The Test of Your Leadership
During the past number of weeks, we have considered the first two sequential elements in the Social Agency Leadership process, namely critical thinking and smart choices.
The third element is ‘to act with productive social purpose.’ In other words, to act productively for the ‘common good’.
It is the third element that we focus on today.
Before we are reminded of how the Social Agency process functions, let us unzip the four bits of the phrase: to act with productive social purpose.
- There is an ‘action’, what we call ‘the doing’ part of Leadership.
- Productive means things like effective, fruitful, worthy, and so forth.
- Social implies a collective intention and consequences—it is inclusive and win-win oriented, not self-centred or selfish or loaded with zero-sum intention or behaviour. BTW: Leadership by definition is a social practice—it can only exist in a social dimension—so any behaviour that is not for the common good cannot be leadership…)
Purpose implies there is an intention, an aim, a clear objective in mind.
The Social Agency Process:
When we face a Leadership Moment, we choose to PRACTICE Influential Leadership by using all the Leadership System’s eight ingredients and follow the Social Agency process, which is:
- First… we think critically (about the Leadership Moment and our response options to it by applying the scientific method to our thinking process).
- Then we make a smart choice about how we are going to respond (based on our critical thinking).
- Finally, we must act on the choice we have distilled, and by definition, an Influential Leadership action must have a productive outcome.
So, what is a Productive Outcome?
An Influential Leadership OUTCOME is productive because it has beneficial consequences for peoples’ lived lives and life trajectories.
The infographic below outlines the general parameters of productive versus unproductive outcomes.
Let us work through an example to illustrate the process.
I use an example that touches almost everyone, yet is often not recognised as a Leadership Moment, or is considered a ‘small thing’ (until it is fatal):
Do I obey the law (when nobody is watching… or most others are breaking it)?
You are the driver (or rider) on a public road, maybe a passenger.
- Do you abide by the law and the common good of respecting intersections—stopping at stops and traffic lights?
- If you are a passenger, do you call out the driver for not respecting themselves, you and other road users?
- Is your life and others’ of so little value that for the sake of three or ten seconds you are willing to play Russian Roulette?
- If you so easily break a life-endangering rule / law, what else will fall next?
- If you had to kill a family by running a stop, how would you feel?
- If a traffic officer stops you for running a light, would you pay them a bribe to avoid the consequences?
- Would you inform your insurer that your car was smashed because you ran the stop sign?
We could go on, but you get the point.
If you practice Influential Leadership, you will do what is good for you, for your family and for other road-users.
The same applies whether you are the principal of a school or a learner, a member of a sports team or the coach, the CEO of a business or an employee, a political representative or a citizen—there are smaller and larger Leadership Moments that we each face every day—when we are equipped to practice Influential Leadership and choose to do so, there is a much higher probability of a productive outcome, and better lives for all of us.
Consistent productive outcomes are the consequence of following a ‘recipe’, not luck—your life, those you care about and others you have responsibility for deserve the best decision-making!
Make Influential Leadership work for you this week, and always.
Regards,
Colin @ Karoo
We Activate Leadership!
Leadership Weekly Note: 4224.141024
e: colind@karoo.world
Follow The Karoo Influential Leadership on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KarooInfluentialLeadership
