Leadership breaks the software code

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thousands of problems are solved for us everyday..by the body. The accumulated wisdom of thousands of generations of society make sure we don't have to worry about eating or digesting our food (in the Western world), walking or keeping our heart beating. Similarly there is a constant stream of social dynamics such as how to behave in social contexts, which we have accumulated as well.

We live in a world of software code and decision trees operated by our bodies. People pass on this code across generations. So much of what we form and how we lead is informed by the complex multi line software codes that we learn as children.

Most of the wisdom of our elders is worth holding onto as we grow older. Roughly 95 percent need to be cherished, yet 5 percent needs to be investigated and given the freedom to rearrange, renegotiate and sometimes discard. Some space must be generated to align to a new era of leadership in the crowded room of our minds.

This, at its truth, is innovation. The word innovation has the same root as the word native, to be reborn, and renaissance.

As leaders, we must take ongoing corrective action on our mental software. So, how will we break our software code as leaders? 

1) See yourself as a living case example of the software. It is always best to see yourself as part of a system and as an example of software. The only challenge or opportunity will be your learning. The major impediment will be your pride, shame, and embarrassment. Watch yourself fall back into the software, old paradigms and get back up again.

2) Don’t worry about not knowing and ask a lot of questions. The naive comments you make and questions you ask will be a source of innovation — ingenius, generative, and something new being born.

3) When someone tries to bring you down, don’t assume that (s)he knows what she did. The default setting is to take it personally. Yet we can only assume that the information is not just in him/her it's in the larger system. How are we as a social system generating a dynamic where one is creating certain cultures over others?

So, how will you break your own software code today and innovate?

This piece was inspired by Ronald Heifetz. For more leadership lessons, check out my free Tools and Dance Moves page here