THE LEADER, LEADERSHIP & TAP ROOTS, PART II. . .

The following ‘Leader-Leadership Tap Roots’ are listed in no particular order. As a reminder, ‘Tap Roots’ are the dominant roots that nurture and sustain other roots and the organic entity itself.

THE TAP ROOTS:
• Care for All: Consider that ‘Care for All’ includes, but is not limited to the following – Love, Compassion, Tolerance, Acceptance (always accepting the other as a person), Welcoming (Hospitality), Healing (healing wounds delivered and received & seeking to help all become ‘whole’ – to become fully human beings), and Growth (all develop more fully and become healthier).
• Trusting Relationships: All are response-able and responsible and entrusted with the development of, nurturing of and sustaining of relationships rooted in trust. A goal is that people ‘lead with trust’ rather than with ‘suspicion.’
• Skill-Talent-Ability-Capacity Development: Each person’s unique skills, talents, abilities and capacities will be identified and developed (or developed more fully) and then the Organization will seek to use the person’s skills, talents, abilities and capacities fully and wisely.
• Continuous Learning: Today it is more important than ever that each person, each relationship (think team, department, division, etc.) and each organization must commit to being continuous learners. Given that the rate of change is continuing to increase it also means that in order to help ensure that the rate of learning is equal to or greater than the rate of change that ‘collaborative/collective’ learning must take precedence over individual learning (no individual is able to keep up with the rate of change and the resulting rate of learning that must occur). This is a challenge for our culture for we are rooted in the ‘individual as primary learner’ and ‘team/collaborative’ learning is not our strong suit.
• Balancing Support & Accountability: If you are provided ‘support’ without accountability you might well become ‘arrogant’ and full of ‘hubris’ (the ‘pride’ that destroys). If you are held ‘accountable’ without receiving the support you need you might well become cynical, fear-full, mistrust-full, irresponsible, and, over time, you might well become resistant if not subversive. Individuals, relationships and organizations are more likely to become unconditionally response-able, appropriately responsive, appropriately reactive and unconditionally responsible if there is a commitment to balancing support and accountability.
• A Commitment to High Achievement: High Achievement is rooted in an abundance model – there is more than enough for all to succeed. Competition is rooted in a scarcity model – there is not enough for all to succeed, thus there is only ‘one winner’ and many losers. High Achievers want their ‘competitors’ to succeed for if they do then the high achievers will be able to move to the next level (think Disney as a prime example of a high achiever; he needed Six Flags to succeed – indeed he helped them do so – for then he could go to the next level and develop Disney World). For example, ‘true professional superstars’ will help their counterparts improve for they know that if their counterparts/competitors improve then they will be able to move to the next level.