Chapter 2. Personal Foresight - Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

Gallup’s Four Leadership Domains

In Gallup’s model, good management requires a minimum competency across the following four domains, either in the manager or their team. Good leadership begins from this base and involves additional requirements. Gallup surveyed what followers say they need from leaders, and came up with four additional domains in which leaders must excel: Trust, Compassion, Stability, and Hope. They use the last half of Strengths-Based Leadership to offer strategies for Trust Building, Showing Compassion, Providing Stability, and Creating Hope, and suggest these strategies should be tailored differently to followers that have each of the thirty-four different strengths in the StrengthsFinder model.

1. Strategic Thinking 2. Executing 3. Influencing 4. Relating
Knowing Where to Go” Getting Somewhere” Getting There With Others” Keeping Others on Your Team”
Analytical
Context
Futuristic
Ideation
Input
Intellection
Learner
Strategic
Achiever
Arranger
Belief
Consistency
Deliberative
Discipline
Focus
Responsibility
Restorative
Activator
Command
Communication
Competition
Maximizer
Self-Assurance
Significance
Woo
Adaptability
Developer
Connectedness
Empathy
Harmony
Includer
Individualization
Positivity
Relator
Rath & Conchie (2009)

Rath & Conchie (2009)

If you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder test, as we recommend, find out where your top five strengths fall across the four domains above. Are all your strengths under Strategic thinker? Executor? Influencer? Relationship builder? Are they spread across two, three, or four of these domains? Now where would you self-assess on your ability to generate Trust, show Compassion, provide Stability, and create Hope?

I find the Gallup model a helpful and reasonably evidence-based approach to core leadership traits and skills. But I think it also needs more work. Gallup considers their four core management domains to be sets of strengths or traits. Notice how closely they overlap with Katz and Mumford’s three primary skills domains. Conceptual/Knowledge Skills are key inputs to Strategic Thinking, Technical/Problem Solving Skills are key inputs to Executing. Human/Social Judgment Skills are both Influencing and Relating domains, as such skills can be either instrumental (influencing) or emotional-empathetic (relationship).

Because of this good category convergence, I would propose that we can think about these four core leadership domains as blends of both both traits and skills, and ask how we can build stronger skills in any domain to make up for weaker traits in that domain, both in ourselves and on our teams. This seems to me to be a productive strategy, and it builds an important bridge between the personality traits and the skills research literature for management and leadership.

Gallup has an opportunity to show that this bridge exists, and to improve it. But until Gallup or others does this work, we’ll need to do it ourselves. Here are a few tips, for now.

To improve your Strategic Thinking you can find a number of Strategic Aptitude tests and primers online. To improve your Executing skills, making sure you know how to start a process is important. Procrastination is one common way to fail in this domain. Here’s a brief online procrastination test. There are also scores of books to help with that issue. I expect a study might show procrastinators are good at buying these books but few read them, as that would require physically completing a project, which they seem averse to doing J. If you need to improve your personal execution and accountability skills, Peter Drucker’s Managing Oneself (2005), Nathaniel Branden’s Taking Responsibility (1997), and David Allen’s Getting Things Done (2002), are three excellent books to help you get results. I’ve read all three more than once, and they motivate me every time. But even more important for execution than reading a book is finding a work environment where you will get daily practice and feedback on your craft. There are a few tests for Influencing online, and Cialdini’s Influence (2008) is a good guide. The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal can measure your Relating abilities, and it includes both traits and skills.

We have listed Gallup’s four domains above in a suggested priority order for leadership and self-development. Consider how strengths in Strategic thinking, the first cluster, are critical for both personal and organizational strategic foresight and prioritization. Strengths in the second cluster make you motivated to execute your own or your team’s foresight ideas. Some foresight professionals have all their personality strengths in the first cluster, and are naturally poor executors. But without competency in Executing, they tend to overthink and underact, and to generate too many clever ideas that never bear fruit. Do you know anyone like that? We are all guilty of this at times. Developing at least average proficiency at both strategic thinking and executing skills, at least in your personal life, will make you an effective individual, and potentially a good leader. Thus the first two clusters are keys to self-leadership.

Organizational leadership, the next step in leadership activity, requires competency (traits and skills) in the third cluster (Influencing), as that competency will help you motivate others and accomplish things larger than yourself. Competency in the fourth cluster (Relating) will keep your team from leaving you due to poor interpersonal skills. If you also model and teach trustworthiness and relationship building with your team, this cluster will keep them working in sync, rather than at odds, or going behind each other’s backs.

