Embracing ‘not knowing’ - leadership and aleadership
I’ve been reflecting a lot on what leadership means in this time of uncertainty and change and want to share a new concept with you.
It seems to me we have a one-dimensional view of leadership at a time when other areas of our lives are embracing diversity and breadth – and language is indicative of this.
Just as we have morality, immorality and amorality or sexuality, asexuality, allosexuality, demisexuality and many other sexuality definitions – when it comes to leadership, you’re either a leader or you’re not.
Immorality rather than morality speaks to a choice or a decision – the distinction between right and wrong is known but the person chooses to act immorally. Amorality, and the ‘a’ prefix, implies an awareness of but unconcern for morality when carrying out an act.
It is this 'acknowledgement but unconcern’ that most interests me when considering leadership, and what I would therefore term aleadership.
There are many ways to define leadership but the core remains fairly consistent - we see organisational leadership as demonstrating knowing and acting – the making of decisions based on experience in order to deliver the organisational task. Of course, there are many ways of doing this – some more or less inclusive than others. But the authority of leadership is still considered sacrosanct.
I would suggest that there is another way for a leader to act, and one that is especially important in this time of great change and uncertainty.
Aleadership is based on the benefits of not knowing, observing and reflecting, but still within the context of the organisational task. Aleaders actively choose to be unconcerned with the requirement for acting from a place of experience and knowledge, and instead embrace the creative potential of being in the unknown, in the here and now.
Let’s look at the leader’s reality in many organisations across many sectors right now. Everything is in flux – the needs of their customers, the needs of their employees, the needs of their suppliers, the needs of their investors and shareholders, the needs of wider society – and indeed their own needs.
The leader who claims they have the experience required to meet these needs and know the right path is a brave and possibly disingenuous person.
The aleader who accepts that they do not, and sees that as a positive and not a negative, will be the one that inspires and embraces new ideas and new ways of working to meet their existing organisation goals.
Through active reflection:
of the change around them,
of the different experiences they can call on from their people,
and of the assumptions and behaviours that can cause stagnation and the blocking of change
aleaders will enable their organisations to adapt positively not through authority of the past but through the learning of something new.
So in a world of leaders, consider being more aleader!
