Okay. Time to brainstorm.
Grab a pencil and paper (or your favorite way of taking notes) – or grab a friend and spend no more than 5 minutes answering any of these questions:
What are the essentials of good leadership?
Why does leadership matter?
How would you design a training to equip leaders?
OMF has a course called Leadership Essentials, and Eunice is one of the two co-leaders hosting the training. I’m finding that not only does the course have value for the learners, but also for me. Here is what I’ve seen:
- What makes this course so unusual is that it runs for 16 weeks, so there is ample time to practice the ideas and skills shared in the course in the everyday routines of life and work.
- And what makes it particularly powerful is the small group mentoring that happens every week when we meet.
- But, based on the feedback we’ve had from our participants, what they love most is that they get to choose the elective – that means they choose how they will interact with the content and they select appropriate action steps for them to learn, practice, explore, and report back on when we next meet.
Why do I share this with you? 
- Because I’m learning and growing in my understanding of leadership development, and seeing how valuable these essentials are in becoming leaders of influence and leaders worth following.
- Because I’m curious to learn how you view leadership and wonder if you’ve seen leadership development done well in your spheres of influence. Please post below what your experience has been.
Before completing my bachelor’s degree, I thought of leadership primarily as a set of soft skills, or what the ICC refers to as essential skills. However, during my time in academia, I was introduced to systems thinking. I began to see leadership not just as an interpersonal capability but as the ability to examine an issue from multiple angles, including the spiritual, political, cultural, psychological, economic, environmental, technological, and beyond. I was also introduced to design thinking, which emphasized empathy, iteration, and creative problem-solving. Together, systems and design thinking have given me a more integrated lens for understanding leadership development. The more connections a leader can recognize between people, systems, and ideas, the more effectively they can lead. Building on that, collaboration becomes essential not only among people in a room but also among ideas, disciplines, and perspectives that may at first seem unrelated. This is something I’ve had the opportunity to observe and practice through my design education at Parsons School of Design and The New School.
Daniel, thank YOU for interacting with our post. I really appreciate discovering how your additional life experiences have refined and built to your understanding of leadership. Thanks for sharing!
What are the essentials of good leadership?
The Cru leadership model is the reference I typically use. A good leaders has certain qualities: dynamic determination, intellectual flexibility, character, and emotional well-being. They have certain roles. They are a direction setter, spokesperson, coach, and change agent. And they are responsible for vision casting, formulating strategy, aligning, and motivating their team.
https://www.cru.org/us/en/blog/leadership/the-leadership-model.html
Why does leadership matter?
Leadership is critical to protecting and maintaining the good that exists, and creating and cultivating more for the future. Without leadership, complacency and despair can grow as people live without vision and power to make positive change. Anything that needs doing, needs a leader to take responsibility.
How would you design a training to equip leaders?
Leadership is difficult, if not impossible, to teach academically. It’s best taught by doing! My favorite way to lead is to disciple someone. When I’m leading in some way, I’ll identify the strengths that others have and delegate responsibility to them. In that way, each person is already leading in the area of their strength. If I see someone with interest and humility, I’ll coach them to replace me!
Thanks so much, Jonathan, for interacting with my post. I appreciate the way you bring character and “be-ing” into the conversation.