The Innovation Expedition has been working with leaders in government, for profit and non profit organizations across the world for over twenty years. We have leveraged this experience and that of our highly experienced network to ask the question: when we look at the “stand out” leaders of the current age – those who understand the new renaissance and are leading their organizations to be best in class – what do we see them doing?
The Six Characteristics
Our response is that there are a great many factors which shape effective leadership within a sector or organization, but that six key characteristics stand out as necessary conditions for renaissance leadership. In our view, renaissance leaders:
• Practice personal mastery
They have high integrity and view self-awareness as a prerequisite for leadership. They work hard to develop their capacity to innovate, and to inspire others to join them in making the world a better place.
• Apply a glocal mindset
hey have a keen sense of history and seek a holistic understanding of changes taking place on a global scale. They use this global perspective as they address local challenges and seize opportunities (global and local – hence “glocal”).
• Accelerate cross-¬boundary learning
They constantly seek to satisfy an intense curiosity about every facet of human life, past and present, scientific and artistic, technical and social. They guide others in distilling meaning from a morass of information, and efficiently apply their learning in creative ways to nurture innovation and drive improved performance.
• Think back from the future
They are readily able to imagine and articulate alternate futures and work back from there – connecting with lessons from the past to better understand the present and choose among possible paths to the future they see.
• Lead systemic change
They are systems thinkers who seek out patterns, inter¬connections and inter-dependencies. They are skilled in seeking common ground and nurturing productive collaboration across diverse parts of a system – be it an organization, a sector, a community, a network – to solve complex problems and drive large-scale change.
• Drive performance with a passion
They care that their leadership makes a substantive and sustainable difference, and are relentless in their commitment to performance. They articulate clear (and high) expectations of themselves and others, create focused strategies for innovating to achieve these ends, and are disciplined about assessing progress.
These six characteristics are not listed in order of importance nor are they intended to be complete – it is the list we have arrived at on this stage of our expedition.
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