Introduction To Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of

Introduction To Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological and Phenomenological Model –

The Textbook (PDF file of Keynote Slides)

Center for Cognitive Semiotics at Aarhus University Denmark - May 11, 2012Revised 19 December 2012

AUTHORS:Michael C. Jensen

Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business, Emeritus,Harvard Business School; Chairman, Social Science Electronic Publishing

[email protected]

Werner ErhardIndependent

[email protected]

Kari GrangerSunergos LLC, Performance Consultant

Center for Character and Leadership Development, FellowUnited States Air Force Academy

[email protected]

Presented By: Julian Tree Independent

[email protected]

FAIR USE: You may redistribute this document freely, but please do not post the electronic file on the web. We welcome web links to this document at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1392406 We revise our papers regularly, and providing a link to the original ensures that readers will receive the most recent version. Thank you, W. Erhard, M. Jensen, K. Granger.

Drawn from work over the past 7 years with our co-authors Steve Zaffron in creating our leadership course: “Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model”. Some of the material presented in this course is based on or derived from the consulting and program material of the Vanto Group, and from material presented in the Landmark Forum and other programs offered by Landmark Education LLC, as well as from an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars, consultants and practitioners working under the name of The Barbados Group. The ideas and the methodology created by Werner Erhard underlie much of the material.

mailto:[email protected]








http://ssrn.com/abstract=1392406

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1392406

A note for the cognitive semiotic students and faculty.

While this presentation is not exactly in the field of cognitive semiotics and there may be some debates by the professors on the usage of word likes ontology or phenomenology, there are many related areas that would be complementary and related to cognitive semiotics. The leadership course has being based on trade secretes of privately owned consulting companies applied in the real world situations with high success track record. There are really A LOT of material that can spark interests for your research in the future and also give you an opportunity to see how linguistic work can be applied in real world organizational behavior settings.

The ontology of an object is different from the ontology of a process and the ontology of the humane being. We are mainly concerned with the nature and impact of being when being a leader, therefore we term the study of being as 'ontology'. And the as- lived or as-experienced inquiry (contrasted with a theoretical inquiry) of being and action for human beings is termed 'phenomenology'. The presentation is highly relevant to, and complementary to business, management, organizational behavior, organizational change and development, economics, and directly relevant to leadership: but it is not any of these other disciplines. And while this leadership course is based on an ontological and phenomenological model. The students themselves do not need to study ontology; they only require the access to being and the source of action that is provided by the ontological perspective. And, they don’t need to study phenomenology; they only need to be provided with the actionable pathway to the being of being a leader and the actions of effective leadership made available by the phenomenological methodology. And you will miss much of what is available to you here today if you make it “like” any of these other disciplines. In addition, our work is founded in an unfamiliar analytical perspective or model, and we are using an unfamiliar methodology for delivering it. Please don't compare to anything you have encountered before.

Abstract:

This presentation is based on authors’ research program over the last seven years in which the objective has been to rigorously distinguish leader and leadership and to create a technology for providing access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively (in short, a technology for reliably creating leaders). The research program involves not only discovering the technology, but also to create a course that would be available to others to use, experiment with, research, improve on and innovate from. The efforts thus required an experimental laboratory to discover what will enable us as educators and trainers to efficiently and effectively create leaders. The course is based on an Ontological and Phenomenological Model of Leader and Leadership with input from Neuroscience and the Behavioral Sciences. The latest version of this course will be offered this summer at Dartmouth Medical School ( http://geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/dean/leadership )

The course is designed to leave participants being leaders and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self expression, and to contribute to creating a new science of leadership. We have two or three more years of development left to do and eventually we will produce the product as papers and perhaps a book.

The technology and the course is founded on what we term an ontological model of human nature. The ontological approach is uniquely effective in

http://geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/dean/leadership/

http://geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/dean/leadership/

providing actionable access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

While ontology as a general subject is concerned with the being of anything, here we are concerned with the ontology of human beings (the nature and function of being for human beings). Specifically we are concerned with the ontology of leader and leadership (the nature and function of being for a leader and the actions of effective leadership). Who one is being when being a leader shapes one’s perceptions, emotions, creative imagination, thinking, planning, and consequently one’s actions in the exercise of leadership.

Being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as one’s natural self-expression does not come from learning and trying to emulate the characteristics or styles of noteworthy leaders, or learning what effective leaders do and trying to emulate them (and most certainly not from merely being in a leadership position, or position of authority).

If you are not being a leader, and you try to act like a leader, you are likely to fail. That’s called being inauthentic (playing a role or pretending to be a leader), deadly in any attempt to exercise leadership.

An epistemological mastery of a subject leaves you knowing. An ontological mastery of a subject leaves you being.

Gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as one’s natural self-expression also requires dealing with those factors present in all human beings that constrain each person’s freedom to be – and constrain and shape one’s perceptions, emotions, creative imagination, thinking, planning, and actions. When one is not constrained or shaped by these factors – what we term “ontological constraints” – one’s way of being and acting results naturally in one’s personal best. We work with the students so that they accomplish this for themselves.

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part I -- The Three Foundational Elements of Leadership

Integrity (in our model a positive phenomenon):• Being whole and complete – achieved by “honoring one’s word” (creates workability, develops trust).

Authenticity:• Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself to be for yourself. When leading, being authentic leaves you grounded, and able to be straight without using force.

Being Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself:• Source of the serene passion (charisma) required to lead and to develop others as leaders, and the source of persistence (joy in the labor of) when the path gets tough.

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part II -- A Context That Uses You

• Our research has led us to distinguish leader and leadership through four different lenses or levels of analysis: 1) as linguistic abstractions, 2) as phenomena, 3) as concepts, and 4) as defined terms. Viewing leader and leadership in these four dimensions creates leader and leadership as a powerful context.

• We work with the students to create for themselves what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that uses them. By “a context that uses them”, we mean a context that has the power to leave students in any leadership situation being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression. (As it has been said: “the context is decisive”.)

• By “a context that has the power to leave students being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression”, we mean the following:o A context that has the power in any leadership situation to shape the way in which the circumstances the students are dealing with occur for them such that their naturally correlated way of being and acting is one of being a leader and exercising leadership effectively. o Note: being and action are a natural correlate of the way in which the circumstances that a person is dealing with occur (show up) for that person.

• Students begin to create this context for leader and leadership for themselves by first freeing themselves from the constraints and shaping imposed by their network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for-granted assumptions relative to what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership effectively. This then allows students the freedom to create for themselves this new context for Leader and Leadership that has the power to become their natural self-expression.

• We give students access to creating this new context for leader and leadership by distinguishing Leader and Leadership from the perspective of four distinct aspects, which when taken together as a whole create this new context: the context that in any leadership situation shapes the way in which

what is being dealt with occurs for the student such that their naturally correlated way of being and acting is one of being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.We distinguish Leader and Leadership, each as:

Linguistic Abstractions (leader and leadership as “realms of possibility”)Phenomena (leader and leadership as experienced; that is, as what one observes or is impacted by, or as exercised)Concepts (the temporal domain in which leader and leadership function)Terms (leader and leadership as definitions)

All founded on Integrity*, Authenticity, and Being Committed To Something Bigger Than Oneself.

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part III -- Ontological Constraints

• Ontological Constraints: Having distinguished what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression, we provide students with exercises that allow them to become aware of and remove the ontological perceptual and functional constraints imposed on their natural self-expression.

• Ontological Perceptual Constraints: The source of our ontological perceptual constraints is our network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for-granted assumptions about the world, others, and ourselves. These ontological perceptual constraints limit and shape what we perceive of what is actually there in the situations with which we are dealing. As a consequence, if we do not remove these perceptual constraints, then in any leadership situation we are left dealing with some distortion of the situation we are actually dealing with.

• Ontological Functional Constraints: In everyday language the behavior generated by an ontological functional constraint is sometimes referred to as a “knee-jerk reaction”. Psychologists sometimes refer to this behavior as “automatic stimulus/response behavior” – where, in the presence of a particular stimulus (trigger), the inevitable response is an automatic set way of being and acting. From a neuroscience perspective, many ontological functional constraints could be termed amygdala hijacks. When triggered in a leadership situation, one’s ontological functional constraints fixate one’s way of being and acting. Saying the same thing in another way, these ontological functional constraints limit and shape our opportunity set for

being and action. As a consequence, the appropriate way of being and appropriate actions may be, and in fact often are, unavailable to us.

• Thus, gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership requires that we loosen the grip of these debilitating Ontological Constraints. Or to put it more simply, we must take away what is in the way of our being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

© 2009-2012 Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger. All rights reserved. 1

Introduction ToBeing A Leader And The Effective Exercise Of Leadership: An Ontological/Phenomenological

Model

Cognitive Semiotics SymposiumAarhus University

Center for Cognitive SemioticsMay 18th, 2012

Aarhus, Denmark

Revised 19 December 2012

© 2009-2012 Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger. All rights reserved.

