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LEADERSHIP LEGENDS AND LESSONS

As this happens, the persons we are meant to serve become
alienated from the institution and lose their will to participate,
trust, invest, nourish, and engage. Te great challenge is to
treat each person uniquely, personally, legitimately, as a unique
human being, and to do this at scale.
As I work with and coach leaders worldwide, I continually
hear about the amount of “change” that is occurring within
their organizations and how hard it is. Provide some
strategies for dealing with change, as well as insights for
positive change.
Change is good, essential, invigorating, if it involves some
choices and is toward a shared purpose, like improving learning.
I think change gets a bad name because it is invoked as some
kind of outside force compelling us to take shelter and survive.
If we begin with shared purpose, many embrace change to
achieve that purpose, and the changes are rational, mission-
centered, and purposeful.

For all NEW leaders, what would you suggest as tips and
tools to contribute to their success?
Try to remain a beginner as long as you can. It makes you a
learner, helps avoid that deadly sense of entitlement that comes
with boss-hood, and lowers the stakes so you and those you
work with can take more chances.
In your book, Leadership in the Crucible of Work:
Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader,
you use the metaphor for organizational environments as
being “crucibles of work” - where leaders experience and
endure the “heat, pressure, and corrosion of increased
responsibilities, bureaucracy, and negativism.” How can we
endure the crucible and use it to become more valuable and
authentic leaders?
Attend to your inner life where you engage all the forces that
are shaping your character, ofen through your work. Try
journaling through all the questions, emotions, reactions, and
problems you encounter at work and see what you may learn
about yourself in the process. Te “philosopher’s stone” that
can make the experience of the crucible one of transformation
rather than deformation is the daily connection of interior work
to exterior work.
Refecting on your experiences, share with us some of the
“leader lessons” you learned along the way.
Tere are too many to list, but here are a couple. Don’t over-
identify with your job and work. Good, sustained leadership
requires a kind of “engaged detachment” that says I’m all in, but
the work isn’t me. Over-identifcation isolates the leader because
any criticism of the work or organization, no matter how remote,
becomes personal and makes the leader defensive, shutting down
the vital communication and insight required to lead efectively.
Second, know the diference between your work and your job.
A job, and even a career, is just a vessel for your work. Te work
itself, what you were made to do in the world, is the wine. When
the vessel can’t hold the wine, it’s time to move on.

LEADERSHIP Vol. 23.1 Spring/Summer 2017 9

Client: The Chair Academy Job: Leadership_Journal_23.1 Spring/Summer 2017 Final size: 8.5” x 11” Colors: CMYK Bleeds: Yes
Created by: Goldfsh Creative - Laura Dvir • 602.349.2220 • LAURA@GOLDFISHCREATIVE.NET