This blog post is an email that I sent to the mailing list after an Advanced Masterclass on leadership coaching that I offered as a teaser for the Unfolding Great Leadership course. You can download the recording by clicking this button. This riff touches on several key points.
Thank you to all who attended today’s Advanced Masterclass. We took a deep dive into what’s unfolding in the world of leadership and leadership coaching (and yet only scratched the surface).
I shared some of my current ideas about why the leadership industry has failed to develop the leadership competencies that are needed.
I shared that the biggest source of complexity we face comes from the historical shift from what I call the Phase of Solid Identities, a developmental phase of culture, in which we have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years, to the Phase of Fluid Differences. This language comes from the Seven Phases of Development, a developmental model that we use in Aletheia Coaching).
I recommended reading Zygmut Bauman’s prophetic “Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty” which he published in 2006. His other works are also important, especially “Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts” which articulates much of the suffering (unintentionally?) generated by the institutions of power in the Phase of Solid Identities.
Another philosopher who is feeling into the emerging, yet already present, reality of fluid differences is Timothy Morton. In the masterclass, I explored how his concept of ‘hyperobjects’ starts to grapple with phenomena that are so massive and with effects so distributed in space and time that they are ungraspable as a unity (in contrast to objects, like the pen in your hand).
You already know and experience hyperobjects, even without this fancy name. COVID-19, global warming, racism, sexism, inequality, the economy, capitalism, the team, the organization, the government are all examples of hyperobjects. Hyperobjects have design agency. What do they design? You and me. They design how we relate, how we act, how we know ourselves, and what it is to be human.
Leaders must lead in the midst of this VUCA reality (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). True as it is, to say it this way, with this acronym which has become so commonplace, cushions the blow that these hyperobjects produce. And, it goes without saying that leadership coaches must help leaders navigate such a world. But how? It isn’t as if we as leadership coaches have a grip on this complex world any more than our clients do.
The prevailing notion of ‘the ideal leader’ is what Morton has called the ‘hypersubject.’ A leader who is dominant, in control, power seeking, and unfortunately often (unintentionally?) exploitative. Each of us in our own ways is a hypersubject and often we aspire to upgrade and improve ourselves as hypersubjects. Clients come to us wanting “Self 2.0” or more. Leadership coaches often make that exact promise, though probably not using this jargon.
The kinder, gentler way of talking about such hypersubjects as leaders is usually through leadership competency models. In these liquid times, any concept of an ideal leader is brittle. The flux and flow of these liquid times overwhelm such models - again and again. There are examples of successful leaders who lack such qualities. And examples of leaders who have them but are failing. In fact, a growing belief among leadership experts (no less than Jeffrey Pfeffer at Stanford and Barbara Kellerman at Harvard, among others) is that leadership is not teachable. For something to be teachable it has to be characterized and locked into a particular form and definition. The behaviors can then be taught and tested. Definitions of leadership abound yet an abundance of evidence demonstrates that we, the leadership industry, are failing to teach leaders how to lead.
A McKinsey survey revealed that only 7% of executives find their organizations effective at developing the leadership capacity they already need. A survey by Accenture found it to be 8%. Deloitte found it to be 6%. This is a startling clear finding. The leadership industry has failed inspire of earning ~$14 Billion annually in the U.S. alone and an estimated ~$50 Billion globally. Citizens are similarly disappointed by the lack of leadership competency among elected politicians. Could it be that politicians too are powerless in the face of hyperobjects? Indeed!
Leadership competency models are context-free yet the practice of leadership itself is highly context-dependent and situational. Morton (and other Speculative Realists, the philosophical camp that he hangs out in) are starting to build a philosophy that decenters the subject as a powerful design agent and shows how power is shifting to hyperobjects. Power is shifting from leaders to followers, to teams, to organizations, to markets, to social media influencers, and even to pandemics, record-breaking weather events, political movements, etc. As Kellerman has observed, the power has been draining from leaders progressively for hundreds of years and to such an extent that she has even declared the “end of leadership,” which is the title of one of her books (recommended).