Presenter2

Julian TreeIndependent

[email protected]

© 2009-2010 Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger. All rights reserved. 8/7/10

Being A Leader And The Effective Exercise Of Leadership: An Ontological Model

Some of the material presented in this course is based on or derived from the consulting and program material of the Vanto Group, and from material presented in the Landmark Forum and other programs offered by Landmark Education LLC, as well as from an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars, consultants and practitioners working under the name of The Barbados Group. The ideas and the methodology created by Werner Erhard underlie much of the

Credits:

Michael C. JensenJesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business, Emeritus,

Harvard Business School; Chairman, Social Science Electronic [email protected]

Werner ErhardIndependent

[email protected]

Kari GrangerSunergos LLC, Performance Consultant

Center for Character and Leadership Development, FellowUnited States Air Force Academy

[email protected]


Leadership

Ontology

Epistemology

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The Intention & Background of Our Work

Overall intention of our work: Lay the foundations for a “science of leadership”. Distinguish Leader and Leadership in a way that leaves one

with “access” to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as one’s natural self-expression.

By “access” we mean an actionable pathway to being a leader, and to the effective exercise of leadership.

Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model. THE HANDBOOK FOR TEACHING LEADERSHIP, Chapter 16, Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, Rakesh Khurana, eds., Sage Publications, 2011 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1681682

5


An Illustration of Just How Radical this Approach Is

The following is taken from a slide that appeared in the “Train the Trainer’s” workshop held at the US Air Force Academy:

If in the Course itself we never said anything about leadership or anything about what it is to be a leader and the students completed the Course being leaders and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self- expression that would completely and totally fulfill the reason for the existence of the Course.

Remember, the promise the teacher makes to the students in this Course is nothing more and nothing less than:

“You will leave this course being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as your natural self-expression”.

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The Intention & Background of Our Work(Cont’d)

Background of the course and its development: Based on an Ontological Model of Leader and Leadership with

input from Neuroscience and the Behavioral Sciences. Developed 2004 – 2008 at the U. of Rochester Simon School of

Business, where it was used as a experimental laboratory delivered annually as a full semester course but taught over five consecutive days; taught 2008 – 2010 at the United States Air Force Academy as a full semester course (including courses for faculty); Erasmus Law School (2008 - 2010); Erasmus Academie (2009); Texas A&M Mays School of Business (2010) and taught at Asia Plateau, Panchgani, India, Nov. 22-27, 2010.

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Our Intentions For Today

1. Introduce our new model of leadership and leadership development created and implemented through a new leadership course designed to leave participants being leaders and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression.

2. Demonstrate our presentation methodology, and its usefulness in transferring to others the ability to teach the course.

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Rules of the Game for Today

Our intention today is to accomplish the impossible. The impossible includes conveying intelligibly the fruits of a dozen years of research (currently encapsulated, albeit still incomplete, in over 1,200 pages of various documents including our in-process “textbook” on SSRN).

In addition, our work is founded in an unfamiliar analytical perspective or model, and we are using an unfamiliar methodology for delivering it. Finally regarding accomplishing the impossible, reducing our work down to bare essentials still requires over 130 slides to begin to do justice to it, and we have just about over two hours for the formal presentation which ends at 15:00.

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Rules of the Game for Today

Consequently, there will not be much time for discussion and debate in this first session – although, like you, we enjoy that. If we engage in discussion and debate during the actual presentation we will only get a trivial amount up on the mat and therefore leave you with an incomplete grasp of this work.

We will take clarifying questions during this presentation from 13:00 to 15:00 during the presentation

We will have the general discussion in the scheduled time from 15:00 to 16:00 for those who wish to stay.

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Rules of the Game for Today (Cont’d)

By the way, we recognize that we are also asking you to accomplish the impossible. Today we request that you follow the advice of Jamshed Bharucha (Professor of Psychology, Provost, Senior Vice President, Tufts U.) in his essay “Education as Stretching the Mind”: “Stretching your mind is hard. Once we've settled on a worldview that

suits us, we tend to hold on. New information is bent to fit, information that doesn't fit is discounted, and new views are resisted.”

“Before you critique a new idea, or another culture, master it to the point at which its proponents or members recognize that you get it.” http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_16.html#bharucha

By the way, the ability and willingness to master this mode of being as articulated by Bharucha is a critical component of effective leadership. Now let’s get to the substance.

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Present the Theory of the Course

Part I: The Three Foundational Elements of leadership Authenticity Integrity Committed to something bigger than oneself (source of passion)

Part II: The Four Dimensions that distinguish leadership As a Linguistic Abstraction As a Phenomenon As a Concept As a Defined Term

Part III: The Ontological Constraints that inhibit leadership Perceptual Constraints on leader and leadership Functional Constraints on leader and leadership

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A Note On Our Presentation Methodology

We create slides with rigorously written sentences and paragraphs and read them directly from the screen to the students as they silently read along with us – interrupted by us with comments on and examples of what it says on the slide, and by questions from and discussions with students, etc. Slides in this talk that are taken directly from the course,

sometimes with slight editing, will have a tan background. Slides with a blue background are an invitation for you to

participate. This presentation technology also allows us to more easily

transfer the material to others to teach this course. We will be employing this methodology today. This presentation technology results in:

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A 44% Increase In Comprehension Efficiency

As this chart illustrates, when listening to text being read out loud while simultaneously reading it to yourself, there is a 44% increase in comprehension over reading to yourself only. And, this increase was produced by a computer generated voice that speaks with no understanding of what is being read, as contrasted with the way it will be read to you in this presentation.

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The Topics We Will Cover Today to Fulfill on Our Intentions

Our Research Program A Simple Lay Version Summary of Our Leadership Course A Warning and A Request Rules of the Game for Today Promise of the Course Course Results The Underlying Theory of the Course Why An Ontological Approach? Our Pedagogical Method The Underlying Theory of the Course Part I: The Three Foundational Elements of

Leadership The Underlying Theory of the Course Part II: A Context That Uses You The Underlying Theory of the Course Part III: Removing or relaxing Ontological Constraints A Quick Summary

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Our Research Program

The goal of our research is to develop a discipline that will allow educators to efficiently and effectively actually create leaders. And in addition, to create the methodology for transferring our technology to others to use, experiment with, research, improve on, and innovate from.

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Our Research Program (Cont’d)

We have 2 or 3 years of Course development left. In addition to perfecting the course, we are producing scholarly papers and a modern “textbook” that takes the form of a PowerPoint slide deck that is rigorously written and re- organizable.

Our work so far is available on SSRN (the URLs are listed on the last slide of this deck). And these materials are continuously updated so revisit the URLs to get the latest version at any time.

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Our Research Program (Cont’d)

In July 2010 the creators of the course ran a “Train the Trainers” workshop at the United States Air Force Academy under the sponsorship of the Kauffman Foundation, the Gruter Institute, the United States Air Force Academy, and the course instructors.

Forty-one scholars from various universities and disciplines around the world who attended the workshop have created a group to carry this work into the world of academia. The group led by Dean Chip Souba (Dartmouth Medical School) call themselves L’ECOLE for “Learning Community of Ontological Leadership”. We will be establishing a SSRN Research Paper Series, a scholarly society, and a peer- reviewed journal.

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Different Ways You Might Be Participating Today

You might find yourself listening to see how this ontological approach contrasts with what you already know about ontology and phenomenology.

You might be here to find out if this ontological approach to creating leaders has any further interest for you.

You might be here to see if there is anything useful in this approach that you could incorporate into what you are already doing.

You might be here with a commitment to actively further develop yourself in being a leader and in your exercise of leadership.

Or you might be here considering the possibility of participating in the research, development, and teaching of this ontological approach to leadership.

And, of course you might be here for a reason other than what we have listed and the ones we listed and any others are okay.

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A Simple Lay Version Summary of the Leadership Course

This Leadership Course is different from others you may know of or have experienced. This course is based on the proposition that: 1) given being and action by the right context, everyone has the capacity to be a leader, and 2) there are certain personal obstacles that must be dealt with in order to actualize that capacity.

Rather than teaching "leadership strategies" or being a "how to guide", this course allows participants to create for themselves that enabling and empowering context that gives one the being and action of a leader as one’s natural self-expression. And, in the course we provide participants the opportunity to become aware of and deal with their personal obstacles. This allows them to remove, or at least relax, those obstacles and access their natural capacity for leadership.

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What we are talking about today is highly relevant to, and complementary to business, management, organizational behavior, organizational change and development, economics, and directly relevant to leadership.

In order to provide actionable access to leader and leadership, in this course we are concerned with the nature and impact of being when being a leader.

A Warning and A Request21


The formal term for the study of being is ontology. And the as-lived or as-experienced inquiry (contrasted with a theoretical inquiry) of being and action for human beings is termed phenomenology. Ontology as a discipline is not in the normal “tool kit” of most leaders,

scholars, and practitioners in business, economics, psychology, law, and the military. Therefore, it may at first appear strange.

The ontology of an object is different from the ontology of an process and ontology of human beings.

I repeat: Please do not attempt to make this like anything you already know. While this is a normal human tendency (and one that gets in the way of effective leadership), doing so will prevent you from getting what is available today.

A Warning and A Request (Cont’d)

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Some of You May Be Disturbed or Even Upset About What You Will Hear

When one’s Worldview or one’s Frame of Reference relative to some important topic or issue is challenged by new knowledge or information, that new knowledge often first occurs as “something strange”. In such a case humans often react with strong emotions – the brain treats it like a physical threat. It’s the fight or flight response generated by the Amygdala in the

human brain.

