In ancient occasions the totem pole was a symbolic expression of previous generations. It provided facts about a tribe’s identity–a form of linear -understanding of generations that came prior to them and the leaders who showed them the way. It enforced group solidarity and supplied a necessary relational context to their lives.
The totem pole was worshiped and ritualized. The history of a whole tribe could be understood by this one linear expression. Symbolic communication, as a group organizing strategy, is also identified in law firms. Law firms proudly list their partners’ names on letterhead and post them on doorways. Usually some of the names are symbols of the previous–a lasting recognition of those who came just before as properly as those who are at the moment carrying the torch of the firm’s traditions into the future. This symbolic communication portrays the history of a firm’s leader-ship and is an indicator of predicted efficiency. But what takes place when the firm’s past is forced to yield to the firm’s future? When it becomes required for the firm to reinvent itself and set out new organizing principles that match its vision–when the old belief program is no longer in sync with the requirements and demands of changing markets and clients? Most firms are facing this challenge right now, and some are not even aware of it. The partners I spoke with clearly recognized the want to re-invent themselves or danger sacrificing growth and prosperity.
Are You the Leader?
Who among you will lead the charge? This is a incredibly private decision that ought to not be taken lightly. It will rely not only on your own willingness to take on the challenge, but also on the willingness of the important partners who make up most of the power base at your firm.
If you are up for the challenge, accept this information and get on with top. If not, find the particular person in your firm who is ready and capable to lead and offer you that individual all the assistance you can. You are going to quickly understand that the excellent and commitment of your help for this particular person will be recognized as an essential form of leader-ship in its own appropriate.
The Genetics of Leadership
It’s been said that some people are born leaders. That may possibly be correct, but for most of us, leadership is an acquired ability that comes from our mind-set and our desire to effect optimistic change. Similarly, persons are not born extraordinary. Instead, they select to accomplish extraordinary factors.
As recently as 2003, scientists found that our natural traits are not “set in stone.” (See Matt Ridley’s Genome and Nature through Nurture.) Rather, our genetic code–particularly the code accountable for our brain function–is neither unchanging nor unchangeable. As we respond to the challenges and stimuli in the planet, so do our genes. Depending upon our desires and the degree of our determination, different formulations of our genetic code are activated. This final results in the emergence of a new pattern of genetic instructions. Contrary to what scientists formerly believed, our genes stay active, malleable and fluid all through our lives.
Until these discoveries were produced, the received wisdom was that the traits that enable us to assume like lawyers or strive for excellence or discover the courage and charisma to lead have been handed out to us–or not–at birth. It was taken as fact that our neural makeup was mostly dictated by the genetic code we inherited from our parents. If we have been fortunate adequate to have inherited “sensible” genes, it was anticipated that we were destined for greatness if the opposite happened, we were destined to be the village idiot.
In reality, the explanation so couple of of us break out of the mold is not due to genetics at all. It is simply because of the fact that, strange as it could sound, most of us surrender to our strengths rather than engage our weaknesses. If we tend to be naturally gifted in mathematics, we gravitate toward mathematics. If we show an early talent in the arts, we gravitate in that path. It really is merely less difficult to rely on our existing strengths than it is to develop new strengths from scratch.
Mass torts and theorist Carl Jung described this irony in his book Psychological Varieties:
“Experience shows that it is hardly possible for any-a single to bring all his psychological functions to simultaneous development. The really conditions of society enforce a man to apply himself initial and foremost to the differentiation of that function with which he is either most gifted by nature, or which gives his most successful indicates for social results. Really often, indeed as a general rule, a man identifies himself extra or significantly less totally with the most favored, therefore the most created function.”
Considering that Jung’s time, however, neuroscientists have discovered that the human tendency to comply with the path of least resistance is not merely ironic but counter-productive. We now know that the brain grows stronger, developing at a a lot larger level, when we force ourselves to think in new and different techniques.
Till now, you might not have believed of oneself as a leader. But that is no purpose to think you cannot come to be one particular if your motivation is powerful sufficient. The first query to ask your self is this: What does it imply to be a leader?