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Third Generation Leadership - Developing 3G Leaders (I)

Guest post by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: G3 Leadership requires an additional element to earlier generations. It requires the ability to manage down those areas of the brain that are not helpful in leader-follower interactions while simultaneously managing up those areas of the brain that are helpful. I refer to these as "Red Zone" (not helpful) and "Blue Zone" (helpful). Where the leader has his or her brain's locus of control is critical because only G3 Leaders are able to engage everyone with whom they interact: a G2 Leader can engage only some and a G1 Leader can engage only a few. In this article the first step to becoming a G3 Leader is provided.

Third Generation Leadership - Developing 3G Leaders (I)

Over the years there has been recurring discussion relating to leadership development and right now one of the on-line discussion groups I am involved with is looking at the question: "What traits do you think our next generation of leaders should possess?"

There are certain things that seem to be self-evident. My research that lead to the 1998 book "Leaders: diamonds or cubic zirconia?" indicated that knowing yourself and recognising that you do have leadership responsibilities in at least some areas of life is at the very core of any group of essentials. Most leadership development programs address this issue.

But there is another issue that is less often addressed - and even then, often not very well. This is the issue of "creating an environment in which everyone can be successful".

With First Generation Leadership (G1 Leaders) and Second Generation Leadership (G2 Leaders) this was not so much of an issue. However with Third Generation Leadership (G3 Leaders) it is critical.

One of the key researchers of value to G1 Leadership and G2 Leadership in addressing this issue was Elliott Jaques who, in books such as "Requisite Organisation" (1998, Cason Hall & Co), made the point that leaders needed to have greater conceptual and complex information processing skills than their followers if they were to provide an environment in which others could be successful. Jaques' work is still absolutely vital for G3 Leadership.

Jaques' makes the point that work is essential to us but that we need to be able to apply our full potential in order to fully realise ourselves as individuals. Having leaders who have the ability and confidence to create the right environment for this is vital - and that requires the right level of conceptual ability in the leader.

Let's look at these conceptual and complex processing skills.

Jaques' argues that some people can work effectively without supervision for long periods while others require at least some guidance for periods as short as a few hours upwards. He also makes the point that neither of these is "good" or "bad" - they just "are". (Of course, it is fairly obvious that a successful entrepreneur requires the capacity for a longer rather than a shorter period where they can work without guidance.)

Coupled to this is the ability to deal with information in a serial or parallel manner. Jaques' suggests that there are 7 levels of this ranging from using practical judgement to overcome immediate obstacles, through to the ability to construct the complex systems that are necessary in, for example, major multinational companies and government organisations.

The rationale behind these is that followers need to have confidence in their leaders - and a key part of building that confidence is the knowledge that the leader can add real value because of his or her advanced conceptual ability. Jaques suggests that there is a natural hierarchy that develops based on this conceptual ability regardless of any formalised organisational hierarchy that may exist - people trust and respect those who are able to be of help no matter where in the organisational structure they may be located.

With G1 Leadership this was not so critical. In a world where everyone "knew their place" and in which obedience was key, independent thinking was largely discouraged as the manager would make the decisions and closely control who, what, when, where and how work was done.

G2 Leadership changed that - even though many leaders and organisations failed to grasp that a change had occurred. Once the emphasis moved to "conformance" rather than "obedience" the issue of upward respect started to emerge. If I am being encouraged to conform rather than instructed to comply, I have the freedom to consider why I should conform - and part of that consideration includes the extent to which I respect my leader.

When I was in the Army, G2 Leadership was only just emerging and New Zealand was not in any armed conflict - the emergency in Malaya was over and there was, at that time, no involvement in Vietnam. On our first day of training I well remember being told: "Always remember that, when it comes to the crunch, it's not what you wear on your shoulders that's important - its what holds that up there." (As an aside, New Zealand Army Officers at that time wore their rank markings on their shoulders.) The message was clear - if you have not earned the respect of others you may have difficulty achieving desired results.

This is where the message of Jaques becomes so important. One of the key ways of earning respect is being able to help people look at bigger pictures and to consider wider implications relating to their decisions and actions. That is as important today as it was almost 50 years ago.

But G3 Leadership requires another element - it requires the ability to manage down those areas of the brain that are not helpful in leader-follower interactions while simultaneously managing up those areas of the brain that are helpful. I refer to these as "Red Zone" (not helpful) and "Blue Zone" (helpful). Where the leader has his or her brain's locus of control is critical because only G3 Leaders are able to engage everyone with whom they interact: a G2Leader can engage only some and a G1 Leader can engage only a few.

The first step in this process is to understand the areas of the brain in which control can lie. Neuroscience tells us that we have "3 brains and 2 minds". In fact, of course, we have only one brain but there are some quite distinct parts of it in which control can lie. These are:

• Our basic brain (also known as the "reptilian brain") which is common to all creatures. This is most developed part of our brains and it is where we have the automatic responses to threat (either real or imagined) - fight, flight, or freeze - that are designed to help us stay alive.
• Our limbic brain (also known as the "mammalian brain") which is common to all mammals and which allows us to form relationships and to learn from experience
• Our cortical brain (also known as the "human brain") is the least developed part and it is this which enables higher level learning and enables us to deal with complex new issues and problems

These three areas allow the potential for two key areas of control - what is now starting to be called the "red zone" and the "blue zone".

The "red zone" is the reptilian-mammalian brain combination.

People whose brain's area of control is in the red zone tend to be focused on themselves and are often openly anxious about what might happen to them - the red zone is the seat of pessimism. Often they seek to allay this anxiety by resisting change (either overtly or covertly), emphasising the importance of experience as being the key factor in anything that is to be done, and by operating in an emotion-driven impulsive manner. They are also likely to find security by joining with others who have a similar area of control because they know that there is safety in numbers and that the relationships they have with like-minded people (or "family") are very important.

The "blue zone" is the cortical-mammalian brain combination.

People whose brain's area of control is in the blue zone tend to be far more optimistic and to be open to new learning (ie change). For these people, affiliation and cooperation with others - whether or not "family" is seen to be important as it encourages new thinking and higher level learning. People whose brain has its centre of control in the blue zone do not ignore emotions or instinct: rather they recognise that there are times when a different response is more appropriate and so they develop the skills to control their responses so that they can be more functional than dysfunctional in most situations.

Neither "red zone" nor "blue zone" is good or bad. Our brain is a unity and we need access to all its areas in order to be fully effective. In fact, as neuroscience has made clear, our blue zones are not fully operational until sometime in our 20's - until then we all tend to be red zone controlled as evidenced in the "I am invincible" approach seen in most young people and which leads to most of the reckless behaviour that the majority of us have engaged in at some time in our youth.

Third Generation Leadership - the 3G Leader - is blue zone dominated.

Because the body's resources available to our brains are more or less fixed (research indicates to within plus or minus 1%) if we allow our brain's area of control to remain primarily in the red zone, we have fewer resources available for the blue zone to access. Accordingly the second stage of developing Third Generation Leadership - becoming a 3G Leader - is to learn how to manage down the red zone so that more resources are available for the blue zone.

I will explore this in the next article.

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Article Tags: blue zone, G3 Leader, generation leadership, locus of control, Neuroscience, red zone, Third Generation Leadership



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