Rebel leaders and corporate mindset - part 2
What are rebel leaders?
(Please note – a belief in the dominant global business mindset along with certain ways of always doing things; unwieldy decision-making processes and red tape is what this extract refers to as a Corporate Mindset. This does not mean that all coperates have this mindset, nor that government or NPOs do not have it.)
Maverick visionaries with a sense of purpose have exponential potential for impact and influence; they’re thinking out of the box, looking to make a difference and driven to excel. When a person is both real and ethical whilst leading with a vision and conviction, they get major support. When given room to make authentic change, these ‘organisational outsiders’ can become resilient, innovative, solution-creators. Successful Rebel Leaders are adaptive, agile, systems thinkers – they’re the clues, doorways and maps to our future.
And they terrify Corporate Mindset.
Rebel Leaders can be difficult to manage in the traditional way. They’re unimpressed by protocol or jargon and frustrated by tick-box versions of change (those well-marketed and beautifully branded transformations that create new packaging for More-of-the-Same). They can be nerve-wracking, because their pace, methodology and way of following process may seem alien. They need autonomy, challenge, trust and space to think creatively, whereas Corporate Mindset is schooled to function on spreadsheet detail.
Rebel Leaders align with intentional principles. They want to interrogate systems until they can produce whole, sustainable, inclusive results. They want impact and meaning. They want to change the world. Corporate Mindset is hooked by the idea of these kinds of results yet trapped in the comfort zone of ‘the way things are usually done around here’. For Rebel Leaders in organisations, this eventually creates stubborn inertia, drains life-force and inspiration and often causes stress and/or ego-based, destructive rebellion.
Speak to dialogue. We facilitate, coach and mentor Rebel Leaders.
Extract: Principles for Rebel Leadership –by Lesanne Brooke
This piece is taken from a series of papers designed to stimulate discussion and explore practical case studies in dialogue’s School for Rebel Leaders programme. Inspired to activate transformative thinking and leading, this work emerges from decades of practice in the art of leadership and our desire to support ethical, engaged excellence in the changing world. The intention is to collaborate in creating future-fit business practices with power and impact.