Thomas Kuhn documented the common rejection of progress by scientists in his landmark book “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1962).

Interestingly, these threats to one’s personal worldview or frames of reference are part of what limits people’s access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership. We will say more about this.

23


What You Are Promised From Your Participation In This Course

You will leave this course being who you need to be to be a leader.

You will leave this course with what it takes to exercise leadership effectively.

While you will not necessarily have all of the experience and knowledge you need to be a truly extraordinary leader, you will have experienced whatever personal transformation is required for you to leave the course being who you need to be to be a leader, and with what it takes to exercise leadership effectively.

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Course Results U.S. Air Force Academy: 2008 & 2009

Responses to the following course evaluation questions: “I have witnessed my leadership shift to a new level in my

personal and professional life here at USAFA in this term as a direct result of my participation in the course.” 54 out of 57 student and faculty course participants gave this

question a 5 or 6 out of 6 (with a large preponderance of 6’s). “This is one of the three most important courses I have taken

in my life.” 54 out of 57 student and faculty course participants gave this

question a 6 out of 6. We got essentially the same results from 120 participants in

our 5-day Erasmus course in June, 2009, and from 110 participants in our 6-day course at Texas A&M University, Mays School of Business in June, 2010.

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20

Course Results(Cont’d)

Dr. Robert E. McCormick, Professor Emeritus of Economics (Clemson University) had the following to say in February 2011 about the impact of the leadership course he attended in June 2010 at Texas A&M University:“I have been involved in a couple of long workshops with non- economists recently, in Kenya with architects and construction CEOs, with environmental leaders in MT, and recently in south Florida with PhD ecologists and the like, and the entire structure of my talks and presentations has been altered significantly and importantly by your training last summer at the Mays School of Business, College Station, TX.The impact has been profound and I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity you afforded me. It has helped me personally and professionally in myriad and powerful ways.” (Quoted with permission)

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The Underlying Theory of The Course27


The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IThe Three Foundational Elements of Leadership

Integrity – in our model a positive phenomenon of being whole and complete: Achieved by “honoring one’s word” (creates workability,

develops trust). Authenticity:

Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself to be for yourself. When leading, being authentic leaves you grounded, and able to be straight without using force.

Being Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself: Source of the serene passion (charisma) required to lead and

to develop others as leaders, and the source of persistence (joy in the labor of) when the path gets tough.

28


The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IIA Context That Uses You

We work with students to create for themselves what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that calls them into the being and action of a true leader.

By “calls them into being and action”, we mean a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression.

This contrasts with a conceptual framework (the idea of) that leaves students knowing about, and able to converse knowledgably about leader and leadership.

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The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IIA Context That Uses You (Cont’d)

We accomplish this by first supporting students to free themselves from the constraints and shaping imposed by their default context for leader and leadership – their unexamined and received ideas and beliefs about what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership.

The students are then free to create for themselves a context for being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership that has the power to leave them being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression.

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In Brief: Our Contextual Framework

As linguistic abstractions, leader and leadership create leader and leadership as realms of possibility.

As phenomena, leader and leadership exist in the sphere of language.

As concepts, leader and leadership exist in the domain of the future.

As a term, leadership is defined as an exercise in language that �� brings about the realization of a future that�� fulfills the concerns of the relevant parties.

Later in this presentation we will go into a bit more detail to clarify each of these four aspects of the contextual framework.

31


The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IIIOntological Constraints

Having distinguished what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression,

� ��we provide students with exercises that allow them to become aware of and remove the perceptual and functional constraints imposed on their natural self- expression as leaders by what we term Ontological Constraints.

Ontological Constraints are composed of: Ontological Perceptual Constraints and Ontological Functional Constraints

32


A Peek at an Ontological Constraint

While perceptual and functional constraints are well explained from the neuroscience and psychological perspectives, we find the ontological perspective creates a unique degree of actionable access for eliminating or at least relaxing these constraints.

While we will not have time to fully address these Ontological Constraints in this presentation, we will provide a brief introduction.

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Ontological Perceptual Constraint: A Demonstration

What follows in the next 60 second video is a test of your awareness.

Please pay careful attention; you will be graded on your answers.

For those viewing this in the pdf file please go to the following URL to watch the video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI

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Ontological Perceptual Constraints

About 90% of people who take this test fail. And, of the 10% who see the dancing bear, most fail to accurately count the number of passes. A product of what psychologists term “inattentional blindness”.

The dancing bear is an example of an Ontological Perceptual Constraint. It is induced by a certain context generated by language.

Most of you did not see the bear because we and the announcer shifted your context for viewing the video. We told you that you would be graded on your answer, and the announcer challenged you with the question “how many passes does the team in white make?”.

35


Neuroscience and Perceptual Constraints

Most of us believe we see the world and what we are dealing with as it is. In fact, neuroscientists have shown that we do not see what the eye sees, we see what the brain sees.�

“If visual sensations were primarily received rather than constructed by the brain, you’d expect that most of the fibres going to the brain’s primary visual cortex would come from the retina. Instead, scientists have found that only twenty per cent do; eighty per cent come downward from regions of the brain governing functions like memory. Richard Gregory [1998], a prominent British neuro-psychologist, estimates that visual perception is more than ninety per cent memory and less than ten per cent sensory nerve signals.” (Gawande, 2008)

36


Summary Of Our Peek At Perceptual Constraints

This example is designed to sensitize you to the reality of our limited and distorted view of what is in front of us – that is, the importance when being a leader to be present to our Perceptual Constraints. We expand on this later.

You cannot lead effectively in a situation in which you do not accurately perceive what you are dealing with.

What we do that is different from a beginning Psych class is to go on to give students access to relaxing the grip of these Ontological Perceptual Constraints and thereby expand what they perceive of what is in front of them.

Another effect of this learning is an appreciation of what we don’t know that we don’t know. And this leads to an openness to the ideas, views and perspectives of others. A critically valuable capacity for any leader.

37


Why An Ontological Approach?38


A National Report On The State Of Leadership

“Estimates of managerial incompetence range from 30% to 75%. 65% to 75% of organization members report that their immediate boss is the worst aspect of their current employment. The failure rate among senior executives is 50%.”

Robert Hogan and Robert Kaiser. “What We Know About Leadership” (2005)

“The leadership crisis we first identified in our 2005 report continues …”

Rosenthal, et al (2007, intro.) “A National Study of Confidence in Leadership”, The Center For Public Leadership of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

39


The Current State of the Science of Leadership

“The scholars do not know what it is they are studying and the practitioners do not know what it is that they are doing.” � Joseph C. Rost, “Leadership for the 21st Century” (1993, p.8)

“In most mature disciplines, the basic units of analysis and terms of reference are clearly and generally understood within that discipline. … Yet in the study of leadership, no such agreed upon conceptual underpinnings yet exist.” � Ronald Heifetz and Riley Sinder. “A Theoretical Framework for the � Practice of Public Leadership” (Unpublished Paper, p. 3)

“It is almost a cliché of the leadership literature that a single definition of leadership is lacking.”� � Warren Bennis, “The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern � World” (2007, p. 2)

40


21st Century Leadership Vacuum

“We need leaders who can lead in any situation, � with or without positional authority, � with or without formally allocated decision rights, � � � with or without designated followers, � � � with or without an approved set of traits� � � and characteristics, � � � � and often in conditions in which there is no � � � � � agreement as to what the right answer is.” � � � � � � � � � � � � � � (Granger, 2009)

Many of the complex challenges our world faces are not new and yet remain unresolved despite generations of effort.

This vacuum requires that leaders go beyond their familiar various prescriptions for the world, others, and for the situations with which they are dealing.

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There are many perspectives from which to examine Human Nature and Leadership. For example: A Psychological perspective examines human nature through the

mind. A Humanistic perspective examines human nature through its potential. A Neuroscience perspective examines human nature through the brain. An Economic perspective examines human nature through production

and exchange. … and so on … Ontology is another perspective; it examines human nature from

the perspective of the nature of being and its consequences on behavior, and in the case of leadership, the nature of being when being a leader and its consequences on the exercise of leadership.

When used effectively ontology enriches and gives access to what is available from the other perspectives.

Ontology and Other Perspectives On The Nature Of Human Beings

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To illustrate what is meant here by “being”: an actor is never effective when “acting” a character – only when “being” that character. And, an audience immediately knows the difference.

When one is being angry one is likely to act in anger and likewise for being antisocial.

One cannot lead by “acting” like a leader, one can only lead by “being” a leader.

Acting like a leader without being a leader is by definition inauthentic, and such inauthenticity is deadly to leadership.

This is why it is critical that we provide access to the nature and function of being when being a leader, and the way in which being shapes one’s actions in the exercise of leadership.

Ontology: The Science of Being43


Captain Granger’s 1st Insight:Knowing About Leadership ≠ Access To Being A Leader

Being in Iraq as the officer in charge of a unit, but for the first time under enemy fire, I realized that the knowledge I gained from studying leadership during six years of being educated as a military officer with a masters degree in Leadership, did not leave me being the leader I needed to be under fire.

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For example, knowing that in a frightening situation a leader should be courageous was very different from being courageous in that situation. Success as a leader in that moment depended entirely on authentically and naturally generating a different way of being than my default way of being in this situation (fearful, hunkered down, and scared for my life).

