The Artisinal Leader

For many years, we've treated leadership as an acquirable skill in the same way as we teach children art. We give them the tools, explain the theory and expect the magic to happen. For a long time, it worked well enough. Progress in the last few decades has been through efficiency and automation leveraged by good management practices and for the most part, leadership training was a good way to knock some of the rough edges off harsher management styles.

That's a long way however from artisinal leadership. Leadership founded on a love of both the art of leadership, and whatever it is the organisation delivers. In these areas, leadership is an attitude and a disposition, powered by curiosity and a sense of the infinite game - the pursuit of something important for its own sake.

As the quantitative skills that got us to now are increasingly replaced by the "C"s that are needed to take us to next - compassion, clarity, connection, collaboration and creation - we need more from our leaders. …