Sharing Leadership Ideas from Real Life
Each Thursday, I’ll launch a topic for discussion, dialogue, debate, and introspective conversation. In group facilitation situations, I ask the participants to reframe disagreement from the category of a “weapon” to the category of a “creative tool.” This change in paradigm allows for very lively and productive discussions to happen. It takes away the risk of feeling like participants are criticizing each other and allows them to be free to point to ideas and concepts without having to pretend to be polite or pretend to agree. We have been conditioned to feel that disagreement is not polite. In fact, disagreement is a way to be in integrity.
We find that it’s okay to disagree. Many times we find new ideas, fresh perspectives, and opposite polarities that make sense. Healthy dialogue does not depend on everybody agreeing; in fact, if everybody agrees, it’s a boring discussion, and we might get trapped by not exposing blind spots that could limit our effectiveness as leaders and as an organization.
In that spirit, I offer a chance for dialogue on topics related to leadership. I will choose topics that have high visibility in the news or in certain communities of interest, such as business, entrepreneurship, religion, and social benefit work. I welcome suggestions for other topics. I’m sure that there are many, many to choose from.
Will you contribute your ideas? Please comment using the form below.
Today’s topic:
Do the ailments defined by Pope Frances apply to corporate culture and nonprofit organizations as well?
Here are his 15 ailments:
1) “The sickness of considering oneself ‘immortal’, ‘immune’ or ‘indispensable’”
2) “‘Martha-ism’, or excessive industriousness”
3) “The sickness of mental and spiritual hardening”
4) “The ailment of excessive planning and functionalism”
5) “Sickness of poor coordination”
6) “Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease”
7) “The ailment of rivalry and vainglory”
8) “Existential schizophrenia”
9) “Chatter, grumbling and gossip”
10) “The sickness of deifying leaders”
11) “The disease of indifference towards others”
12) “The illness of the funereal face”
13) “The disease of accumulation”
14) “The ailment of closed circles”
15) The “disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism”
Read the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2014/12/22/the-15-ailments-of-the-vatican-curia-according-to-pope-francis/
Questions to answer:
- Do these ailments apply to businesses? If so, which ones?
- Why is correcting these ailments important?
Please comment below.
Hugh Ballou
The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM
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