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In dealing with this extremely challenging situation, I found myself drawing on some earlier ontological training I had received outside my leadership education. Incidentally at the time of that training I had not associated it as relevant to being a leader. In that ontological training I discovered that a good deal of what we ordinarily would think about a person as, “you are …” is really only a way of being – as in the difference between, “you are stupid” and “you are being stupid”. In terms of being, I discovered that a person has some choice.

In that earlier training, which was drawn on in designing a part of this leadership course, I experienced for myself that I was not stuck with any particular way I wound up being, rather I could authentically be whatever was required for me to be effective. I trained myself in the difference between pretending to be and being able to authentically be.

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In that moment under fire in Iraq, I was able to draw on that training to confront my fear as a way of being, and then to create being authentically courageous in spite of the fear.

Later in Kuwait as the aircraft maintenance officer of a unit, I was able to use the same transformational method that I had used with myself in Iraq to turn the historically low performing unit I inherited into an acceptable unit, and then into an outstanding unit, with 25 medals awarded for outstanding performance.

This kind of freedom and power to be in the exercise of leadership had not been made available to me in my 4 years at a military academy or was it made available while getting my masters degree in Leadership.

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Captain Granger’s 2nd Insight: Learning About Leadership ≠ Developing Leaders

A year after returning from Iraq, I was given the opportunity to teach leadership at the US Air Force Academy (partially as a product of the unusual results I was finally able to produce as a leader of my unit). My job as an assistant professor was to teach leadership to Air Force Academy Cadets, which job I saw as developing the next generation of global leaders.

I knew from my own experience in Iraq that if I left my students where I had been left even after six years of leadership education (knowing about leadership and being able to talk and write about it intelligently), when it came time for them to be a leader and to exercise leadership effectively, they were likely to have the same experience I at first had in Iraq.

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In the classroom, in teaching from what was traditionally available in the leadership literature (pretty much what I had been taught in my six years of leadership education), I was frustrated in being unable to provide my students with the access required to develop themselves as leaders – that is, the being of a leader that I had developed in myself during my time in Iraq.

The leadership I had realized in myself was distinct for me; I knew when I was leading and when I was not, and I was count-on-able to provide that leadership for others. Yet as a professor in the classroom, I was unable to produce or provide access to that kind of being a leader for my students.

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My inability to provide my students access to the kind of being required to be a leader and to exercise leadership effectively forced me to look at what was happening in the classroom as contrasted with what would happen when they were actually faced with a leadership challenge. The challenges leaders face in the field test one for something very different than the tests on leadership that students face in the classroom.

I recognized that there was a big difference between teaching and studying leadership and actually leaving my students being leaders. Describing, explaining, and analyzing the leadership characteristics, styles, and actions of others and yourself does not succeed in the field.

I was left with the question, how do I develop leaders who can create for themselves the being required to be a leader? That quest led me to this course and this technology.

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An Ontological Approach ProvidesAccess To Being A Leader

What we mean by access: To gain entrance to; the ability to obtain or make use of; the capability

of being reached; to get at. Merriam Webster (1994)

In the case of leadership, access is an actionable pathway to being a leader and to the effective exercise of leadership as one’s natural self-expression.

Said less rigorously, rather than being better able to understand, explain, and speak cogently about what happens, we want access to making it happen. Creating leaders is different from describing leaders and different from describing leadership.

Creating leaders requires a different kind of inquiry, one that provides actionable access to the being of being a leader and to the actions of the effective exercise of leadership.

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What Is The Access To Being A Leader?

“Developing leaders” is an entirely different discipline from defining, describing, characterizing, analyzing, and explaining leader and leadership.

While the answer to “what is leadership?” (describing and explaining leadership) may be useful in discussions of leadership, developing leaders requires its own body of knowledge, research, and pedagogy. And, for each of these the focus is on answering the question “how do we provide actionable access to being a leader?”, or in short, “how do we create leaders?”

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Cells and Particles Are Different From Leader and Leadership

For the most part, we leadership scholars attempt to teach leadership in the same manner as physics and biology are taught by physics and biology scholars. Physics and biology are appropriately studied and taught from a third-person perspective – in fact, with the subjects of physics and biology, that is the only perspective available to us.

However, leader and leadership as practiced – that is when one is actually being a leader and actually engaged in the exercise of leadership – is a first-person experience, an “as-lived” real-time phenomenon.

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Leadership As An As-Lived Phenomenon

Studying and teaching leader and leadership as a third-person phenomenon is like being in the stands observing, describing, analyzing, and explaining what is going on with the players on the field. Then, based on that explanation one develops and teaches a theory about what it takes for a player to be effective on the field.

By contrast, studying and teaching leader and leadership as a lived experience (rather than as a theory) gives researchers and students access to the as-lived real-time phenomenon of being when being a leader and the as-lived real-time phenomenon of the actions of effective leadership.

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A Phenomenological Science and Pedagogy of Leadership

If we are to leave students actually being leaders, we must develop a first-person science and pedagogy of leadership that provides access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as it is lived (as one’s natural self-expression), rather than some theory about it, that is as it is described, analyzed, explained, and understood.

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An Example of As-Lived vs the Theory Of

For a simple example, when we hammer a nail we don’t do it from some theory about a hammer as being composed of a lever and mallet where the lever multiplies the force at the mallet head. The theory of hammering a nail, which can be reduced to a mathematical formula, is nowhere present in the act of hammering. Rather we hammer the nail as-lived. That is, in the presence of our intention to have the nail go into the wood, we hammer the nail as a “dance” between the occurring and the action appropriate to that occurring. Specifically as, the way the hammer-and-nail occurs for us in order to make-the-nail-go-into-the-wood in a dance with the action appropriate to that occurring – all as a unity for us.(See Heidegger 1962, pp. 98-101)

The theoretical perspective (the theory of hammering) provides explanations of performance; the as-lived perspective allows access to the source of performance.

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An Epistemological vs. An Ontological Approach

In short, we scholars usually take an epistemological approach to (that is conveying knowledge about) the topics we cover. We assume describing impacts our students’ being.

An epistemological mastery of a subject leaves one knowing. An ontological mastery of a subject leaves one being. To provide access to creating leaders we employ the

ontological perspective in our research and in our course.

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The Course We Are Here To Master

The course we are here to master – Being A Leader And The Effective Exercise Of Leadership: An Ontological Model – is not about leadership or what it is to be a leader. That is, the subject matter of the Course is not leadership or what it is to be a leader.

The subject matter of the Course we are here to master is that subject matter which is required in order to leave each of the students who completes this Course being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression.

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The Course We Are Here To Master (Cont’d)

The methodology for realizing the promise to leave students being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression is to support students in creating and mastering those conversational domains that become a context that leaves them in any leadership situation being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

In short, the methodology utilized to realize the promise of the Course is one of creat ing and master ing certain conversational domains. By conversational domain we mean a set of specialized terms that are networked together so as to constitute a context that uses a person. This means the specific language used in the Course is critical.

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70


Accepting a new conversational domain poses a challenge to all of us. We all want to put what is said in the new conversational domain back into the conventional language we use on a daily basis (i.e. our current conversational domain).

Why?

Because it is familiar.

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We resist the new conversational domain in favor of “making the new concepts easily understandable” (as distinct from accessible), and especially so it will not occur to us or others as using “weird and puzzling” terms.

In effect, our natural response is to demand the new concepts be explicated in a language or frame of reference we already know – which will dilute or completely eviscerate access to the new distinctions.

When a student goes into a mathematical or medical course, they “know” that they have to learn a new conversational domain; however, this is not the case with things we think we “already know” and with things that we “don’t know that we don’t know” – that is, where there is no recognized, specialized conversational domain.

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Resisting A New Conversational Domain: The Words Are “Too Weird”

What I think I know, or what I believe is true –

but is actually false.

By insisting that we use terms we already know, we make it impossible

to learn to take things out of this domain and transfer them to What I

Know That I Know.

What I Don’t Know That I Don’t Know:

? – No AccessUnexamined aspects of my Worldview & Frames of

reference or, something completely outside my Worldview & Frames of reference (e.g. Ontological

Leadership Model)

What I Know That I Know:

Put It To UseDriving, Swimming, Empirical testing

What I KnowThat I Don’t Know:

Find Out/Study

Differential Calculus,Physics, Cognitive Semiotics, etc..

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Our Pedagogical Method63


We Employ Two Types Of Learning

“Transformative Learning” and “Informative Learning”

Informative learning adds to our current bucket of knowledge.

Transformative learning examines the buckets themselves – our worldview and our various frames of reference relevant to this aspect or that aspect of what we are studying.

See Jack Mezirow & Associates (2000)

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We Employ Two Types Of Learning (Cont’d)

Informative learning endeavors to increase the sum of what we know, to add to our available skills, to extend our already established cognitive capacities and to bring valuable new content to add to or fill in our current everyday common sense worldview and our pre-existing frames of reference.

Transformative learning provides us with the opportunity to become aware of the interpretations and beliefs that we hold as “the way it is”, that is, to critically reflect on the underlying assumptions that constitute our worldview, and our frames of reference relative to this subject or that subject.Transformative learning thus enables us to examine the validity of what we already know and in what way that ‘knowing’ may constrain, shape, or distort our cognitive capacities and the skills available to us.

