Saturday, July 23, 2005

Todd Hunter on Realized Potential

What are places of realized potential?

The art of leadership is liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible. Thus the leader is the “servant” of his followers in that he removes the obstacles that prevent them from doing their job. In short, the true leader enables his or her followers to realize their full potential.
The driving force in our organizations ought not to be goal achievement or asset management or quantifiable growth, important as these are. Rather, our society badly needs organizations and people that move relentlessly toward reaching their potential.

Places of realized potential:

Are inclusive
Are open to change, contrary opinion, the mystery of potential, involvement, unsettling ideas and risk-taking
Offer people opportunity to grow
Offer the gift of challenging work
Shed obsolete baggage
Help people decide what needs to be measured
Heal people with trust, caring and “forgetfulness”
Leaders who create places of realized potential listen well and “see” what is really going on (pain, heartbreak, achievement)
Leaders of places of realized potential specialize in trust

Todd plays off Max DePree for a nice post.

We had earlier teased out a bit DePree's vision for holistic community here.

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