ABSTRACT
Over several millennia there has been a vast discussion on the nature of leadership. There are tens of thousands of books on the subject with many perspectives developed in different cultural climates. Today there is no shortage of leadership models with new ones emerging regularly. However, as the title of this section suggests, one area that has received insufficient attention in the past, but may play an essential role in the future is Chairman ship. The role of the Chairman is, and should be, entirely different to the role of the CEO in any organisation. The Chairman is not the driver of the organ isation but the integrator-in-chief. He or she integrates the past of the organisation with the present and the future and ensures that all per spectives are respected. He or she has no operational role in the trans actional business of the organisation but is intimately involved with the transformational currents buffeting the organisation and guiding its response. The Chairman appreciates all of the polarities and diversity within the organisation and externally, seeing how the interplay between multiple diverse perspectives provides creative opportunities for adaptive change, resonant with emergent society. The Chairman should not be a predominantly task focussed ‘linear thinker’ but capable of maintaining multiple paradoxical positions at the same time. The following attributes are likely to be essential for excellent Chairmen:
an intuitive understanding of complexity theory and how multiple influences interact to shape any culture and emergent strategic views across time;
an understanding of the conditions needed for multiple perspectives to come together to produce deeper insights by enabling connectivity in collective mindsets;
being able to spot bifurcation points in the thinking dynamics and assessing how much nudging will be required to flip the thinking geometry into a ‘strange-attractor’ pattern;
an understanding of the psychological processes within themselves, their teams, their organisation and society and how these can support or limit possibilities;
an ability to create a holding environment in which team members feel sufficiently secure to express their feelings and vulnerabilities and the ability to reside in uncertainty without acting to resolve discomfort until conditions are right;
deeply resonant personal relationships of the Ich–Du kind with all major influencers inside and outside of the organisation.
