Friday, March 22, 2013

Time for new leadership and stop managing?



Most people are convinced that in the world we are in an awful lot of 'movement' is going on. We are, so it seems and feels, in a strong transformation.



The least you can say, we are having complex global problems. A chaotic situation and also very turbulent. Their effects on each individual and / or organization is different. Nevertheless, many people think and feel that their future seems uncertain. Networks and social media are keeping us in a firm grip and everything goes much faster. Even so fast  that we can no longer reason from ratio. Religion, ethics, western culture and scientific knowledge are not adequate. Many people are looking for other forms of support. We are forced to live (even) more out of feeling and intuition.



The current management and leadership is influenced by the turbulent current time. Leadership changes with time, by changing of people (of various cooperation and inflow of new generations), tasks, environment and social circumstances and developments.



In this time we need not just one but at least  two new types of leadership (that is my statement). Further on there is developing  a new form of 'management'.



New leadership first requires gaining of personal leadership. Besides heading for  organizations out of inspiring leadership. 'Managing'? Transformation, As I like to call it "Step-stone management”, will increasingly enter upon.



Personal leadership

Personal leadership, for me is, taking responsibility for your own life.

Know, or discover, your mission and make that personal mission come true, take all your natural talents and developed skills and put them in an optimum collaborative way. Show your true identity and live your ideal. Nice words, maybe you never quite get there. Taking matters into your own hands (take action) instead of continuous thinking, considering every little thing, postponing, listening to every “good advice” from others instead of listening to that voice inside you calling for many years, that says take control of yourself. My approach is that behind every man there is an idea imagined by the great director of your life. So Follow yourself! Look for the inspiration in your own blueprint and the potential that you've got. You are the leader of yourself and therefore no longer of minor importance.



Inspiring leadership

In the chaotic situations and developments in which we are and within the networks in which we operate other factors than hierarchy and power games are increasingly playing bigger roles. Organizations become flatter, directors and managers will disappear, the collective staff/personnel, is getting better organized for their tasks due to the network they are in and their specialty.  A leader takes the authority no longer from his or hers position but from his or hers inner strength, identity and service.

The new leader is the one, that will take up the collective highest good, from harmony and inspiration. It is not someone who plays the role of boss, but he/she is the accepted natural leader (whether or not for a particular job). It is the right person who can listen without judging. Who inspires people. Who is not going to convince you in a debate, but finds value in dialogue. He / she must be able to deal with chaos, complexity, paradoxes and uncertainty. A new leader will be asked to shape a concrete form that will come out of chaos. That doesn’t take managers who have (or keep) (literary) an open door to their staff and personnel, but set open their hart for the inspiration and enthusiasm of their employees. These executives see value in allowing stillness. In that stillness they find new energy and creativity. They imagine no longer just the question: 'What should be done?' but much more they explore and make them receptive to the answer to the question: "What wants to happen here? “.



Transformation or "Step-stone management”

From the above proposed developments, I expect even fewer results working within the so-called SMART and planned frameworks. The complexity of this time is almost impossible to control with measurable criteria. The process requires (self-) confidence, inspiration, creativity (arise), service and stop wanting to keep everything under control. It is in many situations no longer desirable draw al kind of plans of action in advance. It is better to form the plans of action step by step within the process. Many influences on themes and projects change so fast that they hardly are incalculable in advance. These changes are never complete and will therefore always go on. Who can, in today’s world really look objectively five years ahead? The everyday practice has proven that. Transformation, the new 'management style ', calls for the “step by step”, always from a newly created environment with complexity, paradoxes and uncertainty, dealing with these successive dilemmas in an organization and transition approach.

You could call that "Step-stone management”.



Frans Captijn
Host / Catalyst / Talenteer at Captijn Insight

Captijn Insight“Catalyst in your process to new sustainable flow. Whether you are an individual, couple, team or an organization.” 
captijninsight@gmail.com





Friday, March 8, 2013

Don’t believe in ‘retiring’

“Age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”
(Longfellow)


I am lucky to have had a terrific youth. This most because of my parents. They gave me possibilities and an environment to try out my natural qualities and talents. Learn by play was their parole.

My father had a passion. Till the age of about 54 he was an excellent commercial agent of the famous Dutch ‘Droste’ chocolates in the Netherlands. But… he had a dream. A dream to help people suffering of physical pain. People where medical doctors said to: ‘You have to learn to live with it’. This sign for my father was as a command to start to help. For him it was an opportunity to show what he was up to.
So he studied, in evening ours, for psychotherapist and glorious passed for his exams. Also he started with exercising and studying yoga.
He always told his children “Don’t believe in retiring but go on with your life mission every day!’ As an example for us he quit with his job at the age of 54 and started his own practice in psychotherapy and yoga. With a lot of success and appreciation till he could not live this passion anymore at the age of 94 he went on with it. He helped a lot of people to believe in their inner strength, qualities and talents to heal themselves and serve the world out of their experience and wisdom. They did and some of them still do.

So he showed us that work, when you live your passion, does not feel at all as work anymore. Also that everything you need for yourself and your family you have to take care of, will be there just at the right moment.
It’s joining life with the idea that everything is good for you and it still does matter to serve. It’s living with that exuberant enthusiasm that young people have. Jump into life with both feet and live! Jump into the river of life and start swimming. The water of life is fine especially with your life experience!

Don’t believe in retiring. The mind never gets old but just wise with the minute. Your thinking may slow down a bit, but the extra knowledge and wisdom you have developed make up for it.

You will have more appreciation at the end of your life than ever. And you will appreciate beauty more. So older age should be composed of wise days. They should be beautiful and wonderful days. You can appreciate life more fully than at any other time of your life.

Don’t be afraid to change your attitude. You can start with it now! Don’t be afraid to look inward and let wisdom unfold, to develop new thoughts and to replenish your mind with other and / or better thinking. It really matters!

To find out more about this, driven by the power of thoughts of my parents and my own believing, the Villa-Asia programs appeared. Not to be successful as a business itself, but to make you more successful as you probably still are (no matter your age) to serve and create a better world. That’s really a natural ‘win-win’ situation.

Frans Captijn
Host / Catalyst / Talenteer at Captijn Insight

Captijn Insight“Catalyst in your process to new sustainable flow. Whether you are an individual, couple, team or an organization.” 
captijninsight@gmail.com