denver leadership | CBST Adventures

ARTICLE SHARE: Harvard Business School Academic Paper on Leadership as a Form of ‘Natural Self-Expression’

This week’s CBST Adventure’s article share is taking on more of an academic focus than usual. Harvard Business School has a paper out discussing leadership as a natural form of ‘self-expression’ in hopes of developing leaders that are good at spontaneity and using their intuition.

Additionally, the paper also makes the case for leadership curriculum to be experienced in addition to it also being taught in the classroom.

The article can be found HERE.

ARTICLE SHARE: ‘Let Your Workers Rebel’ Says Pixar and Harvard School of Business

It’s no secret that employee engagement is quite low in the US (32%) and even lower worldwide (13%). And according to Gallup, these numbers haven’t changed since the early 2000’s. The big question is ‘Why?’

Pixar and Harvard Business School (HBS) think it has to do with the fact that too many employees are expected to conform to the status quo. As a result, HBS estimates that less than 10% of employees work for company that regularly encourage non-conformity. As a result, people gradually lose sight of their individuality and their unique talents, resulting in lower engagement, productivity, and innovation. Not a good state of affairs.

In response to current workplace’s abundance of conformity, HBS has recently published a fascinating (and lengthy!) article discussing the perils of not letting employees ‘rebel.’ This article is a truly enlightening read and offers some innovative suggestions for leaders including simply ‘letting employees be themselves’ to ‘encouraging employees to bring out their signature strengths.’

We highly encourage to enjoy this article along with the companion video featuring Pixar’s CEO Ed Catsmull, who shares that as part of Pixar’s on-boarding process, new employees learn about Pixar’s shortcomings over the years so they taught right away that it’s ok to fail.

Click here to read the full article. And if you’re interesting in learning how your team can incorporate these leadership practices in your company, reach out to us.

Kellogg School of Business Says ‘The Best Leadership Training is Immersive’

No matter how many employees your company has, it probably doesn’t have an abundance of leaders. At least, not yet. Such is the reason for providing leadership development opportunities to employees. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business shares this opinion in their recent article titled ‘Four Strategies for Cultivating Strong Leaders Internally.’ Clinical Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Leadership Development at Kellogg, Bernard Banks, states that “It’s not like there’s this overwhelming abundance of great leadership talent, and every company gets who they need.” As a result, it’s imperative for the future of growth of companies to develop the leaders of tomorrow, today.

The article shares four key strategies on developing great leaders in-house. We won’t go until detail here as we recommend reading the article in full but one excerpt we wanted to highlight was the emphasis placed on ‘Immersive Leadership.’ The article points out that current corporate leadership training is archaic and outdated in that it typically puts employees through standard classroom training. This fails to teach leaders ‘how to think’ versus simply ‘what to think.’

What the article recommends, instead, is immersive leadership training similar to what you might see in the Army where ‘…people are dropped into an entirely new context, in which they are forced to respond in real time against a thinking adversary.’ Within this approach, incorporating ‘after-action reviews [can also] help determine what went well—and what could have been done differently.’

At CBST Adventures, we’re big proponents of immersive leadership as this concept is core to our Experiential Leadership Programs. Many of our leadership programs are founded in military training, including our Mission Special Ops engagement. If you’re interested in learning more about these Experiential Leadership programs or other engagements, feel free to reach out to us.

Forbes Magazine Discusses Leadership Development as a Path to Becoming Our Highest Self

People often think as leadership as just a skill that they need for work. They simplify leadership as merely a concept that will make them a better manager, help them get a promotion, or land that raise they’ve been wanting. But what it leadership was about more? What if leadership development can actually transform people into better all-around human beings? Or better yet, what if leadership development can help people become the best version of themselves?

In a recent Forbes Magazine article, this very topic is explored in detail. Some powerful excepts from the article are ‘currently, only 20% of leaders act from a “creative” mind, one focused on caring connection, integrity, courageous authenticity, and community concern.’ While ‘75% of some of the world’s best leaders lead from what is called a “reactive” mind—a mind that is critical, distant, controlling, arrogant, and autocratic.’

At CBST Adventures, we see this data play out in real life. And we’re not judging leaders for it; rather, we want to walk alongside leaders and work with them to help them tap into their ‘creative’ minds and find the best versions of themselves. In doing this, we believe we’re unlocking they’re true potential, not just as a leader, but as an integrated person.

To read the article in detail, click here.