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5 Creative Evolutionary Leadership Niche Strategies!
I have a short story to share with you about an important skill many leaders need to develop, use and perfect. Life is a journey. The signposts along the path pointing out the way are many and are sometimes hard to understand. We hear news stories telling us it is the dawning of a knowledge-based society. As a leader, you may wonder about the amount of knowledge that is reported to be so plentiful. You recognize the many difficulties challenging you, weakening your leadership power and reducing your control over Fate. Where can people like you and your associates carry the burdens hidden in the vast amounts of data flooding your mind everyday? Would you like to know what your leadership responses should be when facing your universe of fragmented situations, advantages and information? How could you shape your confusing array of facts, figures and incomplete thoughts into creatively elegant solutions, new products or transformational strategies? This article describes how you can use your understanding of basic evolutionary forces to: => Sort through and identify root causes => Discover new opportunities and sources for innovation => Create a strategic focus on mission-critical priorities => Evolve solutions to challenges or complex problems => Use synergy, syntropy and synergetics to grow or prosper Niche Strategy-1: Use historical developments to sort through and identify root causes When describing the force of evolution, biologists invest their efforts into studying, analyzing and evaluating the history of development concerning the group of interest to them. To better understand the improvements, problems solved and progressions accomplished by a biological species, you must determine what caused, threatened or influenced those changes. Leaders should search for what, how, why and when the emergence of new characteristics, qualities or traits began to affect the organism [in this case your team, venture or organization]. In biology, sorting through and understanding root causes leads to the discovery of more effective medicines, diagnosis and therapies. In leadership, this process of discovery should lead to greater operational efficiencies, quality of execution and production, more robust growth opportunities and stronger alliances or wider networks of influence. Niche Strategy-2: Recognize how elan vital propels discovery of new opportunities and sources for innovation What are the vital forces of life? How do they contribute to creativity, revitalizing, renewing of living organisms? The qualities scientists believe form the foundation for emergent or creative evolution and elan vital are based on both observed and imagined principles of our spiritual, emotional and related incorporeal natures. To be effective, you need to understand and harness those eclectic, motivating forces. You must dig under the facades presented by people to reveal their intangible natures and qualities. Great leaders constantly learn how to => Encourage and magnify positive mental attitudes, => Apply liberal treatments of positive reinforcement => Provide sincere, candid expressions of recognition or rewards => Strengthen and focus the faith, hope and charity of people => Use spiritual, emotional and theological truths to step-up, transform and energize human achievement, creativity and resourcefulness. Niche Strategy-3: Adapt to the environment by creating a strategic focus on mission-critical priorities The survival of a species is dependent upon its ability to adapt to changes, shifts or conflicts in its environment. Biologic or living entities are intensely sensitive to the myriad interactions, exchanges and transactions occurring within their ecological niches. You and your group are subject to never-ending series or waves of differences, compromises and attacks from your associates, suppliers, competitors, partners and rulers. Leadership excellence demands your unwavering focus, unbending stance and unrelenting grasp on the details of your strategy, mission and key priorities - can you say these guiding elements are: => Well-defined or being clarified on a regular basis? => Based on the realities of your current situation and its realistic possibilities? => Important enough to satisfy the needs of your people or stakeholders for recognition, purpose and growth? There are destructive and evolutionary forces at work in your environment - your primary task is to hold forth the light of nobility, righteousness and goodness for others to see or be guided by. Niche Strategy-4: Explore further out to evolve elegant solutions to challenges or complex problems There are combinations, immersions and swappings involving organisms or their organic surroundings happening all the time and all around an ecological niche. Organisms tend to exhibit signs of evolutionary formations, process or development through these movement types: => Approaching or moving towards each other => Establishing a correspondence with other parts, organisms or locations which were picked-up, found-out, formed-by or absorbed-through a natural convergence or parallel evolution => Proceeding through successive changes that involve or affect the interactions between ecologically interdependent organisms => Emerging out-of and -from an enveloping field or obscure position => Gradually progressing through time or space to a desired endpoint due to stated policy or some process of accumulating smaller amounts of new organic materials or resources => Regressing backwards to earlier stages of development, which may be defined as a simplification of form or even going from a better to a worse state => Existing in a relatively stable state for long periods of time and then experiencing brief periods of rapid change during which new forms of the organism appear - these are usually caused by radical fluctuations and alterations in the organism's local environment Niche Strategy-5: Incorporate the dynamics of synergy, syntropy and synergetics to grow or prosper Evolution is thought of as being somewhat random in its occurrence or as lacking some ordered purpose. However, recent developments in our understanding have been influenced by the sciences and studies of numerous non-traditional newer avenues of inquiry. Since synergy and syntropy describe the effects of energy being exported, radiated-out from or involving the intentional combinations of two or more organisms, we now know that evolution can also result from a cooperative, purposeful venture. You can think of the energies being output by allied organisms affecting an environment in such a way as to influence adaptations, progressions and changes in other organisms who operate or live within the same environment. Leaders can learn more about how these synergetic associations can contribute to evolutionary change by understanding the core principles of sociobiology, teleonomy, microevolution, cladistics, vicariance biogeography, the phenomena of punctuated equilibrium, the concept of noosphere and coevolution. ------------------------------------------------------------ By nature, leaders are facilitators of evolutionary progress. Leadership sits at the wheel of an organism's control center, it is the organic instigator or catalyst - leaders are 'agents of Change'. These 5 niche strategies will empower your ability think critically, improve your effectiveness and to excel at: => Solving problems, => Make informed decisions => Supervise work performances => Increase employee resourcefulness => Discover opportunities to innovate or create new things A recent survey of executive recruiters revealed that the top mistakes made by newly appointed senior executives is their failure to establish strategic priorities and waiting too long to implement a program of change [as reported by Korn/Ferry International]. With the information contained in this article, you have the support you need to defeat feelings of uncertainty while you avoid making these same career-ending errors. You will find confidence and hope building inside you when apply these niche strategy concepts to the issues and challenges of your real-life situations. What have we learned today? Evolution exerts a complex of forces which operate on the time and space where organisms strive, survive and are sustained. Evolutionary leadership activities involve the creative shaping of ecological niches in such ways as to effect beneficial adaptations of their enterprise's mission and priorities to any changes, challenges or threats in its environment. Leaders need to understand how they should strategically, creatively and aggressively direct those evolutionary impulses towards making a positive impact upon their organizations. As you apply these truths to your daily tasks of providing oversight and stewardship, you will quickly see the tangible payoffs and proof that your knowledge of these critical concepts is sound. Learn more about this subject by reading our 'blog': Leadership skills training & development for creating energy! I know your sensitivity to the operation and manifestations of evolution will enable you to sustain the health and prosperity of your organization as you successfully achieve all your objectives. Copyright © 2004, Mustard Seed Investments Inc., Bill Thomas publishes "The Leadership-Toolkit Collection!" - Affordable, Performance Improvement Programs for Employees, Executives & Entrepreneurs: featuring web-based Training, Books & Manuals, coaching & mentoring, & follow-up support GUARANTEED to energize, empower, enhance your leadership results.
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