Let me continue with my challenge to encourage leaders to think about the essential components of their personal leadership.

 

Here is another very interesting leadership model that diverts significantly from the previous two. The MIT Leadership Center has created this picture of leadership. See http://mitleadership.mit.edu/r-dlm.php to learn more. They refer to it as “a pragmatic, research-based model of how successful leaders at every level actually work”. According to them leaders do the following things.

 

1.     Sensemaking: making sense of the world around us, coming to understand the context in which we are operating.

2.     Relating: developing key relationships within and across organizations.

3.     Visioning: creating a compelling picture of the future.

4.     Inventing: designing new ways of working together to realize the vision.

 

Sensemaking is the component in this model that strikes me as most unique compared to other views of the leader’s role. It also seems right on the money. We only have to look at the trauma caused by the current economic meltdown to see how much employees look to leaders to make sense of what is going on in the world, in the market place and in their company. Leaders who can provide insight, perspective and calm direction in any challenging time are valuable people indeed.

 

So how do you react to MIT’s take on leadership?