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More On This Type of Learning

Jamshed Bharucha says, “... I mean any one of a range of conceptual or belief systems — either explicitly articulated or implicitly followed. These include narratives, paradigms, theories, models, schemas, frames, scripts, stereotypes, and categories; they include philosophies of life, ideologies, moral systems, ethical codes, worldviews, and political, religious or cultural affiliations. These are all systems that organize human cognition and behavior by parsing, integrating, simplifying or packaging knowledge or belief. They tend to be built on loose configurations of seemingly core features, patterns, beliefs, commitments, preferences or attitudes that have a foundational and unifying quality in one's mind or in the collective behavior of a community. When they involve the perception of people (including oneself), they foster a sense of affiliation that may trump essential features or beliefs.” Bharucha (2008)

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A Sampling From The Course

What we covered so far is the rationale for a course developed from the ontological perspective.

We are now going to provide an introduction to the elements of the Leadership Course that has served as our laboratory for developing and testing our Ontological Model.

What follows draws heavily on material in the course beginning with the title slide for the course and is written for students. In fact, most of the slides come directly from the course itself (tan background) and it may help if you can listen from the perspective of being a participant in the course.

We will start by expanding on our discussion of the foundation and its importance to leadership. But first one more explanatory slide.

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Crucibles, An Access To Leadership, And Our Course

Bennis and Thomas (2002) and Bill George (2003)

We have participants read about the Crucibles of Leadership to see how experiencing one or more intensely trying experiences – some being personal deep failures or losses – is often associated with the genesis of leaders.

It appears that when these experiences are responded to with deep self reflection, and are dealt with authentically regarding who one is and what really matters in life, they produce a transformative experience that is the genesis of being a leader.

The course we have created is designed to produce for students the transformative experiences that create the genesis of being a leader, but without the pain of actual crucible experiences. To achieve this we employ an ontological approach.

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Being A Leader, And The Effective Exercise Of Leadership:

An Ontological ModelWERNER [email protected]

MICHAEL C. JENSENJesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration Emeritus, Harvard Business [email protected]

STEVE ZAFFRONCEO, Vanto [email protected]

KARI L. GRANGERSunergos LLC, Performance ConsultantCenter for Character and Leadership Development, FellowUnited States Air Force [email protected]

Some of the material presented in this course is based on or derived from the consulting and program material of the Vanto Group, and from material presented in the Landmark Forum and other programs offered by Landmark Education LLC, as well as from a group of thinkers working under the name of The Barbados Group. The ideas and the methodology created by Werner Erhard underlie much of the material.� © 2009-2012 Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Kari Granger, Landmark Education. All rights reserved.69


The Foundation (Part I)70


The Foundation of Leadership

Think of Leadership as existing in the internal space created by the sides of a cube.

Providing actionable access to Integrity, Authenticity, and A Commitment to Something Bigger than Oneself establishes the foundation for leader and leadership.

The other four sides of the cube constitute the rest of the context for leader and leadership that we shall now distinguish.

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The Three Factors That Constitute The Foundation For Leader and Leadership

• Integrity (Being whole and complete)

• Authenticity (Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself to be for yourself)

• Being Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself (Source of the serene passion required to lead and to develop others as leaders, and the source of persistence when the path gets tough)

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Being Authentic About Our Inauthenticities

You will remember that one of the conditions for realizing what we are promising you from your participation in this course is:

Be willing to discover and confront your inauthenticities – where you are not being genuine, real, or authentic. Specifically, where in your life you are not being or acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and where you are not being or acting consistent with who you hold yourself to be for yourself.

And, be willing to tell the truth about where you are not being genuine, real, or authentic.

Stated more actionably:� � Be authentic about your inauthenticities.

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Are You Being Authentic?

Quoting Harvard Professor Chris Argyris, who after 40 years of studying us human beings, on the subject of our inauthenticity says:

“Put simply, people consistently act inconsistently, unaware of the contradiction between their espoused theory and their theory-in-use, between the way they think they are acting, and the way they really act.” Harvard Business Review, “Teaching Smart People How to Learn” (1991, pp. 99-109)

And if you do not see elements of yourself in this you are fooling yourself about fooling yourself.

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Are You Being Authentic? (Cont’d)

Most of us think of ourselves as being authentic; however, each of us in certain situations, and each of us in certain ways, is consistently inauthentic. And, because we avoid at all costs confronting our inauthenticities, we are consistently inauthentic about being inauthentic – not only with others, but with ourselves as well.

If you cannot find the courage to be authentic about your inauthenticities, you can forget about being a leader.

The attempt to be authentic on top of our inauthenticities is like putting cake frosting on cow dung, thinking that that will make the cow dung go down well.

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Is Being Authentic Important To Being A Leader?

Quoting former Medtronics CEO and now Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership, Bill George:

“After years of studying leaders and their traits, I believe that leadership begins and ends with authenticity.” (2003, p. 11)

You will remember from your pre-course reading in “Authentic Leadership” by Bill George that he was able to be completely straight about his weaknesses and failures. To be a leader you must be big enough to be authentic about your inauthenticities. This kind of bigness is a sign of power, and is so interpreted by others.Being a leader requires that you be absolutely authentic, and true authenticity begins with being authentic about your inauthenticities, and almost no one does this.

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The Route to Authenticity in our Classroom

While here we have only shared a few slides on the topic of authenticity, in the course, students reflect deeply and engage in both in-class and out-of-class exercises discovering and confronting where in their lives they are consistently inauthentic, and the impact those inauthenticities would have in the attempt to exercise leadership.

The actionable access to authenticity is being authentic about your inauthenticities.

In order to achieve this you must find in yourself, that “self” that leaves you free to be authentic about your inauthenticities.

That “self”, the one required to be authentic about your inauthenticities, is who you authentically are.

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The Route to Authenticity in our Classroom (Cont’d)

By courageously distinguishing for themselves where they are inauthentic, students gain actionable access to being authentic.

And you will know when this process is complete when you are free to be publicly authentic about your inauthenticities, and have experienced the freedom, courage, and peace of mind that comes from doing so. And this is especially so when you are authentic about your inauthenticities with those around you for whom those inauthenticities matter (and who are likely to be aware of them in any case).

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A Word About Values, andWhy In This Course We Care About Authenticity

This course is about being a leader, and being able to exercise leadership effectively. It is not an examination of normative values, that is, not about good or bad, or right or wrong, and it is not a discussion of morality.

While legitimate from other perspectives, in this course we are not concerned with Authenticity (or for that matter Integrity, and Bigger Than Oneself) as normative values. That is, we are not concerned with authenticity as being right or good, or with inauthenticity being wrong or bad.

In this course we are only concerned with the fact that being authentic is required for being a leader, and for being able to exercise leadership effectively.

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An Invitation to Examine Our Inauthenticities

What follows on the next few slides are examples of common inauthenticities. We invite you to look into your own life while we read these slides together.

See if you can identify certain ways in which you are consistently inauthentic or certain situations where you are consistently inauthentic.

See if you can notice the way being inauthentic might limit your being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as your natural self-expression.

If you choose to accept our invitation, as we said, it may help if you can listen from the perspective of being a participant in the course.

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Examples Of Our Inauthenticities

We all want to be admired, and almost none of us is willing to confront just how much we want to be admired, and how readily we will fudge on being straightforward and completely honest in a situation where we perceive doing so threatens us with a loss of admiration.

We also all want to be seen by our colleagues as being loyal, protesting that loyalty is a virtue even in situations where the truth is that we are acting “loyal” solely to avoid the loss of admiration. And, in such situations, how ready we are to sacrifice integrity to maintain the pretense of being loyal, when the truth is that we are “being loyal” only because we fear losing the admiration of our close colleagues.

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Looking Good

In addition, most of us have a pathetic need for looking good, and almost none of us is willing to confront just how much we care about looking good – even to the extent of the silliness of pretending to have followed and understood something when we haven’t.

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Each Of Us Is Inauthentic In Certain Ways

While this may sound like a description of this or that person you know, it actually describes each person in this room, including your instructors. We are all guilty of being small in these ways – it comes with being human. Great leaders are noteworthy in having come to grips with these foibles of being human – not eliminating them, but being the master of these weaknesses when they are leading.

In this course, you will have the opportunity to catch yourself being small in these ways. While you won’t like seeing this, by distinguishing these weaknesses in yourself, you will give yourself a powerful opportunity to master these “functional constraints”.

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There Is Power In Seeing Our Inauthenticities

For example, right in this classroom you may catch yourself being limited in your ability to perform, or even just plain stuck, when acknowledging that you aren’t clear, or acknowledging that you were mistaken, or failing to be straight with another student when that will contribute to that student, any of which evokes a fear of:

� 1) the loss of admiration,

� 2) being accused of being disloyal, or

� 3) being wrong and therefore looking bad. Welcome such insights. You will benefit from them.

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Some Inauthenticities Are Hidden By Blind Spots

Our inauthenticities are often hidden from our view because they live in our mental blind spots – something like the physical blind spots our eyes produce in our vision.

What we mean by blind spots here is something about yourself or your life that you can’t see, but don’t know that you can’t see; something you don’t know, but don’t know that you don’t know. See Van Hecke (2007)

Those inauthenticities that are hidden in your blind spots will take some work and a little courage for you to discover. And, we will be doing that work together in this course.

