UnitOfWork

I'm half way through the personal leadership module on Diploma of Leadership. It is based on the premise, that one cannot successfully lead others, if one cannot lead one self.

It is about theories, that hypothesize how information cannot be transferred from one person to the next. You cannot choose to teach another person anything. You can provide exformation, but it is entirely up to the other person, which parts of the exformation, if any at all, become actual information. In other words, reality is constructed by each and everyone of us as we choose what to take in and how to interpret it (constructivism, Jean Piaget). We are closed, self referencing systems (autopoietic systems).

Another theory explains that reality is created in the context of interpersonal relations and by the language and words we choose to express ourselves by (construcsionism, Seymour Papert).

We learn communications theory and how leadership has evolved and changed meaning through history.

The module does not try to teach us what personal leadership is, for this is indeed a difficult, perhaps impossible task. It is up to each student to explore, how he or she will fill the role of leadership in an effective and trustworthy way.

It aims to teach us how to become deeply reflective about what we do, how we do it, and why we do, as we do. I have come to the conclusion, that it is really about becoming a better person through a cyclic process of studying and self exploration which, if wholeheartedly embraced, can be very rewarding on a personal- as well on a professional level.

I think that true leadership is rooted in:

• a deep understanding of one's self,
• humility,
• empathy,
• patience,
• reflection,
  
• true interest in the people you lead,
• being true to your own values while respecting those of others,
• being open to the possibility that reality as you have constructed it may lack pieces that others may supply

Labels: Leadership