Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership - Part 2

In his book, Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, Robert Quinn identifies eight practices for entering the fundamental state of leadership. The next two are described below:

Appreciative Inquiry     

• This person is optimistic and constructive while also being realistic and questioning.
• The person seeks to find the most enabling and constructive aspects of the current reality.
• Appreciative questions tap into the issues people care about most deeply and surface possibilities that have been outside their consciousness.
• In this way, they unleash energy and move self and others to a more creative state.

Grounded Vision

• This person is grounded and factual while also hopeful and visionary.
• The person conceptualizes and communicates a future that emerges from the realities of the existing system.
• The integration of reality and possibility creates an image that attracts self and others outside the comfort zone and into a state of active creation.

Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership - Part 1

In his book, Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, Robert Quinn identifies eight practices for entering the fundamental state of leadership. In the next several posts I will be providing an overview of the eight practices. The first two are described below:

Reflective Action

• This person is active and energetic while also being mindful and reflective.
• While deeply engaged in the world, the person also spends time in reflective contemplation.
• Contemplation when away from a task increases the capacity for mindfulness this during the task.
• The person acts and learns simultaneously and is both mindful and energized while actively creating. 

Authentic Engagement

• This person is principled and ethical while also involved and engaged.
• The person thus brings a more integrated, whole, or authentic self to his or her activity.
• When this happens, he or she experiences increased awareness and accesses resources not available in a less integrated state.
• The person loves what he or she does, which becomes a calling or labor of love.

Are you reflective and active?

Are you authentically engaged?

 

The Fundamental State of Leadership

In his book, Building the Bridge as You Walk On It, University of Michigan professor, Robert Quinn makes the distinction between the "normal state" and what he calls the Fundamental State of Leadership.

I have summarized the distinctions between these two approaches to leadership in this table.

As you read through the characteristics of the normal and fundamental states, ask yourself which one characterizes your leadership. Better, evaluate what percentage of your time you believe you are operating in each state.

Fundamental State of Leadership vs. The Normal State
Normal State	Fundamental State
Self-Focused: I tend to be ego driven, putting my interests ahead of the collective interests in a given relationship or set of relationships.	Other-Focused: I am transcending my ego, putting the common good and welfare of others first, increasing in authenticity and transparency, nurturing trust, and enriching the levels of connectivity in my networks.
Internally Closed: I tend to stay in my comfort zone, denying external signals for change.	Externally Open: I am moving outside my comfort zone, experimenting, seeking real feedback, adapting, and reaching exponentially higher levels of discovery, awareness, competence, and vision.
Externally Directed: I tend to define myself by how I think I am seen and how well I am able to obtain external resources.	Internally Directed: I am continually examining my hypocrisy and closing the gaps between my values and behavior. I am reaching higher levels of personal security and confidence.
Comfort-Centered: I tend to engage in problem-solving activities, thus living in a reactive state.	Purpose-Centered: I am clarifying what result I want to create. I am committed and engaged, full of energy and holding an unwavering standard as I pursue a meaningful task.

While we may strive to operate in the Fundamental State of Leadership as an ideal, we must admit that most of the time we operate in the normal state.

In our best leadership moments we are there. But we are only there for a moment.

The key is that we must be intentional - there's that word again - about entering the Fundamental State of  Leadership.

We must choose to be other-focused, externally open, internally directed, and purpose-centered.