I sometimes joke that when leaders grow up, they want to become followers because that’s where the power is these days. Morton might add that actually they want to become hyperobjects. (Will I ever get used to this language?) Consider the plight of Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify who is now flailing as he must react to artists pulling their content from his platform in the wake of Neil Young’s reaction to Joe Rogan. Who is in control? Who has the power? It certainly isn’t Daniel Ek. Yet, it also isn’t Neil Young who is the current mouthpiece (not to diminish him in the slightest) of a social sensitivity that is larger than him and erupting here and there, now and then, in a distributed way. Of course, the emergence of power in places that challenge the existing institutions of power is long overdue. Wherever it is happening previously marginalized people (Bauman’s provocative term is “wasted lives”) are now having a valued voice. The society of content creators that Spotify can’t exist without is another hyperobject. The social movement that Neil Young is speaking for is another hyperobject. And these hyperobjects have a design agency that cannot be underestimated without blinding ourselves to reality we face.
Consider how your own life was (is?) turned upside down by the hyperobject called COVID-19. And consider how many of us felt (and are still feeling) overwhelmed, stressed, burdened, confused, isolated (ironically together), depressed, and even suicidal. The prevailing ways of being in our culture, most of which try to cling to a sense of solidity and identity are ill-suited to the fluid challenges that we already face. COVID-19 accelerated our awakening to this liquid reality yet notice how many of us just want to get life back to ‘normal.’ Will we stay awake? Or will we fall asleep?
Morton speculates that a new way of being human - or more accurately a new way of becoming human - is called for. His name for this new kind of human is ‘hyposubject.’ (I don’t like this jargon anymore than you probably do, but he is sensing into an emerging future that is already upon us yet we don’t have a way to talk about it yet. I invite you to play with this languaging, as he is doing, and introduce your own languaging as you explore what’s unfolding.)
The sense of self that you and I have emerged intersubjectively (meaning, in relationship with others). We have been pretending that it is a solid identity and yet, in truth, it is a fluid emergence with many micro-identities (identities that we take on in different contexts). These liquid times call for us to recognize the inherent fluidity of who we are as human beings and who we might become. To do this we must release self-grasping (much easier said that done). Releasing self-grasping is the primary outcome of practicing unfolding.
Consider the changes that this shift calls for from leaders and from leadership coaches. You can’t learn leadership from a book. You can’t learn leadership from a theory of leadership. You can’t even learn leadership by modeling successful leaders. You can only invent and reinvent leadership in the middle of the context of action. Furthermore, leadership isn’t the action of an individual. Instead, leadership is an emergent social phenomenon. Recent studies in the social psychology of leadership are clearly demonstrating this. Integrating this into leadership coaching calls us to explore different forms of coaching and coaching contracts. The failure of the leadership industry to develop leadership is largely explained by observing that we have mistakenly believed that leadership comes from leaders. Instead, it comes from social systems.
Hyposubjects are feminist, antiracist, ecological, and queer allied. Hyposubjects seed revolutions in places that those in the mainstream aren’t looking or expecting. Hyposubjects occupy liminal spaces and they are at home there. They are bricoleurs creating mashups. They are entrepreneurs of identity. They tread over boundaries with ease. Their superpower is exposing the weak spots in the power establishment. And, they are deeply skeptical of any attempt to characterize or define them, most definitely including this one.
There are at least three responses to the challenges of these liquid times. We can try to reassert solid identities. Let’s be honest. We will all try this a lot before giving up. Everyone has a power base founded on solid identities no matter where you are in the power structure of your team, organization, family, community, or society. But the presence of hyperobjects has already doomed and foreclosed this option as viable. Power has already been stolen by hyperobjects and it isn’t coming back. The sooner we own this, the better. Another response is to throw our hands in the air and say, “I give up.” This is not entirely a silly and unserious response. Sometimes, it will be the only option and it must remain on the table. Yet it isn’t the only alternative. The third response is to work through this fluidity and find a new source of grounding, one that isn’t built upon rigidity and institutionalized power structures. This has huge ramifications for the practice of leadership and for leadership coaching. It is this response that I am exploring in Aletheia Leadership Coaching.
Recall that we work with Four Depths in Aletheia Coaching:
The Depth of Parts
The Depth of Process
The Depth of Presence & Absence
The Depth of Nonduality
These are depths of the present moment. The simple discovery is that being present is not binary (present vs. not present). Instead, when you shift to being present, you can be present at various depths. Using the methodology of Aletheia Coaching you can help your clients deepen in Presence in ways that help them find a new source of grounding in themselves and in their innate resourcefulness, creativity, resiliency, and genius.
