One of the defining characteristics of a resilient organization is the dynamic relationship the organization has with its external environment. This relationship allows real time information to flow to the right people in the right time and to be interpreted and acted on in a way that allows the organization to anticipate and adapt to changing conditions effectively. Promoting this dynamic relationship within an organization is a function of leadership, the result of the aggregate attitudes and intentions of the decision-makers within an organization. Jim Collins’ books “Good to Great” and “How The Mighty Fall” outline an interesting polarity in leadership attitudes that separate successful organizations from those that fail.  Collins found that humility, or the ability to step outside one’s own ego, defines the attitude of leadership in successful organizations while those that fail are often characterized by leadership that has succumbed to hubris, defined by the Oxford dictionary as “excessive pride or self-confidence”. Committing to a disciplined personal leadership practice is one way to actively buffer yourself from falling into the hubris trap.  A personal leadership practice can take many forms and below I have outlined some key elements of a leadership practice that works for me. There are many different ways to define your personal leadership practice, the important thing is to find a practice that works for you. The key to being a leader that contributes to organizational resilience is making a commitment to ongoing self-exploration and personal development in the context of your performance at work.

Daily Writing Practice

One needs to be able to honestly assess personal performance with an awareness of the role our ego is playing in our decision-making. It is the unconscious acting out of our ego that leads to falling into the hubris trap. Keeping a daily journal where you take ten minutes to write about your day is a physical act  that allows you to examine your thoughts, ideas, successes and challenges from a perspective that is outside of yourself. This practice fosters the development of a personal ‘witness’ where, over time, you develop an awareness of your decision-making process in real time. This awareness leads to decisions made from a position of neutrality where you are able to more effectively ‘see’ the dynamics at play in a situation. Without an effective witness one is prone to acting from a position blinded by arrogance, anger, fear, impulsiveness or any number of other polarized ego-driven states.

Critical Reading of Current Events

Another key element to a personal leadership practice is to improve our ability to accurately interpret trends in the external environment.  Disciplined reading of a range of information from a number of differing perspectives will help foster awareness of ‘big picture’ trends over time The materials you regularly read should be diverse. They could, for instance, represent both print and on-line, local and international, liberal and conservative, business and environmental resources. The key is not to passively take in information but to look for trends between the resources and ask questions such as: how do the resources differ on reporting the same story? What stories are not reported? Why is this issue important to this audience? How did this issue get to where it is at now and what will happen next? Have I seen this dynamic play out before? The value in this process is two-fold. On one hand you develop a depth of knowledge of what is going on in the world. More importantly, the process of critical analysis of information itself refines your ability to interpret information into a meaningful context over time. This skill is crucial with the vast amount of information and the increasing rate of change organizations and leaders are faced with on a daily basis.

Stepping into the Learner’s Mindset

Being in a position of leadership often means assuming the role of the expert where you are expected to provide wisdom, be decisive and supply solutions to problems. It can be valuable to step out of this role by challenging yourself to learn something new each year, whether that be a new musical instrument, a new language or training in a new sport or activity. The process of learning a new skill allows you to step into a learner’s mindset. It allows you to engage in a process where you need to demonstrate the courage to overcome the fear and uncertainty of being incompetent, to be playful and demonstrate the tenacity and commitment to practice, and to experience the excitement and satisfaction of demonstrating some level of mastery. I have found that engaging in this process translates into being more effective at work because it sparks a sense of curiosity and engagement with life that carries over to my professional role. I find I am more compassionate, patient and humble to those who report to me, and I am a better teacher because I am familiar with the experience of learning something new. Committing to a personal leadership practice that focuses on refining the internal processes impacting our interpretation of information, refining our ability to make meaning out of a complex external environment through critically examining current events, and the willingness to step into the learner’s mindset are all powerful tools that can buffer one from the hubris trap. Through this process one is better prepared to engage with the people and systems around them with humility, and it is this engagement that is a fundamental characteristic of leadership in resilient organizations.