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All True Leaders Are Heroes (Committed To Something Bigger than Themselves)

We do not have time in this presentation to go through all three of these foundational elements required for being a leader and exercising leadership effectively. But we will do some introduction to what it is to be Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself because it undoubtedly will seem strange to many scholars.

In a certain sense, all true leaders are heroes. Heroes are ordinary people who are given being and action by something bigger than themselves.

What we mean by “committed to something bigger than oneself” is being committed in a way that shapes one’s being and actions so that they are in the service of realizing something beyond one’s personal concerns for oneself – beyond a direct personal payoff. As they are acted on, such commitments create something to which others can also be committed and have the sense that their lives are about something bigger than themselves. This is leadership!

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Being Committed To Something Bigger than Oneself is the Source of Passion

Moreover, without the passion that comes from being committed to something bigger than yourself, you are unlikely to persevere in the valley of tears that is an inevitable experience in the lives of all true leaders. Times when nothing goes right, there is no way, no help is available, nothing there except what you can do to find something in yourself – the strength to persevere in the face of impossible odds. When you are committed to something bigger than yourself and you reach down inside, you will find the strength to continue (joy in the labor of).

And finally, being committed to something bigger than yourself leaves you with the passion required to empower the brain’s executive function to “not eat the marshmallow”.

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Crucible: An Experience that leaves many Committed to something Bigger than themselves

The Example of the Mid-life Crisis: At some point in life we all stop measuring time from the beginning and start measuring it from the end – how much is left.

No matter how good you look, no matter how good you’ve gotten your family to look, and no matter how much wealth, fame or power you have amassed, you will experience a profound lack of fulfillment – the incompleteness, emptiness and pain expressed by the commonly occurring question:

Is This All There Is?

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Leadership and “Is This All There Is?”

No matter how good you look or how much you have personally amassed, it will never be enough to avoid this crisis. Dealing with the crisis of “Is this all there is?” lies in having a commitment to the realization of a future (a cause) that leaves you with a passion for living.

This applies to corporate entities as well as to human beings. Wealth, fame, and the like, are for both no more than the scorecard for success; they are not the source of corporate or personal passion and energy.

By the way, a commitment to something bigger than oneself empowers not only a human brain’s executive function to avoid “eating the marshmallow”, but works in the same way to empower the corporate “executive function” to forego “eating the marshmallow”.

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Summary: Committed To Something Bigger than Oneself

Each of us must make the personal choice to be a hero or not, to be committed to something bigger than ourselves or not, to go beyond the way we “wound up being” and have the purpose of our lives and our careers be about something that makes a difference or not, in other words, to be a leader or not.

Not everyone will choose this path, and that is certainly OK. The following is a quotation from George Bernard Shaw

from his play “Man and Superman” (the epistle dedicatory to the play) that captures this idea of being committed to something bigger than oneself:

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Summary (Cont’d): Committed To Something Bigger than Oneself

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

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Contextual Framework (Part II)92


A person’s mental and emotional state, thoughts and thought processes, and their actions can be explained from various perspectives. As we said, these can be explained from a psychological perspective, or a neurological, or an evolutionary perspective.

From an ontological perspective a person’s mental and emotional state, thoughts and thought processes, and their actions are treated as a correlate (naturally, necessarily directly connected – mutually arising) of the way in which what they are dealing with occurs or shows up for them. Note that what we mean by “what they are dealing with” includes the

environment in which they are dealing with it, and who they are for themselves in that environment while dealing with whatever they are dealing with.

The Underlying Ontological Principle:Action Is A Correlate Of The Occurring

(See: Erhard, Jensen, & Barbados Group, 2010)

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The Occurring Is Shaped By The Context

Every situation we deal with shows up for us in some context or other, and that context constrains and shapes the way the situation occurs for us, and consequently the way we interact with the situation.

A context functions as a cognitive lens through which we see the world, others and ourselves – highlighting some aspects, dimming other aspects, and blanking out yet other aspects.

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Is it comprehensible, meaningful?

� "A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better place than a street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance."

The Power of Context:Ex. 1 – Consider the Following Paragraph

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KITE

Now read the paragraph again. Is the paragraph comprehensible?

� "A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better place than a street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance."

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Conclusion: The Context Is Decisive

On the previous slide, when you take note of the title (the context for the paragraph) suddenly everything in the paragraph makes complete sense.

� (This example is from: "On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You Are Not", Robert A. Burton, MD, St. Martin's Press, NY, NY, 2008, p. 5.)

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The Power of Context to Use YouEx. 2 –The Being and Action of Seminarians

Researchers Darley and Batson (1973) met with a group of seminarians and reviewed the “Good Samaritan” parable from the New Testament. Each seminarian was then asked to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme, and then walk to a nearby building to present their talk at a scheduled time. The researchers told half of the seminarians that if they didn’t hurry they were going to be late in giving their talk. On the way to the nearby building, the researchers placed a moaning, slumped-over man. The researchers wanted to know whether or not the seminarians would stop to help the slumped-over man.

The results of the experiment were that, even after having just heard the “Good Samaritan” parable, only 10% of the seminarians who thought they would be late if they didn’t hurry stopped to help. And, 63% of the seminarians who believed they had time to get to their talk by the scheduled time stopped to help.

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The Being And Action Of Seminarians

“What this study is suggesting, in other words, is that the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior. The words “Oh, you’re late” had the effect of making someone who was ordinarily compassionate into someone who was indifferent to suffering – of turning someone, in that particular moment, into a different person.” (p. 165, emphasis added)

This is what is meant to be used by a context. The context is decisive in determining one’s way of being and one’s actions.

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What Is A Created Context?

Everything we encounter, and everything we deal with – the world and the way it works, any situation with which we are dealing and the way it works, others and the way they work, we ourselves and the way we work – shows up for us in some context or other.

As we have seen, a default context can limit and distort the way what we are dealing with shows up for us. When the default context doesn’t leave us with power and ability, we can create contexts that give us greater access to what we are dealing with, and that consequently leave us empowered and enabled.

Relevant to what one is dealing with, it is possible to create a context that allows what is pertinent to show up, and blanks out what is irrelevant. As a consequence, certain critical actualities and certain possibilities for effective action are more apparent.

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The Power of Context or Frame of Reference:Ex. 3 – Creating An Empowering Context

When driving, if you have ever gotten annoyed by being held up behind a slow driver, imagine what would happen to you if you suddenly realized that the other driver was your elderly grandmother who you really love and care about.

You are still being held up by a slow driver. However, because the context has changed, you will notice that instead of being annoyed you are being patient.

The next time you are held up by a slow driver, create the context for yourself that the slow driver is your elderly grandmother, and you will confirm for yourself that:

the context is decisive.

101


Creating a Context That Uses You:Ex. 4 – Cadet Mark as Coach to Cadet Cindy

This example comes from cadet Mark in Kari Granger’s Leadership Course taught at the US Air Force Academy. Mark had accepted responsibility for coaching cadet Cindy who was failing the Academy’s physical fitness exam required for graduation.

After much coaching by Mark, Cindy (who was not a student in Kari’s Leadership Course) was making no progress on satisfying the USAFA physical fitness standards.

What you will see in the next slides are (in Mark’s own words in a classroom exercise) what Mark said to Cindy and what he said to himself both before and after he shifted the context within which he saw himself and Cindy.

102


What is actually said …

content

Try harder

Eat better

You don’t meet

standards

This is impossible

Shifting Context: Mark’s Original Context In His Words (Cont’d)

103


Shifting Context: Mark’s Original Context In His Words (Cont’d)


content

What is not said, but thought …

context

She’s Lazy

I don’t want to fail.

She can’t do it

She doesn’t

want it bad

enough.

She doesn’t try

Try harder

Eat better

You don’t meet

standards

This is impossible

There is nothing else I can say.

It’s not my fault

104



context

It’s not all about me

I am a Performance Coach

Committed to other’s success

Fellow Graduate

Fellow

Officer

She’s worth it

Shifting Context: Mark’s New Context In His Words (Cont’d)

105



content


context

It’s not all about me

I am a Performance Coach

Committed to other’s success

Fellow Graduate

Fellow

Officer

She’s worth it

We can do it

I’m your partner.

I need your

commitment

I believe in you. Its time you believe in yourself

Shifting Context: Mark’s New Context In His Words (Cont’d)

106


The Result of Mark’s Classroom Exercise Regarding Context

Mark transformed the context in which he held Cindy and himself, and the result was:

Cindy increased her fitness score by 137 points.

An almost unheard of one-semester change in fitness score.

107


The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IIA Context That Uses You

We work with students to create for themselves what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that calls them into the being and action of a true leader.

By “calls them into being and action”, we mean a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression.

This contrasts with a conceptual framework (the idea of) that leaves students knowing about, and able to converse knowledgably about leader and leadership.

108


The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part IIA Context That Uses You (Cont’d)

We accomplish this by first supporting students to free themselves from the constraints and shaping imposed by their default context for leader and leadership – their unexamined and received ideas and beliefs about what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership.

The students are then free to create for themselves a context for being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership that has the power to leave them being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression.