In Aletheia Coaching, we understand the Phase of Solid Identities as centered at the Depth of Parts and the Phase of Fluid Differences as centered deeper at the Depth of Process. And beyond this, the Phase of Living Wholeness is centered at an even deeper depth, the Depth of Presence & Absence. It is here, as Presence (or even deeper still as Nondual Presence), that we find the grounding needed to navigate these liquid times without burden and overwhelm. Coaching with depth has never been more needed than it is today. And, I believe this need will only expand in the coming years.
The Four Pillars of Great Leadership are meta-competencies. These are competencies that are not housed within individuals but enacted within contexts embodied in individuals and social systems together. Meta-competencies always engage the unique context of the present moment and situation. Expressing a meta-competency might look very different from moment to moment. An example might help. Unfolding is a meta-competency. If you are already an Aletheia Coach, you’ll immediately recognize that every unfolding conversation is radically different. Yes, there are some high-level maps and some gestures (or so-called ‘dance moves’) that you can enact spontaneously as you coach. This helps beginners find their dancing legs but eventually experienced coaches learn they must let go of these beginner moves and invent their own moves in the moment as they dance with the music that’s actually playing and the client they are coaching right now.
Meta-competencies are cultivated through meta-practices. Meta-practices are so highly contextual that the untrained person can’t recognize their repetition because they are so different each time you do them. The meta-competencies and meta-practices of leadership are:
The meta-competency of Leadership as Presence is cultivated with the meta-practice of Integral Unfoldment
The meta-competency of Leadership as Insight is cultivated with the meta-practice of Integral Sensemaking
The meta-competency of Leadership as Design is cultivated with the meta-practice of Integral Redesign
The meta-competency of Leadership as Ethics is cultivated with the meta-practice of Integral Ethics
These meta-practices reinvent leadership in a context-dependent way. And, this is what you are called to do as a leadership coach. You must engage the client in the middle of the action, in the current context, and practice with them. What are you practicing? Unfolding, sensemaking, redesign, and ethics.
In general I find that leaders are already practicing some form of sensemaking, design, and ethics. What’s often missing is unfoldment. In Aletheia Leadership Coaching, you practice unfolding, sensemaking, redesign, and ethics with your clients in a way that they learn how to deepen their skill and practice with others. In fact, you might even invite the others they practice with into coaching conversations. (This will call for new ways to establish coaching contracts.) This helps them deepen their skillfulness in navigating these liquid times.
Sensemaking, redesign, and ethics are implicit within unfolding. However, I find that making them explicit helps to reveal these meta-practices in a ways that they can be more easily learned.
In these liquid times, the demands on leaders are mounting. The responses required of leaders are very different from what has been expected in the past. Many leaders feel unmet by coaches that are using a life coaching methodology to practice leadership coaching. Of course, many leaders can benefit from life coaching yet I find they need additional support of the kind found in Aletheia Leadership Coaching. This distinguishes leadership coaching from life coaching and establishes the rationale for why leadership coaching is more highly compensated than life coaching.
If you want to explore the realities facing leaders in fresh ways then Unfolding Great Leadership is for you.
If you want to evolve your leadership and leadership coaching to meet the challenges of these liquid times, then Unfolding Great Leadership is for you.
If you want to learn how to practice unfolding, sensemaking, redesign, and practical ethics with your leadership clients, then Unfolding Great Leadership is for you.
If you want to leverage recent discoveries in the social psychology of leadership in your coaching, then Unfolding Great Leadership is for you.
If you want to be an innovator in leadership coaching, then Unfolding Great Leadership is for you.
Building on what you have learned in Level 1, you will learn the meta-practices of Aletheia Leadership Coaching in a cumulative way, skill by skill. This style of learning enables you to expand your skillfulness through experiential practices.
Lastly, please remember that the prerequisite for Unfolding Great Leadership is the Advanced Coaching Program Level 1: The Fundamentals of Unfolding. Completing Level 1 is your ticket to this and all other courses in the Advanced Coaching Program and the Advanced Developmental Strategies curriculum where we apply Aletheia Coaching to the most common coaching topics you will encounter as a coach.
The next cohort for Unfolding Great Leadership launches on March 3, 2022.
The next Level 1 cohort launches on March 10, 2022.
Please reach out to us with any questions.
With love,
-Steve