Week 2: Leadership Mindsets

Week 2 – Leadership mindsets > Leadership: two mindsets > Leadership: two mindsets

• It is not enough in a networked, dynamic world with wicked problems.
• We call this the process-managerial mindset – leadership is not, or not only, a project, but a process of aligning actors, finding out what the best solution for the wicked problem is and being adaptive, in view of the dynamic nature of our world.
• For someone with a project-based mindset, everything starts with a problem.
• This problem must be defined as precisely as possible.
• The leader with a process-based mindset knows that ‘the right problem definition’ often does not even exist.
• Problems are wicked, which means that different actors may have very different views on what the right problem definition is.
• If that is the case, you need to define the problems as broadly as possible.
• The more precisely you define a problem, the more likely it is that there will be opposition and that others will accuse you of being narrow-minded.
• The more broadly you define a problem, the more likely it is that others will find it sufficiently attractive to work with you.
• People with a project-managerial mindset like to have clear goals, because they provide direction.
• In the project-based mindset, your goals determine which information you gather.
• Engineers often adopt a need-to-know approach to this – you need the information that helps you to achieve your goals and the rest is information overload. In the process-based mindset, the attitude to gathering information is often very different.
• You need to take account of a large number of actors and any information about these actors and their problems can be of interest – especially if you wish to design a multi-issue game.
• With a process-based mindset, you know that problems are unstructured and that a lot of information is contested.
• The question is how to get the parties involved to such a stage that they see the uncertainties as a shared problem.
• In the project-based mindset, the solution arises from problems, goals and information.
• First, there is a problem, and we then we try to find a solution.
• There is a solution, and we then try to find problems.
• So what do you do next? You look whether you can link other problems to the solution.
• The port expansion can, after all, also contribute to solving many other problems than the problem faced by the mayor.
• Why would you do that? If the mayor succeeds in linking her solution, the port expansion, to other actors’ problems, she will probably gain the support of those other actors.
• In the project-management mindset, you have analyzed problems, set goals, collected information, designed a solution, and then the time comes for decision-making.
• In the process-management mindset, the difference between decision-making and the other stages in the process is not so clear-cut.
• Who will have a problem on September 1st? The mayor will, but her opponents will not.
• Because they know that the mayor will have a problem, the deadline could even serve as an incentive for delay.
• The final question is: what makes you successful as a leader? What are the evaluation criteria for good leadership in a networked world? The criteria for success in a project-management mindset are often threefold: Have you achieved your goals? Have you done it on time and on budget? Of course, these criteria are not appropriate for a process, in a networked world.