109


Distinguishing Leadership as A Context That Calls You Into Being and Action

Building on the three foundations of leadership (see the base of the cube), we then work with students to create for themselves the other four facets of the cube, which when taken as a whole create the context for leader and leadership – which context leaves students with the being and actions of a leader as their natural self- expression. We next spell out each facet in a bit of detail.

110


In Brief: Our Contextual Framework

As linguistic abstractions, leader and leadership create leader and leadership as realms of possibility.

As phenomena, leader and leadership exist in the sphere of language.

As concepts, leader and leadership exist in the domain of the future.

As a term, leadership is defined as an exercise in language that ��brings about the realization of a future that�� fulfills the concerns of the relevant parties.

On the next slides we will go into a bit more detail to clarify

111


First Aspect: Leader And Leadership As Linguistic Abstractions

As linguistic abstractions, leader and leadership create leader and leadership as

realms of possibility � � in which when you are being a leader, all possible� ways of being are available to you, and � when you are exercising leadership, all possible � actions are available to you.

The point is: Mastering leader and leadership as realms of possibility leaves you free to be and free to act, rather than being constrained by notions about what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership effectively. When one’s focus is on fulfilling a commitment rather than acting in a particular style, all ways of being and acting are available, and are often required to “get something done”.

112


An Example of the Unlimited Nature of A Realm of Possibility

For example, when exercising leadership a leader can be in any one of the following modes in Kantor’s 4-Factor Model of Conversation/Interaction. (These are exhaustive and at any given moment are mutually exclusive.)

Mover: initiates objectives and actions Opposer: challenges the proposed objectives and actions Follower: supports the suggested objectives and actions Bystander: reflects on the conversations, suggests objectives

and actions Counter-intuitively, in actual practice you will see that there

are times as a leader when you can only get something done by being a bystander or a follower. If there are any ways of being and acting that are excluded from your opportunity set of being and acting, you will be handicapped as a leader.

113


Unlimited Nature of A Realm of Possibility

Mastering the contextual framework begins with mastering leader and leadership as realms of possibility. To get a sense of this process, please answer the following questions:

In order to be a leader and to exercise leadership effectively, what must be present?

In order to be a leader and to exercise leadership effectively, what must not be present?

114


Second Aspect: Leader And Leadership As Phenomena

As phenomena, � leader and leadership exist in the sphere of language, �� whether that be literally speaking, or speaking in the form �� of writing, or �� speaking and listening to yourself, that is, thinking, � � or the speaking of your actions, as in “actions speak �� louder than words”, or in � � providing a certain kind of listening.

The point is: If you look for yourself you will see that: When you see someone being a leader or exercising leadership, or when you have experienced being led, you see someone functioning in the sphere of language. And, more pointedly when you are being a leader and exercising leadership you will be functioning in the sphere of language. (Remember that sometimes actions speak louder than words.)

115


Third Aspect: Leader And Leadership As Concepts

As concepts, leader and leadership exist in the domain of� a created future, � � a future that fulfills the concerns of the relevant parties, � �� that the leader and those being led come to live into, � � � � which future gives them being and action in the � � � � �present consistent with realizing that future.

The point is: Being a leader and the exercise of leadership is all about realizing a future that wasn’t going to happen anyway.(Later, we will make clear exactly what kind of a future people come to live into, and that gives them being and action in the present.)

116


Fourth Aspect: Leadership As A Term

As a term, leadership is defined as an exercise in language that brings about the realization of a future� that wasn’t going to happen anyway,� which future fulfills (or contributes to fulfilling)� � �the concerns of the relevant parties,� � including critically those who granted the � � leadership (those who lead you, and� � those you lead).

117


The Final Facet of the Leadership Cube:The Emergent Being and Action

The final facet, which completes the leadership cube, is the expression of leadership in the world – the being of a leader and the actions of the effective exercise of leadership – that emerge from the combination of the other facets of the leadership cube.

118


The Emergence of Leader and Leadership

The being of being a leader and the actions of the effective exercise of leadership emerge as a person’s natural self- expression when they have:

Mastered the four aspects of the contextual framework for leader and leadership, and have

Mastered what it takes for one’s natural self-expression to be one of:

� � - being a person of integrity

� � - being authentic about your inauthenticities

� � - being committed to something bigger than yourself

119


Ontological Constraints (Part III)120


The Two Ontological Constraints

Reviewing what we said earlier: Having distinguished what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that has the power to give participants the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression, we provide participants with exercises that allow them to become aware of and remove the perceptual and functional constraints imposed on their natural self-expression by what we term Ontological Constraints.

Ontological Perceptual Constraints: Severely limit and distort what we perceive of the situation we are dealing with.

Ontological Functional Constraints: Severely limit and constrain our opportunity set for being and consequently our actions in the situation we are dealing with.

121


As we said, given that our actions are naturally, necessarily directly connected with (a mutually arising correlate of) the way in which the circumstances we are dealing with occur (or show up) for us, and

Given that the way those circumstances occur for us is limited and shaped by what we term “Ontological Constraints”, our actions are not correlated with what is actually there, but rather with some distortion of what is there.

And, given that these Ontological Constraints often also limit and shape our opportunity set for being and action, the appropriate actions may be, and in fact often are, unavailable to us.

The Underlying Ontological Principle:Action Is A Correlate Of The “Occurring”

122


The Nature of Ontological Constraints

Some of these obstacles to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership are inherent in and shared by all people — a consequence (without an intervention) of the way our brains work (the video example we showed of inattentional blindness).

Others of these obstacles are the result of a person’s history and experience, which we will discuss in the next section.

Gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership requires that we loosen the grip of these debilitating Ontological Constraints.

Or, to put it more simply, “we must take away what is in the way of our being a leader and exercising leadership effectively”.

123


Ontological Perceptual Constraints124


Ontological Perceptual Constraints

Our network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for-granted assumptions about the world, others, and ourselves are the source of those ontological perceptual constraints that are a product of our history and experience.

These perceptual constraints limit and shape what we perceive of what is actually there in the situations with which we are dealing. Consequently, without resolving or at least relaxing these perceptual constraints, we are left in any leadership situation with some distortion of what we are dealing with.

125


Perceptual Constraint: A Demonstration

What follows in the next 4 minute video is a summary of faulty perceptions, or what psychologists term “Change Blindness”.

In our terms this is a study of “what our brain sees”, not what is in front of us, that is, not “what our eyes see”.

For those viewing this in the pdf file please go to the following URL to watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvfHY-I_Ywk

126


A Note About Our Coming Examples of Perceptual and Functional Constraints

Given the time constraints of a two-hour presentation about a semester-long course, we are only able to address one of the perceptual constraints and barely describe one of the functional constraints we deal with in the course.

In the course itself, in addition to fully explicating the structure and function (makeup) of these constraints, we provide actionable access to removing or relaxing all of the various perceptual and functional constraints we deal with.

We now provide an example of a perceptual constraint dealt with in the course.

127


An Ontological Perceptual Constraint:“Already-Always-Listening”

Most of us are unaware that our listening is not an empty vessel, not a blank slate. Rather, we think that as long as our hearing is not somehow impaired, that whatever enters our ears (what we physically hear) registers in our listening (lands for us) exactly as it was said.While we may hear what is stated as it was stated, there is something already in our listening that constrains and shapes our listening of what enters our ears.Already-always-listening is a Perceptual Constraint that constrains and shapes our listening. It is already in our listening before we hear anything. And, it is always there in our listening. Hence the name, already-always-listening. In short, there is a difference between what we hear and what we listen.

128


Examples Of Already-Always-Listening

Some people listen to classical music with “I don’t like classical music” already in their listening before they even hear a new piece of classical music. Others listen to heavy metal music with “heavy metal music is just noise” already in their listening. In either case, their ability to hear the music is not interfered with, but their listening of that music is constrained and shaped by their already-always-listening.If you think about it, you will be able to find a personal example by identifying someone for whom you have an already-always-listening before that person even opens their mouth. That already-always-listening is likely to be some favorable or unfavorable judgment, evaluation, or opinion you have about that person. Your already-always-listening for that person, whatever it may be, constrains and shapes your listening of whatever that person says.

129


The Constraining Effect OfYour Already-Always-Listening

Your already-always-listening of what you hear limits in your listening what registers for you of what was said, and shapes in your listening what does register to be consistent with your already-always-listening.With the person about whom you have a judgment, evaluation, or opinion, anything said by them that is inconsistent with your judgment, evaluation, or opinion will not register for you or will be dismissed in some way. In other words, your already-always-listening constrains what registers for you.For example, if you have an opinion about conservative politicians, such as “they don’t empathize with people’s suffering”, and a conservative politician says something consistent with empathy for a group’s suffering, while you will hear what is said, it is unlikely to register for you as empathy.

130


A Person “Becomes” Their Already-Always-Listening

Many people hear what is said to them with “I know”, or “I already know”, or “I know better” already in their listening before they hear almost anything said to them. It is not that they are thinking “I already know”, it is that who they are is “I already know”.

The consequences of such already-always-listening are easy to imagine. The consequences are the same as if you said to someone who is about to say something to you, “I already know. Now what did you want to say to me?”, or “I know better. Now what did you want to say to me?”

