“Leadership no longer derives from individualist, charismatic or heroic influence but manifests as caring, loving people leading together inter-connectedly, soulfully, simultaneously and peerfully to a common purpose in authentic service to the greater good”. Please click here for the full paper, written by our Advisor Dr Lynne Sedgmore.
This type of leadership, far from being a weakness, calls for heightened sensitivity – an enhanced capacity for empathy, intuition and care. Dr Elaine Aron, who pioneered research into high sensitivity, suggests four key characteristics of leaders who demonstrate these traits:
Strong intuition. Wise and skilful leadership requires more than conscious reasoning and logic. Tuning into "our subtle inner voice" can be invaluable when grappling with complex challenges.
The ability of leaders to ‘soak up’ everything around them – especially subtleties that others tend to miss. Words. Conversations. Non-verbal cues. Movement. Sound. Smells. Emotions. "Taking in environmental subtleties is an invaluable leadership ability" and can be enormously beneficial in problem solving.
A preference to process information they have taken in versus taking action and speaking. Giving space to other team members to speak and contribute freely, rather than jumping to action or pushing our own ideas allows others to share, shine and feel valued.
Resonant leadership. "Resonant leaders seem to say and do the right thing at just the right time. This isn’t luck or magic, it’s their innate ability to feel deeply, process richly, and patiently consider the right words and actions for the moment".
For more details please see the following interview and find out more about Elaine's work here.
Recently our Director of Strategic Partnerships Kemal (Shaheen) has completed a High Sensory Coaching Course and is currently involved in a series of co-creative conversations, with others, exploring the power and potential of heightened sensitivity in relation to diverse themes and topics – including leadership, education, creativity, health and organisational development.
At Caplor Horizons we greatly value co-creative conversations that help to deepen our understanding of issues that we care about. We see this as an essential part of being a learning organisation, and it is just one of the ways in which our talented Advisors contribute to the Caplor Community – helping us to learn, grow and pay forward their depth of experience and knowledge.
Coming soon…
Next week we are enormously excited to be having one of our regular conversations with our Thought Leadership Advisor – the renowned social philosopher Charles Handy. We will be talking to Charles about various topics – including how leaders and organisations might cultivate higher levels of sensitivity, and whether this could help them to navigate complex issues such as ‘localisation’ or ‘decolonisation’ and the importance of being sensitive to where power should properly belong. Click here and here to read two of our previous conversations with Charles.
Change maker of the week
Quote of the week: “Whatever the times, suffering eventually touches every life. How we live with it, and help others to, is one of the great creative and ethical opportunities” Elaine Aron
Best wishes
Ian, Rosie, Lorna, Kemal and Iain