Coordinated Groups of Collaborators
Organizations are systems. Visionary leaders are systems thinkers.
It takes more than one organized, conscious leader (CEO, ED, Board Chair, Founder) to lead an organization well. Yes – it helps, but healthy visionary organizations require coordinated groups of collaborators.
In these “unprecedented times” leaders need strategic foresight with their team of senior leaders to see above the noise of every day and share responsibility. An aligned team of organizational leaders with a coordinated approach provides systemic flexibility (aka organizational resilience).
Real-time adaptations are necessary as we navigate massive
systemic changes and uncertainties – the organizational systems to operationalize and implement what you are planning needs to either be in place or be developed.
High Organizational Leadership (HOL) means you have developed a team of leaders who see the full picture of the organization and lead with a coordinated approach. Cultural realities, strategic goals, and long-term vision (how you want to shape the world) are intentionally set, nurtured and ultimately determine how (well) the organization functions. This team (or teams) of leaders gain energy and encouragement from each other, from their successes and what they are learning along the way, even through challenges.
They can be their best, at work.
Visioning and goal setting in this environment is exciting! Through open and honest conversation, risk-taking and imagining what’s possible – they organize in a visionary way – leading from the opportunities that are alive and coming into focus. You have the capacity to see what’s ahead and adapt along the way, with generosity for your people. People feel secure and equipped to also bring their best. There’s energy in the system for creativity, planning, adaptation and even celebration.
These organizations nurture and inspire.
Aboriginal Headstart BC Elders Gathering
Low Organizational Leadership (LOL) means you lack a coordinated approach and systems. You may have strong individuals, but they aren’t functioning as a collective. Singular leaders navigate the weight of their responsibilities isolated, operating in siloes. Trust is inconsistent and resources are not shared optimally.
You may have good intentions, serious work ethic, powerful initiatives or ideas, but they are all inconsistent, or never become fully actualized, or backfire. “Retreats” or group meetings become unsafe or precarious spaces with hit and miss outcomes.
Your people are frustrated at dynamics and inefficiencies (they can see them) but feel they don’t have the power to make change. They sometimes try to make change – or they hunker down and do their best, without being able to be their best. This is demotivating, discouraging, or even demoralizing for them. Some become cynical or overwhelmed. Some leave. This disorganization within the system becomes organizational dysfunctions and disabilities. At the very least it taxes your people with added levels of stress, uncertainty, insecurity, health issues and problems relating to their everyday work life. Nobody wants that.
If there’s no coordinated strategic team (teams) or management systems to update or oversee cultural realities, long-term vision and strategic goals, how can you successfully plan for the future? How could you operationalize goals or actions – even if you had good ideas? You need to invest in the organization’s health.
Most organizations are somewhere between these extremes.
Initiating a strategic visioning or planning process can be liberating and exciting or demanding and disorienting for organizations along this spectrum.
Supporting organizations to move from Low Organizational Leadership (LOL) to High Organizational Leadership (HOL) is what Stina calls organizational state-shifting.
With HOL clients, Stina and her Trusted Collaborators can dive right into scoping and designing sessions that focus on the meta conversations, invoke imagination, deepen relationships, and challenge the team to reach for ambitious new vision and inspiring outcomes. This is an active collaboration. You have a coordinated approach coming out of the session – meaning you have what you need to make your vision a reality: the organizational systems to operationalize and implement what you are planning.
With LOL clients, we slow the process down and engage sensitively from the beginning, scoping out what the steps could look like to move the organization toward higher trust and organizational coordination. We investigate with you what the organization’s current reality is: culture, gaps and changes, strengths, opportunities, structures, etc.. We support senior leaders to be their best, build trust, become more fully in their role – able to show up and lead in a way that enables more high functioning relationships, power dynamics and communication with the rest of the organization.
Contact Stina for more information or to explore what possibilities exist in your organization.
Stina Brown 