Leaders navigate via curiosity. Curiosity leads to learning and expands the realm of what they don't know to what they do know. Leaders share what is there AND isn’t. They rely on observations, intuition and inklings to help staff move forward. Intuition and inklings aren’t found in any book. The more leaders share what they see, think and feel the more value they add to the growth of their staff and to themselves as the synergy is formed and increased. It’s a form of magic, an energy, an intangible that defines the uniqueness of that leader. When we look at leaders globally in various areas of expertise, political corporate or world leaders and those who have become household names in the field of growth, we look at their uniqueness and that intangible that makes them stand out in a crowd. Commonality doesn’t attract followers or make a leader. It’s that one thing we can’t put our fingers on that makes us take a second look, and then a third and then our intuition tells us to not only listen carefully but join in.
No book in its own right delivers any goods for someone running a company. Bits and pieces of the written or spoken word will often change our direction on a path we never before imagined.
Anyone who believes they know all there is to know about people, leading or managing is like a leader without direction. Just as a person who reads and doesn’t is a functional illiterate, the wise leader realizes that each and every person they come across will know something about life and the world they don’t. That person might come in the form of a world renowned leader or the person across the street but the leader who pays attention is the one I’d want to partner with, wouldn’t you?
Internationally recognized certified Executive and Political Leadership Coach, Author, Speaker and Lecturer.
Donna Karlin, CEC, has pioneered the specialized practice of Shadow Coaching™ with over 130 senior organizational leaders in the public and private sectors.
Principal of ‘ A Better Perspective™’ Ms. Karlin has worked for over 23 years as a coach and trainer with clients in Canada, the US and abroad.
Donna is an author, lectures internationally, and is founder of Mindsful™, an international research and development team.
In response to widely expressed interest to her highly successful and innovative approach to coaching, she established the School of Shadow Coaching™ to enable others to learn the practice.