What a leader cannot balance in him or herself leads to imbalance in his team or organization. When all polarities are balanced and work together, we get a super effective organization.
Examples of actual challenges because of imbalance in polarities:
- 59% of the population is quit quitting (too much focus on producvity and not on purpose)
- A scarcity of talent and a talent drain for organizations.
Sometimes, we are so focused on strategy, profitability and getting things done, that we ‘forget’ the importance of polarities in leadership effectiveness.
Do you want to get stronger as a leader? Reflect upon the polarities that you see in successful kingdoms and check which polarities are you excluding in your daily decisions and actions or require re-balancing. That’s the way of leadership power … integration and balancing.
What’s a polarity?
Polarities are opposites of each other, that complement each other and together create harmony and real power, such as:
- Strategic thinking and action
- Challenge and support
- Stability and innovation
- Direct and empower
- Masculine and feminine
- Material and spiritual
- Profit and purpose
- Commitment and letting go
Successful examples of leaders balancing polarities
- The Mongolian Empire and Andalucian empire, staying trough to who they are yet embracing all the innovation and crafts of other cultures.
- Alphons Mucha, balancing creativity and market needs, cresting the most beau
The leadership challenge of polarities
On a deeper level what we can’t hold in our personality we cannot hold in our team and or organization. We cannot ‘hold’ the space for it to happen. Let’s take a super Hollywood character to make it clear: The Wolf of Wallstreet … what is his behaviour excluding? What isn’t important to him? Integrity, vulnerability, and healthy value creation are all absent.