILL BE PROBLEMS & YOU WILL HAVE TO SOLVE THEM

If there are problems, never blindly accept that there will be problems, as you will start seeing them emerge from everywhere. This is linked directly to RAS, neuroscience, and self-programming connection to the negative rather than the positive work effort[1]. Use the right tools and strategies to deal with them. Know that there is a business tool for just about every potential problem, difficulty or 'challenge'. There's a lot to be said in using the right words to support your most desirable outcomes. There is a chapter coming up about inevitable problems, which hopefully will be of value, but you could equally decide to skip it altogether if it gives you the wrong ideas. 

15. APPRECIATE YOUR STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

The first bit could create a challenge in that you never seek out new strengths. The latter makes no sense. Why would you want to appreciate a weakness? Would this not make more sense if it was: use all of your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. In coaching, a coachee knowing their strengths and weaknesses can be helpful, but an individual who accepts that they have flaws that they are stuck with is in big trouble, particularly in a leadership role. 

Knowing your strengths and weakness is about self-awareness, EQ, self-candour. It is an area of significant meta-studies, and it's proven we humans[1] over assess or under assessed. We believe we are more qualified to evaluate others and that everyone is not good at assessing us! So being able to accept feedback, accurately self-evaluate and also understand that weaknesses are an area of either insignificance, dislike or non-requirement of choice. We assume we are good at something if we enjoy it more than we are not good at something if we don’t. The success of Global TV shows like X factor and self-challenge shows demonstrate this.

As a leader, it is best to ask, garner feedback (lots of it), boost curiosity, challenge, query and get many perspectives before decision making. This ability to remove as much bias as possible can aid others and the leader of their own.

16. DEVELOP LEADERS FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS

If the person is a follower and doing an excellent job at following, it's a big ask to ask them to become a leader. Granted, the word 'develop' does indicate that this isn't an overnight matter, but it still begs the question - wouldn't it be faster and easier to develop leaders from those already showing signs of it? By all means, encourage followers also to consider leadership. Every person needs leadership skills in their life regardless, but if we are talking business strategy, then look for obvious leadership material first because great followers are required in large volumes in every significant and growing enterprise. 

17. BE MOTIVATIONAL

Don't be motivational or inspirational. Motivation can only emerge inside-out, not the other way around.  Motivation and inspiration are self-owned, not given out. When we have been to see a “motivational” speaker (an oxymoron in itself!?), it's life-changing- YET- what do people change. Nothing. The statistics are nominal; maybe 0.0001% will actually do something different. It makes us feel better if we say, “that’s so inspirational”, “that motivates me so much”.

It can only be motivational and inspirational if it creates a fundamental habit-changing act. This is a true paradigm; real motivation creates core belief changes. Most leaders do not motivate or inspire. They work to make others act, do, function, follow the process; this illusionary leadership is ego at its best. Great leaders aren’t driven to be motivated or inspirational; they don’t need the recognition they want to see others doing, acting upon and delivering.

18.IF YOU FALL DOWN, KEEP GETTING. (DON'T GIVE UP) UP

With one tiny (huge!) amendment. Find out why you are falling and, if necessary, change your approach, thinking, behaviours, beliefs or all of these.

Making the same mistake is not failing. It’s repeating the same incorrect action or process. Getting up, again and again, is madness. Not giving up isn't what it's about; finding out what you need to change the next time you do it is totally what it's about. And if, for example, that product isn't working, give up on it and create something different that will sell. 

19. YOU CAN'T EXPECT SUCCESS IN ALL YOU DO

Yes, you can. It's by expecting it that it's more likely to happen. 

20. THERE ARE NO RULES OF LEADERSHIP

This list ratifies this. Ultimately, you must take what you intuitively believe is right and ignore everything else. This may include things that are 'supposed to be the right thing to choose. 

This list of 20 paradigms are words we have all spoken at some time, this is just the tip of the list. It’s important to understand ourselves first. Check out our RLC 7 Daily Leadership Principles here on what is possible and how to make them effective in your daily leadership role.

