This document discusses the emergence of generative leadership as a new approach for leading organizations. It outlines three key aspects of generative leadership: 1) developing high self-awareness and aligning individual values with the organization, 2) building collaborative relationships internally and externally, and 3) creating a learning culture where experiments are encouraged and failures are learned from. The implications are that organizations need to develop leaders who can foster trust, constructive conversations, and a shared commitment to learning. Providing time and space for leaders to collaborate and reflect is important for facilitating this new approach to leadership.

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Generative Leadership- It’s time for a new approach.
Background:
To celebrate its 75th anniversary in 1997, theHarvard Business Review
interviewed a number of leadership thinkers about their views on the future
challenges and opportunities for executives. In the feature, Peter Drucker
argued that economic growth will not come from either putting morepeople
to work or from consumer demand. ‘Itcan come only froma very sharp and
continuing increasein the productivity of the one resourcein which the
developed countries still have a competitive edge[And which they are likely to
maintain for a few more decades]: knowledgework and knowledgeworkers.’
Drucker wenton to say, ‘increasingly, a winning strategy will require
information about events and conditions outside the institution:
noncustomers, technologies other than those currently used by the company
and its presentcompetitors….’
The era of the late 90’s and the early part of the new millennium was
epitomized by a productiveleadership ethos. Businesses gotreally good at
making things, optimizing their systems, delivering continual growth and
leveraging easy money and resources.
However in late 2008, theworld was thrown into a state of crisis- the GFC. The
implications of this seismic event haveplayed out in the business environment
ever since. The GFCforced leaders to shiftfocus frommanaging supply and
demand in markets defined by the productive ethos, to leading in heightened
states of disequilibrium, wheretraditional solutions and experience did not
providethe answers. Suddenly, leaders wereexposed. Their traditional go to
strategies no longer worked. Resources and money dried up. The productive
ethos of leadership was augmented by a more adaptive ethos, an ethos

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defined by thinkers such as Ron Heifetz. He wrote in Leadership on the Line,
‘To lead is to live dangerously becausewhen leadership counts, whereyou lead
people through difficult change, you challenge whatpeople hold dear – their
daily habits, tools, loyalties, and ways of thinking – with nothing more to offer
perhaps than a possibility.’
We all hoped that the GFCwould be a temporary aberration and that things
would go ‘back to normal’. However, this has not been the case. The pace of
business and the heightened state of disequilibrium has remained, creating a
‘new normal’, often referred to as the VUCA world [Volatile, Uncertain,
Complex and Ambiguous]. This is vastly different to the world of plenty of the
productiveera, a world that Drucker seemed to forecast with his views on the
need to develop learning cultures and build capacity in leaders and their teams
to use knowledgeto gain competitive advantage.
In the last couple of years a new ethos has begun to emerge that focuses on
these issues. Itadds new practices and behaviors to the leadership toolkit. This
new ethos is called Generative Leadership.
Generative Leadership:
Why is generative leadership emerging and is gaining in prominence? This
appears to be a balance of both a top down and a bottom up drive. Top down,
macro market conditions dictate that leaders spend real time trying to make
senseof the overallbusiness environment. Time spentidentifying
opportunities for growth by constantly scanning the horizon and sifting
through market ‘noiseand clutter’ should be partof everyday activity, not the
luxury of a leadership offsiteor strategy session.
Froma bottom up perspective, executives aretrying to make senseof the
internal business environment. They need to manage day to day priorities in
difficult, resourceconstrained conditions- with an increasing expectation of
performance. Yet, the complexity of internal structures and processes
challenges leaders to navigate their own organizations- especially as at the
same time leaders are expected to do more with less, and there is perpetual
‘re-organization’ taking place.

