Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty

The second aspect of the change signature is the way an individual typically embodies the four capabilities and the characteristic way in which that person makes change happen. For example, what are the skills, abilities, tactics and modes of operating that characterize how you carry out your leadership activities? Some people might carry out sensemaking in a very interpersonal manner, moving from office to office learning from everyone they meet. For others it might be a purely analytic process that starts and ends on the computer. Leaders learn through experiences what is most important to them and how they can be most effective with others. This process is facilitated when leaders take the time to reflect on their experiences. Often people report that they learn more from failure than success, but all experience can help shed light on what kind of leader you are.

1. Senge, P. 1996. “Leading Learning Organizations: The Bold, the
Powerful, and the Invisible.” In F. Hesselbein, et al., The Leader of the Future.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

MIT Leadership Center

2. Weick, K. 1995. Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
3. Sutcliffe, K., and K. Weick. 2002. “Managing the Unexpected:
Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity.” European
Management Journal, 20, pp. 709-710.

Leadership in an
Age of Uncertainty

4. Argyris, C. and Schön, D. 1996. Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
5. Senge, P., 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning
Organization. New York: Doubleday.
6. Pfeffer, J. 1992. Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in
Organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
7. Kouzes, J. and B. Posner. 1993. Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It,
Why People Demand It. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Highlighting
Leadership

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Leadership is not solely the responsibility of the CEO, but can and should