Innovativeleadershipvi

As leadership today is neither static nor transaction-driven, it has to continue growing organically and keep evolving to lead transformational change innovatively.

Leadership is an influence, to move the world forward based on a set of vision and values that leaders hold of. Leadership is complex, although it has many facets, at its core, the foundation of leadership is the character. You have to understand there are leadership keys you can master as a leader...your thinking, your emotions, your behavior and the actions you take. 

Conventional leadership usually implies conventional wisdom and “command & control” style of management practices. We are experiencing the paradigm shift from information scarcity to knowledge abundance; from silo driven organizational setting to hyper-connected human society. It’s the time to boost creative energy, advocate a culture of learning and innovation, reinvent leadership to unleash collective human potential, drive transformative change, and advance global society.

Original leadership inspires authenticity, potentiality-discovery and innovativeness as a state of mind: Although we live in a hyper-complex society, to deal with, the world needs more original thinkers than ever to handle overwhelming growth of information, ever increasing complexities and numerous thorny issues in the era of creativity. Original thinking is independent, creative, special or simply different. Being original means breaking down conventional thinking, discovering ways to stimulate creativity, and taking a unique approach to lead or solve problems dynamically. Original leadership implies authenticity, being yourselves – to engage in your ways of thinking, perceiving, and doing things consistently, even though it’s not perfect, but you create your own style or fashion.

Original leadership presents courage to be different, be true to your own character, perception, and personality; enable you to release creative energy, engage your way of leading or solving problems with original flavors. In reality, some of the social and psychological problems that are affecting individuals, institutions, and organizations might be due to misalignment based on conventional understanding. From the originality lens, it means inadequate opportunities for people to realize their potential and to contribute leadership in areas of their special competence; and, resultantly, personal sense of futility. Original leaders need a driver, such as desire on the one hand, or adversity, on the other side, to provide a motive force for seeing new connections or understanding the new paradigm from creative perspective, setting time aside to allow an idea or a problem to incubate, keep learning agile and lead the business or the society forward innovatively.

Bold leadership implies dreaming bigger for envisioning the future of the business or society, and “selling the dream” via creative communication: Leadership is the adventure to set high vision, explore unknown and have confidence and insight for steering the organization or the society on the right path of reaching the destination ultimately. Digital is the age of people, options, and innovation, it provides the opportunity for leaders to think the new way to explore the art of possible, select untaken route for leading change, being bold enough to take the adventure, but logical enough to implement it, guide the team towards the uncharted territories and make things happen promptly.

Leadership is one's ability to paint a vivid picture, a vision of a future state and motivate others to achieve it. Bold leadership indicates open mindedness to embrace fresh thoughts and ideas, seeks new experiences, enjoying new knowledge or experience, it would be the adventure to explore different paths to experiment with better ways to lead boldly, unlock collective potential, and accelerate societal progress. Despite our present condition and realities, we must never abandon the hope that generations to come will view things differently and continue taking the adventure of discovering unknown and making leapfrog changes all the time.

Paraconsistent leadership is the journey to unfolding the future provocatively and uncovering the truth insightfully: Our complex world is a paradoxical reality with complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. There is truth and myth, along with the mix of solid and flow; brightness and darkness, four seasons of changes. All wisdom has some paradoxical themes, paradoxical leaders are in demand to bridge a variety of gaps, applying critical thinking and paraconsistent logical techniques, listening to two sides of the stories, harnessing different experiences, perspectives, and ideas of people, and practicing innovation in a unique way.

Business leaders or professionals with high paradoxical intelligence can keep the state of psychological balance with the right dose of ego, understand the two sides of the coin, see things from different angles and understand the situation objectively. People also learn most effectively through opposites, to leverage paraconsistent logic for innovative problem-solving, conflict is not always bad, it is important to have a heterogeneous group setting and let people view an idea from different perspectives, brainstorm diverse thoughts and ideas, and provide choices to delight customers with personal touch. Paradoxical leaders can handle innovation paradox smoothly by striking the right balance of creativity and process; personalization and standardization.

As leadership today is neither static nor transaction-driven, it has to continue growing organically and keep evolving to lead transformational change innovatively. It’s important to create positive mental pictures of why you intend to lead, what you want to achieve and develop a set of unique leadership competency such as visionary thinking, strategic planning, innovation, or talent development, etc. The ultimate criterion of "high-influential leadership," is the ability to create more leaders, to spread leadership influence, or more precisely, to groom more original leaders with the ability to think differently, independently and innovatively.

Posted in: Creativity,Innovation,Leadership Master