Genius Leadership – Making The World A Greater Place
Transactional Leadership is about being the one at the top carrying the burden of responsibility, making sure everyone else is heading where you’re pointing.
Transformational Leadership is about creating the way forward with others who share your visions. It’s collaborative, innovative and very creative.
Genius Leadership is a shared genius experience. Genius leaders recognise the potential for genius that exists in each person, and have the ability to light that spark in others. Once lit, the collective power of networked brilliance is unleashed. In the case of Transformational or Servant Leaders, there remains a reliance on the big ‘L’ leader. Genius leadership relies on collective leadership — that’s why the results are quantum and exponential.
How do Genius Leaders act that is different?
Genius leaders think beyond what is and call others into genius invention. These leaders leave a ‘ding in the universe’ and tend to be remembered long after their lifetimes because they stir something grand for us all. But that doesn’t mean that genius is just for the genius few! Genius leadership can be embodied by anyone with vision, passion and a willingness to live in streaming genius flow.
Genius leadership is a connective art that goes exponential when that genius is shared. It isn’t a brain focused, mental process – it happens with ALL of you, every cell connected with what wants to happen through you next. You give yourself to a greater expression and that inspires others to join you in the shared creation. Genius leaders are radically open to and walk graciously into the unchartered new. They don’t just wait for the next new idea to show up, they seek it and generate it with every cell of their being. They don’t just embrace change, they are leading voices and creators of the next wave of the new coming through.
How do I know Genius Leadership is present?
With genius leaders there’s an alchemy of generosity and greatness – an ability to create and weave into the future that wants to be generated. When someone else’s leadership is needed to step forward – it does. And when genius leaders are in the room, there’s so much excitement, so many ideas popping, so much energy buzzing — no one wants to go home. There’s something essentially collective in the fabric of genius leadership. It’s not just about the leader being a genius, but the whole organism of the business orienting itself to genius expression and innovation. Something exponential happens when a genius ambiance (culture) is created and individual creativity is unleashed within it. This is very different from waiting for the Hero Leader to don a problem solving cape and start giving orders. Genius Leadership is leaderful, making the ambiance / culture a pivotal factor to the exponential creations that result.
What 5 skills are different in Genius Leaders?
- Genius Leaders know they hold a spark of genius creativity inside, they are confident in their special skills and abilities, and they are prepared to step up when their genius is required.
- Genius leaders have the ability to spark the light of genius in others, fostering a creative, collaborative network of unleashed genius.
- Genius leaders know that collaborating in a group is the most enervating and creative way to foster exponential growth and solve formerly intractable problems. This is recognition of the brilliance that exists in every room, team, organisation, community, or country.
- Genius leaders have high emotional IQ, are equally comfortable from the boardroom to the mailroom, and focus on emergent, collective generative results and experiences.
- Genius Leaders are unapologetically generous, engaged, and passionate about the work that is being done, and the people engaged in it.
What can I do today to test-drive my own Genius Leadership?
To get the ball rolling on your own Genius Leadership, try the following short activities and see what works best for unleashing your inner genius!
Take a couple of deep breaths, the kind that resonate down to your toes, hold them for a count of 3 and push the air out in a big exhale. Then feel yourself connect to Life! Now you’re centred and connected.
Think about your intention for your life – what would you like to be true about your life in 10 years? Act, plan, behave, and live from the place of that intention being true.
Accepting the truth about your own Genius Leadership is an act of giving yourself permission to boldly claim what your inner voice is saying, that you are the leader you have been waiting for. From wherever you are, with whatever you are doing, you are your own Genius Leader. That inner knowing is the only spark you need to step into your own quiet confidence as a Genius Leader.
Think about a challenge, concern, problem or opportunity that you would like to have an amazing solution to. Connect to the genius inherent in the situation and relate to it from that place. Capture that challenge / genius in writing and state with it that you are going to spark a revolution to address it in the next week. Who else cares about this situation, who is living in it, affected by it, or as passionate about it as you are? This week, draw that group together in person, via Skype, or on the phone. Start the session by sharing your genius leadership experiment, that you see the genius in each of them and that the goal is to spark a new network of genius leaders to tackle this challenge. Set your ground rules to ensure everyone has an equal stake in the solution, every voice is important, and diverse views will help ensure a stronger more creative solution. Hold a collaborative brainstorming session for 1 hour. Note all the terrific ideas that have been raised and select 2 – 3 you can collectively take action on. If the action is another meeting, terrific – you have progress and collaborative agreement! Note how the energy in the session was different from one where someone took the big ‘L’ leader mantle and drove things. It is more creative, engaging, exciting, and ‘messy’!
Have fun stepping into your Genius Leadership.
First published at The Genius Game
