The Tangible Effects of the Intangibles of Leading

I often ask myself what compels me to post an article, and why would this be of any value to the reader. Recently, having read about a well known writer and New York Times best seller, who was struggling to get a first draft just perfect, it was in fact just this that prevented her from publishing. A colleague and friend challenged her to publish, which she did, and the rest is history.

The image that fascinated, intrigued and raised my curiosity is this Adobe Stock image, enough to be prompted to work on a “ world where thoughts and emotions take physical form, creating a landscape filled with the intangible made tangible” an illustration created by generative ai by Andrea Izzotti

In the World we live in there are powerful internalised portents that stop us acting on an inner imperative, or view of the World that might offer something so that we may uniquely engage with what would be a more than a traditional approach to what, in this case we call leadership, coaching and consulting.

My experience is that challenging a traditional view means considering a pracititioner as “a craftsman; a practitioner of the art of the managing what cannot be reduced to explicit rules and theories” (Schön, 1991) . This acknowledges the pracititioner as an experimenter, a scientist in action, whose practice would consist in the trial and measurement of designs and methods aimed at the discovery and implementation of the “one best way” (Schön, 1991).

So I’m not writing this to seek approval whatsoever, rather engage with an issue where value, lifelong learning, and sustainable eco-systems may in fact be compounded by ongoing and iterative cycles of circling back, and making small incremental change that will have huge impact in a sustainable way. And this in the way we see our world and want to see our world and connect to all aspects of that we see, and sense. It may in fact mean:

“What stands in the way becomes the way.” Marcus Aurelius

I’m exploring the intersection of leadership, personal insight, and the impact of coaching and consulting on individuals and organizations. My reflections touch on themes of self-awareness, social dynamics, and the potential for transformation through understanding oneself and others more deeply.

Some key points and questions that stand out:

Exploring Intangibles: I’m intrigued by the idea of thoughts and emotions manifesting physically, as depicted in an image by Andrea Izzotti. This prompts a deeper exploration of how the intangible aspects of leading, such as emotions and personal insights, can have tangible effects on individuals and organizations.

This specifically might mean understanding more about Insight vs. Advice: And highlighting the power of insight over advice in fostering personal growth and transformation. This ties into Gabor Maté's idea that self-awareness and understanding hidden stresses can lead to better self-care and decision-making.

 “The area she(he) overlooked was invisible to her/him: the stress connected with emotional repression. Her conscientious (and conscious) best efforts to look after herself properly could not extend to an arena she did not know existed. That is why knowledge and insight have the power to transform, and why insight is more helpful to people than advice. If we gain the ability to look into ourselves with honesty, compassion and with unclouded vision, we can identify the ways we need to take care of ourselves. We can see the areas of the self formerly hidden in the dark. Maté, Gabor. When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

I’m also exploring the The Role of Coaches and Consultants: Despite having training and experience in these areas I remain sceptical about the role of coaches and consultants, despite having training and experience in these areas. This raises questions about the perceived value of coaching and consulting and how they intersect with personal insight and leadership.

The Personal Journey: There are unshared aspects of our personal journey, including experiences of discrimination, privilege, and leadership challenges. These experiences shape our perspectives on leadership and the effectiveness of traditional leadership approaches. Seemingly not part of the coaching, leadership, and consulting journey. Shared experiences and the 'Me Too' aspects are considered unprofessional and intrusive, when in fact I argue that these often create the actual catharis for change and where the most important conversation take place.

The Portfolio is also underpinned by a view on humanity, in not forgetting that people “ bring their humanity to work with them every single day, and until we find a way to engage the emotional life of the workplace, we will not succeed in meeting our most important goals. It means that recognising that the hard-and-fast divisions between the public and the private, between ‘the work realm’ and ‘the personal’, are naïve and unproductive (Kegan and Lahey, 2009)

This feeds into the Social Dynamics: And reflects on the social dynamics of leadership, including the impact of privilege, diversity, and relationships with those at different levels of the hierarchy. In my experience power hierachies very definitely stem to flow of ideas, need to engage, and can severely limit personal and therefore business growth.

Future Exploration: Future articles will delve into the tangible effects of not coaching, or challenging the traditional aspects of coaching on organizational performance and traditional notions of leadership effectiveness.

Tying this back to the image of an individual connecting to a world where he sees the co-existence of so many aspects of what truly matters to him/her where just seeing means that an idea and thought is not intangible but exists and is manifest.

The ongoing journey will challenge a life that is reduced to explicit rules and theories and explore how personal insight, coaching, and consulting intersect with leadership effectiveness and organizational performance. It raises thought-provoking questions about the value of self-awareness, the role of coaches and consultants, and the impact of leadership dynamics on individuals and organizations. And this means understanding, once again how we can prompted to work on a “ world where thoughts and emotions take physical form, creating a landscape filled with the intangible made tangible” as the proposition of value.

My overarching question and ongoing question will be

Am I the coach, consultant, and leader I was looking for?

A core underlying driver for me is described by Frankl (2004, p. 113):  “Ultimately a man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather that he must recognise that it is he who asked ...  each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life”.

Wanting to take this Journey with a Group of leaders, coaches and consultants?

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