Summary 

We emphasise the need for leaders to work out their reality from illusion.

Far too often, leadership and management books appear to be laying out a definitive model or way forward, and with leadership, in particular, this can be very unsafe.

The very notion about leading is that you are the tip of that apex to the virtual pyramid. You have got there by your actions, intuition and choices. I am not deliberately messing with your mind here, just asking you to step back in the final analysis and appreciate that you must take what you feel you need and discard the rest, even when it runs contrary to what is believed to work or not work. 

I remember watching an old black and white movie, years ago, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It was about an early flight test pilot. One was acutely aware that his predecessors had crashed and burned, quite literally because, at a certain speed, their controls had failed and stopped doing what they were designed to do. He had a hunch that at a certain speed, rather than pulling back on the joystick on a nosedive, he had to push the joystick, which was the exact opposite of what was he was taught. 

 In the last scenes of the movie, he was suddenly unable to pull up from a nosedive.

He had to either pull back, as he was taught or use his intuition and push forward. He did the latter and saved both himself and the aircraft.

This always sticks in my mind as a real leadership example. In times of complexity, challenge, diversity, or difficulty, we have to choose to forget how we may have been taught and allow our instinct to reflect. What is your “third mind” gut telling you that you should do in XY situation? 

13 leadership questions to question reality or illusion.

It’s essential to apply reality and not illusory thoughts or bias. Some great questions to explore are:

1. Do you know why you think this?

2. What is your customer/client outcome or impact?

3. Does the decision sit within the values and culture of the business? If not, why not?

4. Is it a bias of self-validation?

5. Is there a pro and con analysis taken place?

6. Have you thought about all perspectives (try perceptual positioning activity for this)[10]?

7. Have you applied 4MAT (why, what, how, what if?)

8. Are you taking the person you like the most perspective?

9. The person you like the least perspective?

10. Have you got feedback? If not, why not? If so, who and why them?

11. Is it worth the risk? Is there a real risk, or is this emotional vs factual risk?

12. Is it a do? If we fail, can you move on, or do you have a blame culture?

13. Are you applying ego and status to a decision- if so, why? If not, how do you know?

The ability to take a real explorative all option perspective, we believe, non-illusory and creates real leadership.

Check out our Best Version Business Framework that allows you to build REAL leadership across every aspect of your business and make decisions value and culturally led. or chat with us and be curious with us.

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Research, References and notes

[a] The Victoria Cross or VC is awarded only on the Queen's recommendation by the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary. They act only on the recommendation of the VC committee for the relevant service. This committee comprises three senior officers and the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence. In turn, they act on recommendations made through the chain of command, when senior officers can offer various support levels for an award, from a general recommendation through to a firm recommendation.  

[1] https://language-and-innovation.com/2020/04/15/coronaspeak-part-2-the-language-of-covid-19-goes-viral/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke

[3] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/16/top-10-recent-examples-cancel-culture/

[4] Authenticity is a oxymoron topic in leadership, as reality is we have to be inauthentic at times to deal with the situations that occur. Stepping out, leaning in, calling in and calling out others is not a natural authenticity action- its intentional action. Seth Godin writes about authenticity so well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJtuaFebtA

[5] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/203258 also https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1973-22126-001

6.https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/take+the+rough+with+the+smooth#:~:text=take%20the%20rough%20with%20the%20smooth%2C%20to&text=This%20adage%20dates%20from%20the,the%20bitter%20with%20the%20sweet.

[7] https://aboutlearning.com/about/

[8] https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-bias-4589618 also https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-negative-thoughts-alzheimer-disease.html

[9] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6041499/ and https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11409-019-09189-5

[10] This is an NLP technique to consider every perspective a minimum of 3 is required, sit in each seat and only apply their thinking and responses, this will expand your thoughts and allow you to test and query all for a “nearly” unbiased perspective if done correctly