131


A Simple Example Of “I Know”Already In One’s Listening

To illustrate this “I know” already-always-listening, if when you are driving and you know to turn right at the next corner, if your passenger says, “Turn right at the next corner”, you are likely to defensively blurt out, “I know!” – even though letting the passenger know that you know is irrelevant to anything other than defending your already-always-listening that “I know”.

The entire need to say “I know” comes from “I know” being already always in your listening. It is not that you are thinking “I know”, it is that who you are is “I know”, and when someone says something that occurs for you as a challenge to who you are, you respond defensively.

132


True/FalseWhat’s in it for me? What am I getting out of this? A

gree/Disagree

It’s not my fault/

I am not to blam

e

�Should/

Shouldn’t

I am the leader/

boss/ in chargeWhat are you really up to? What do they really mean?

Bel

ieve

/D

isbe

lieve

Rig

ht/W

rong

I’m

bus

y/ W

hat’s

you

r po

int?

I already know/ I know better

Like? Dislike?

The Impact Of Attempting to Lead In The Distorted Reality Of Already-Always-Listening

The Mess You Are In:Reasons, justifications, excusesand rationalizations for any misinterpretations, frustrations, ineffectiveness or inefficiencies that are actually a product of a reality distorted by already-always-listening

147

133


Distinguish a few of your already-always-listenings and look to see in what way those listenings are likely to limit your effectiveness in being a leader.

At first, you may not like what you discover in your already-always-listening. Yet, the more looking you do the more you begin to see. To give yourself the power to keep digging, keep in mind that the more of your already-always-listening you distinguish and own, the more freedom you will experience in being a leader and in exercising leadership effectively. As a consequence, you will have developed an important aspect of the listening required to be a leader who can make things happen with and through others.

Already-Always-Listening Exercise

134


Already-Always-Listening Exercise (Cont’d)

Do this exercise by finishing the following sentence for at least a few of your already-always-listenings: “My already-always-listening is ....”

If you construct the statement of each of your already-always-listenings in that way, something gets unconcealed for you that doesn't get unconcealed when you tell your story about it.

135


Ontological Functional Constraints136


What Is Undistinguished Runs You

As is obvious if you think about it, if there is anything in life, or about you yourself, that is undistinguished by you (is invisible for you), you have no access to it, and therefore you cannot do anything about it.

That which is undistinguished is out of your control (functions without your permission) and as a result when it is triggered it constrains and shapes your way of being and your actions. And, because it is undistinguished, you don’t even know that your way of being and your actions are being constrained and shaped. Because you have no access to those ways of being and acting, you can do nothing about them.

137


What Is Undistinguished Runs You (Cont’d)

When what is undistinguished is triggered, you are on automatic and don’t even know that you are on automatic, that is, you have no choice about the way you are being or acting.

In short, what is undistinguished runs you.

138


Functional Constraints, An Introduction

One’s Perceptual Constraints distort one’s perceptions of what one is dealing with and oneself in dealing with it.

By contrast, even if one’s perceptions were not distorted (limited and shaped by a Perceptual Constraint), one’s Functional Constraints when triggered fixate one’s way of being and acting.

139


Functional Constraints, An Introduction (Cont’d)

One’s way of being and acting are fixated by a Functional Constraint in the following sense: When anger, for example, is the triggered fixated way of being and acting, while the way one expresses and acts on the anger may depend on the circumstances that triggered it, one’s way of being is fixed as (restricted to) anger. We may even try to hide our anger by suppressing our expression of it; but our being angry is still the fixed way of being.

In everyday language the behavior generated by a Functional Constraint is sometimes referred to as “knee jerk reaction”. Psychologists sometimes refer to this behavior as “automatic stimulus/response behavior” – where, in the presence of a particular stimulus (trigger), the inevitable response is an automatic set way of being and acting.

140


Our Functional Constraints (triggerable set-ways-of-being-and-acting) often seem justified and even rational at the time, and are therefore difficult for us to recognize as a limitation on our opportunity set for being and action. (And, while such limitations on our behavior are difficult for us to recognize in ourselves, that we are stuck and “on rails” is often apparent to others.)

Functional Constraints, An Introduction (Cont’d)

141


Most of us believe we are completely free to react to any situation that confronts us in the way that best handles the situation.

This is simply false, and mostly we are unaware of the degree to which we have little or no choice in the matter.

If you believe this does not describe you (at least in some situations) you are fooling yourself about fooling yourself, and we suggest you ask your husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend, child or parent about your knee-jerk reaction.

Much of this is rooted in the human brain in the flight or fight response (the Amygdala Hijack as it is sometimes called).

Our Functional Constraints Are For The Most Part Invisible To Us

142


The Route to the “Freedom To Be”:Relaxing the Grip of Ontological Constraints

If being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership is going to be your natural self-expression, you will need to liberate yourself from these perceptual and functional ontological constraints.

Identifying our personal perceptual and functional ontological constraints – and we all have them – relaxes their grip on us, leaving us free to be and act powerfully with any leadership challenge we are dealing with.

143


A Quick Summary144


1. To provide you with access required for you to master the three foundational elements on which leadership is built.

Integrity, Authenticity, and Being Committed to Something Bigger than Yourself.

2. To provide you with the access required for you to create what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership effectively as a context that calls you into being and action. By a “context that calls you into being and action”, we mean a context that has the power to give you the being of a leader, and the actions of effective leadership, as your natural self-expression.� � � � � � ��

The Three Major Commitments of This Course145


3. Having created a context with the power to give you the being and actions of a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as your natural self-expression, the third commitment of this course is to provide you with an opportunity to remove or relax what constrains or distorts your natural self-expression.

The Three Major Commitments of This Course146


The Foundations of Leadership

Providing actionable access to Integrity, Authenticity, and A Commitment to Something Bigger than Oneself establishes the foundation for being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership.

147


Distinguishing Leadership as A Context That Calls You Into Being and Action

Building on the three foundations of leadership (see the base of the cube), we then work with students to create for themselves the other four facets of the cube, which when taken as a whole, create the context for leader and leadership – which context leaves students with the being and actions of a leader as their natural self expression.

Building on the three foundations of leadership (see the base of the cube), we then work with students to create for themselves the other four facets of the cube, which when taken as a whole, create the context for leader and leadership – which context leaves students with the being and actions of a leader as their natural self- expression.

148


Removing the Ontological Constraints that Inhibit Leader and Leadership as One’s Natural Self Expression

Having distinguished what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression,

� � we provide students with exercises that allow them to become aware of and remove the perceptual and functional ontological constraints that interfere with being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as their natural self-expression.

149


The Final Facet of the Leadership Cube:The Emergent Being and Action

The final facet, which completes the leadership cube, is the expression of leadership in the world – the being of a leader and the actions of the effective exercise of leadership – that emerge from the combination of the other facets of the leadership cube.

150


References151


References

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Bennis, Warren. 2007. "Introduction to the Special Issue 'The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern World' " American Psychologist: January.

Bennis and Thomas (2002) Bennis, Warren G. and Robert J. Thomas, 2002. Harvard Business Review, September 2002

Bharucha, Jamshed. Education as stretching the mind. The Edge: World Question Center, 2008. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_16.html#bharucha (accessed 15 February 2010).

Burton, Robert A. 2008. “On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You Are Not”. St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, p.5.

Encarta. 2004. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2004: Microsoft Corporation. Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and Barbados Group, A New Paradigm of

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Fontana Press. 1988. Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought: Fontana Press. Gladwell, Malcolm. 2002. The Tipping Point. New York: Back Bay Books. Pp.

164-166. Granger, Kari. 2009. “Transformative Leadership: A Mountain With No Top”,

Academy Spirit, p. 9.

152


References (Cont’d)

Gregory, Richard. 1998. "Brainy Mind." Brit. Med. Journal, V. 317: pp. 1693-95. http://www.richardgregory.org/papers/brainy_mind/brainy-mind.htm.

Gawande, Atul. 2008. “The Itch”, The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande

George, Bill. 2003. “Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value” Jossey-Bass.

Heifetz, Ronald, and Riley Sinder. "Managing the Public's Problem Solving." Chapter 8 in The Power of Public Ideas. Edited by Robert Reich. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1988.

Hogan, Robert and Robert Kaiser. 2005. "What We Know About Leadership." Review of General Psychology, V. 9, No. 2. DOI: 10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.169.

Kantor, David & Heaton-Lonstein, Nancy (In process). “Raising the Curtain: The Real Lives of Leaders, Structural Dynamics Theory of Face-to-Face Communication”; and David Kantor, “Inside the Family” (1974).

Kuhn, Thomas, 1962. “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” 3 Ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Ed. (1994). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Mezirow, Jack & Associates. 2000. Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress: Jossey-Bass Inc.

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References (Cont’d)

Rosenthal, S. A., Pittinsky, Todd L., Laura M. Bacon, R. Matthew Montoya, and Weichun Zhu. 2007. National Leadership Index 2007: A National Study of Confidence in Leadership. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Rost, Joseph C. 1993. Leadership for the Twenty-First Century. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Shaw, George Bernard. Play, “Man and Superman”. U. of Regensburg, Department of Computer Science, http://www.linguatec.de/

products/tts/references/uni_regensburg Van Hecke, Madeline L. 2007. Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things,

Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY. Weingarten, Gene (2007, April 8). Pearls Before Breakfast. Washington Post.

Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html.

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Documents

Introduction To Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of