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The signature themes:
Generative leadership has three signature themes.
1. Individualmindset
2. Collaboration
3. The creation of a learning culture.
Individualmindset. Leaders who lead in a generative manner have a high level
of self-awareness. They know whatthey stand for and can articulate their
values. They have aligned their values to the needs of the organization and
spend time connecting others to vision and purpose. They care deeply about
the people around them and will work to ensuredecisions and outcomes that
are in their best interests. They havepersonal‘courage’ often epitomized by
the ability to say ‘I don’t haveall the answers, whatdo others think?’
Implications:
• The need to develop a cadre of leaders with high self-awareness and
values alignment by exposing them to development practices that foster
this.
• The use of psychometric insighttools to assistin driving a deep senseof
self.
• The use of techniques that promote self-disclosure; thepower of
narrative, leadership point of view /dissertation, reflective practice etc
would all facilitate this part of the journey.
• The use of one on one coaching focused on creating strategies to both
enhance strengths and to address behavioraltraits that may be counter-
productive[a focus on behaviouralderailers].
Collaboration. Building collaborative relationships in a 360 degree manner is
key to generative leadership. With direct reports this is about unlocking
potential and encouraging contribution. Employees havemuch to give
[discretionary gifts] but they need a reason and purposeas to why they should
give them.
With peers and colleagues it’s about fostering collaboration through
‘Emergence’. It’s a belief that if we spend time together looking at what we
could do, things will emerge. This needs to be done in a spirit of openness and

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with receptivity to trialing and measuring new ideas. This creates leverage-
critical in times when so many organizations are resourceconstrained and time
poor
Implications.
• Collaborative cultures are based on trust, constructiveconversations and
shared commitment. How much trustexists? Are there unsaids in the
way in which we operate? These would be inhibitors to building
collaboration.
• How do leaders foster a spirit of contribution with their reports and
teams around them? The concept of unlocking potential by getting
people to bring their discretionary effortto work is key.
• There needs to be cultural ‘permission’ thattime spent on fostering
emergence is valuable time. As Eric Schmidt [chairman of Google] said,
‘We wantto be the organization that gets more at bats than any other’.
And they facilitated the process for their people to work together to
allow emergence. [6 person teams/ time allowance to work on own
projects/no blame culture etc].
The creation of a learning culture. How leaders demonstratestrategic dexterity
that fosters a learning culture throughouttheir organization. The antithesis of
this is a culture of blame and recrimination.
Here, leaders are looking to foster a mindset/culture where,
• Aspirations areset for futureproducts/services and processes.
• Diverseexperiences and perspectives aresoughtand differences of
opinion are valued.
For example, how often do we engage with leaders fromdifferent
environments to sharelearning?
• Decision making is through constructiveconflict/conversations and there
is total alignment to agreed commitments.
• An experimental mindset is fostered and resources and time are
allocated to ‘try’ things.
• Experiments are monitored and measured. Successes arecelebrated and
failures are learnt from. [No blame].

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• Teams are interchangeable, fostering new thinking. Leaders are open,
supportiveand encourage people to ‘be the best they can be’.
• There is a spirit of mutual accountability in achieving business outcomes.
Implications.
• The implications of fostering a culture wherethere is retained
organizationallearning requires firstly- a willingness to accept that
emergence is a key strategic tool and that rather than leaders having all
the answers they need permission and time to work together to explore
the ‘whatifs’ around the business.
• How the organization reconciles this with the day to day Business as
Usual will be key. Where a learning mindset has not been prevalent [in
cultures where people with big titles have all the ideas and make all the
decisions] this could take a fair amountof time- particularly if you are
asking those leaders to let go of things they haveheld dear[like leading
through positional authority!].
• However for emerging or changing cultures this step could be a
relatively painless one- with lots of rewards- ie
- Engaged staff who believe their contribution counts and are
prepared to bring their very best to work-becausethey want to.
- Collaborative leadership groups who striveto build a learning
culture with a willingness to try different ideas in a framework of
continual learning, shared commitment and mutual
accountability.
Conclusion:
Generative leadership focuses on leadership that is beyond the productiveand
adaptive styles. Itrequires different practices and behaviors. Leaders will need
to add these to their existing leadership ‘toolbox’. To facilitate this,
organizations need to think differently abouttheir traditional leadership and
coaching programs. Instead of/as well as the traditional approaches,
[leadership off sites, strategy sessions, performancebased coaching and
mentoring] leaders should be given the time to work together, forming their
own agendas for whatthey think the business needs. Leaders should create
regular space for reflection and thinking [sometimes referred to as Balcony

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time]. Above all leaders should shift their mindset fromthe episodic nature of
development, epitimosied by bursts of activity, to a more regular rhythm,
wherea generational approach underpins whatthey do, every day.