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June 16, 2010

Everything I Know About Leadership I Learned From A Flock of Geese

Coach Training, Community of Coaching, Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Life Coaching, Organizational Wholeness, Human Wholeness,  

When you see a flock of geese flying in “V” formation, effortlessly gliding in perfect unison, do you wonder which bird is controlling the show? As you watch the geese, you’ll notice as the lead goose tires, it drops back into the flock and another takes its place in the lead, allowing the geese to continue their journey uninterrupted and fully supported. Watching this scene in motion is amazing and evokes lots of curiosity.

  I recently read a passage from Kurt Hoetling’s new book entitled, The Circumference of Home (Published by Da Capo Books / Perseus Books Group, 2010) which reflects the heart of how they do it. “As we walk Dry Slough through the center of Fir Island, we hear the first tremors of goose music building in the east, then rising to a hoarse urgency. Numbering in the thousands, the [snow goose] flocks fill the sky until they’ve buried the mountain in a storm of wings…the flock seems to function as a single organism… There is an unpredictable, self-organizing quality to the behavior of flocks, a mysterious intelligence that relies on no one leader…The result is that unanticipated shifts in the direction of travel that benefit the whole flock can happen with breathtaking quickness… It is a spectacle of immense beauty when seen from the outside…no one leader causes this to happen. An informed core of leaders scattered throughout the flock can trigger sudden shifts in direction…small individual shifts cascade into a mass shift at the point where a sufficient minority of the flock has chosen a common new direction…In real time it looks as if they all turn at once.”

 

What if we apply the “V” formation leadership style to individuals, teams, relationships and organizations? Just think about the amazing results that we could achieve by following our instincts, showing up, leaning in, and taking action!.    It is the essence of organizational wholeness practiced through distributed leadership. It requires trust, openness, direct communications, with mutual respect and an appreciation for diversity. Hmmmm…sounds like the work we as coaches do everyday… Helping organizations fly like geese may sound corny, but imagine the impact it would it make on our economy, organizational health, the human condition? What would happen if we repackage these concepts and presented them to our clients, would they then get the essence of leadership and understand the value coaches bring to their organizations? Interesting isn’t it?