Leadership at 38,000 feet?

So my reality for the past week has been a liminal one, slowly making my way from our adopted country of New Zealand back to the UK to take up a lectureship at The Open University. But as much learning derives from reflecting on liminal experiences, I thought I would jot down a couple of thoughts.

Two things spring to mind. The first, having briefly stopped in Istanbul, concerns the splendor of Empire contrasted with the thriving passion for trade in Turkey. I am not about to advocate the return of a eunuch hierarchy (or the harem for that matter) but I left Istanbul thinking there is much we could learn in leadership terms from the Turkish people. You don’t have to be engaged in a deep ethnography to notice the entrepreneurial and collaborative spirit of the country’s businesspeople. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of businesses and wondered aloud how they can possibly hope to all stay in business – surely they would eat up each others’ business? The answer of course lies in integration and collaboration, perhaps a lesson for sustainable leadership in the future.

While not advocating an Ottoman-style eunuch hierarchy, we could learn much from the bustling leadership on display amongst the traders of Istanbul

The second, as I am about to leave my wife’s home country of Montenegro, concerns the importance of leadership (and management) in national life. A beautiful country packed full of smart, young people, Montenegro, in many ways, has it all. As Montenegro looks toward membership of the European Union, the importance of our work in developing leadership was brought home in a powerful way. Although everyone here shares a belief in the importance of leadership, there is little in the way of opportunities to develop it in a formal way, with universities, for example, overwhelmingly focused on gritty economics and finance. As important as these are, without an overarching framework of leadership (economics for what?), such learning surely is always limited. Leadership development needs to reach more people, as the challenges of our world don’t appear to be abating.

The next post will be written from a slightly less liminal perspective and will mark a return to more conventional leadership development territory. But for now, it’s time to hit the skies once more and to keep thinking those liminal thoughts.

-          Owain