Here's What You Will Find in this Issue of eBridge:
Article:
On Virtuous Leadership: Leading With Moral Excellence and Character: Part 1
Quotable Quotes
Article:
Becoming a Catalyst for Systemic Community Change
Suggested Readings
Upcoming Preview:
Here's What You Will Find in the June Issue of eBridge
Ki ThoughtBridge specializes in an integrated approach to the resolution of conflict, the development of leadership, the management of change, and the transformation of organizational and community systems. We enable our clients to achieve their purpose in ways that build trust, integrity, effectiveness, and profitability.
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By: Joseph O. Murdock
In my travels, leading with virtue has not been the most talked about dimension of leadership and I'm hard - pressed to see business school curricula arranged with courses of this context. While its popularity may wane when compared to the frequently espoused elements of traditional leadership success, I find that, at the end of the day, leading with virtue keeps raising itself up in a "this ain't rocket science" revelation as I have engaged in tough leadership issues across multiple industries.
In sharing the insights that I've gained through this revelation, I offer the context of my leadership experiences related to leading in good times and bad. I will end this series by sharing a strategic but practical approach that the executive team at St. Vincent Health embarked upon to integrate leadership character with leading functions and organizations successfully. I invite you to examine our strategy and practice field for Virtuous Leadership.
First, we must embrace slowly boiling the frog!
It's no mystery that when you subject a frog to boiling-hot water, its first and immediate instinct will be to jump out. Whatever the meaningful experience is that you want the frog to embrace, you will find yourself spending quite a bit of time chasing its impulse to fight the condition imposed.
Leaders within organizations have similar characteristics when the conditions around them "heat up". When things get hot enough, we seek to jump to the most convenient "new thing" that will get us out of the "boiling water." It begs the question, "How can we ever be practiced at truly leading in tough times when our first response is to escape the tough times?" Read the complete article to find out more about Leading with Moral Excellence.
Quotable Quotes
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
- Andy Warhol
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
- Maryanne Williamson
"When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness."
- Joseph Campbell
Article: Becoming a Catalyst for Systemic Community Change
"I believe the adaptive skill training provided by Ki Thoughtbridge through the Advanced Leadership Institute was one of the most powerful programs in the Community Progress Initiative. It taught people to relate to each other in new and different ways by fostering respect, civility, equity and inclusion - ultimately creating the trust required for new solutions to emerge." Kelly Lucas, President & CEO, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County Across the country community foundations are being called upon to play an important leadership role in improving the quality of life of their communities by stimulating and coordinating philanthropic giving while also being responsive to the changing needs of local constituents--not only donors and grantees, but also volunteers, board members, nonprofit organizations, the media, collaborative partners in the public, private, and nonprofit communities, and the disadvantaged and previously disengaged. Even though there is a rich history of community foundations establishing priorities for community action, providing financial and other resources to support community change efforts, and encouraging research on and solutions to community social welfare problems, very little is documented about how community foundations actually function as change agents helping citizens to create and advance new visions for their communities. This gap is addressed here with a story from Central Wisconsin, where one rural community foundation together with a collaborative partner, took the lead in transforming community culture by promoting civic engagement, building social capital, and supporting entrepreneurial opportunities and vigorous business development. It is a story of devastation, renewal and growth. It's a story of hope, promise, resilience and pride. It is a story of transformational change at the individual, institutional, and community level. It's a story of what can happen when community foundations carry on a tradition of community leadership, responsible citizen engagement, and philanthropic investment for the common good.
Read the complete article to find out more about the transformation of community culture.
Suggested Readings:
Kotter, John P., A Sense of Urgency, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, 2008
Murray, Joanna M., From Change to Transformation: A Journey to the Heart, eBridge, February 2008
Tyler Scott, Katherine, The Leader as Facilitator of Change, eBridge, July 2007
Coxey, Clare, Break Through Change, eBridge, May 2007
Here's What You Will Find in the June Issue of eBridge:
The authenticity and integrity of leadership is more important than ever as we navigate through this period of chaos, uncertainty and dis-ease. The adaptive capacity of leaders to be trustworthy and to create trust is what will bring coherence and stabilization to individuals, organizations and communities. Ki ThoughtBridge has always invested in developing these qualities of leadership and understands how important a resource such as The Inner Work of Leaders© is to the development of authenticity, integrity, and trust. The work we have provided in communities and organizations across the country has evoked more insight and wisdom that should be shared. Our response is the development of a revised second edition of The Integrated Work of Leadership Curriculum and Journal.
Look for the announcement and instructions for ordering these resources in the June issue of e-Bridge. Also in the June issue you will find the second of two installments of Joe Murdock's article, On Virtuous Leadership, a compelling and inspiring account of a corporate culture invested in being congruent with its vision and values of seeing Leadership as Ministry.