By Malcolm Nicholson (United Kingdom)
Learning has been around as long as humans. The cognitive element has changed as the economy has changed. Now a different learning environment is required which can deal with complexity, paradox and uncertainty. Oh, and there’s no right or wrong any more. So what is changing – or more to the point, what is staying the same in the leadership landscape?
How did we get here?
Leadership is emerging from a system that has been around since the time of the Roman Army, with command & control fanning downwards and outwards from the top of the organisation. It probably reached its zenith (or nadir) in the 19th & 20th Century, starting with the organisation of the European war states, where armament mass production and militarization of the economy collided with horrendous outcomes. However, ‘command and control’ hasn’t rolled over yet; it’s still alive in quite large pockets!
Source: iCN Issue 5 (Leadership Coaching); pages 32-35
About Malcolm Nicholson
Malcolm was one of the regular contributors before he became one of our journalist representing United Kingdom. Malcolm is the owner and the Coaching Director for Aspecture. With over 15 years extensive experience of providing transformational coaching to leaders in the UK and internationally. He helps leaders cope with business pressures by generating high-level coaching interventions to enable them to develop cognitive complexity and agility, making them better at what they do. He brings an additional overlay of tools taken from three other disciplines:
Sports psychology, helping people to perform at their peak; dealing with the ‘outside world’.
Complexity Theory, building leaders’ cognitive capacity to deal with highly complex circumstances for ‘in the role’.
Existentialist Coaching, making sense of unpredictability; getting clarity for the ‘inner person’.