By talking about these four leadership domains as both traits and skills, we acknowledge that leaders, and by the same reasoning foresight practitioners, can be both born and made. You may be born with traits that incline you to be a leader, or you may learn skills and gain experiences that will make you a better leader.

I think foresight follows the same dynamic. In my experience at least, there seems to be no one dominant path, nature or nurture, to either leadership or foresight activities. If you lack strengths in any of these clusters, try to figure out which skills will support your abilities in each cluster, and learn them. Find a trusted colleague who is strong where you are weak, and learn how to take leadership on those issues from your colleague when you fall short, as you surely will. Finally, remember that strong skills can support your weaker traits. For one example, if you are naturally weak in the execution cluster, get good at the habit of using task management or journaling tools, a topic we will discuss shortly.

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Table of Contents

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Chapter 2. Personal Foresight – Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

Chapter 2: Personal Foresight

Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

Chapter 4. Models – Foundations for Organizational Foresight

Chapter 4: Models

Foundations for Organizational Foresight

Chapter 7. Acceleration – Guiding Our Extraordinary Future

Chapter 7: Acceleration

Guiding Our Extraordinary Future (In Process)

II. Global Progress: 5 Goals, 10 Values, Many Trends

Innovation: Our Abundant Future
Intelligence: Our Augmented Future
Interdependence: Our Civil Future
Immunity: Our Protected Future
Sustainability: Our Rebalanced Future

III. Universal Accelerating Change

Great Race to Inner Space: Our Surprising Future
Entropy&Information: We’re Running Down & Up
The Puzzle of Meaning: We Have No Einstein Yet
Trees, Funnels & Landscapes: Intro to Evo Devo
Big Picture Change: Five Scales of Accelerating ED
Transcension Hypothesis: Where Acceleratn Ends?
IDABDAK: Social Response to Accel & Developmnt
We’re On a Runaway Train: Being Accelaware

IV. Evo Devo and Exponential Foresight

Seeing It All: Accel., Diverg, Adapt, Convrg, Decel.
Natural (I4S) Innovation: The Evolutionary Drive
Natural (I4S) Intelligence: The Human-AI Partnership
Natural (I4S) Morality: Why Empathy and Ethics Rule
Natural (I4S) Security: Strength from Disruption
Natural (I4S) Sustainability: The Developmental Drive
S-Curves: Managing the Four Constituencies
Pain to Gain: Traversing the Three Kuznets Phases
Hype to Reality: Beyond Hype Cycles to Reality Checks
Exponentials Database: Measuring Accelerations
TINA Trends: Societal Evolutionary Development
Managing Change: STEEPCOP Events, Probs, Ideas
A Great Shift: A Survival to a Sentient Economy

V. Evo Devo and Exponential Activism

Building Protopias: Five Goals of Social Progress
Normative Foresight: Ten Values of Society
Top & STEEPCOP Acceleratns: Positive & Negative
Dystopias, Risks, and Failure States
Three Levels of Activism: People, Tech & Universe
A Great Opportunity: Exponential Empowerment

 

Chapter 8. Your Digital Self – The Human Face of the Coming Singularity

Chapter 8: Your Digital Self

The Human Face of the Coming Singularity (In Process)

I. Your Personal AI (PAI): Your Digital Self

Digital Society: Data, Mediation, and Agents
Personal AIs: Advancing the Five Goals
PAI Innovation: Abundance and Diversity
PAI Intelligence: Bio-Inspired AI
PAI Morality: Selection and Groupnets
PAI Security: Safe Learning Agents
PAI Sustainability: Science and Balance
The Human Face of the Coming Singularity

II. PAI Protopias & Dystopias in 8 Domains

1. Personal Agents: News, Ent., Education
2. Social Agents: Relat. and Social Justice
3. Political Agents :  Activism & Represent.
4. Economic Agents:  Retail, Finance, Entrep
5. Builder Agents :  Work, Innov. & Science
6. Environ. Agents : Pop. and Sustainability
7. Health Agents :  Health, Wellness, Death
8. Security Agents :  Def., Crime, Corrections

III. PAI Activism & Exponential Empowerment

Next Government: PAIs, Groupnets, Democ.
Next Economy: Creat. Destr. & Basic Income
Next Society: PAI Ent., Mortality & Uploading
What Will Your PAI Contribution Be?

Chapter 10. Startup Ideas – Great Product & Service Challenges for Entrepreneurs

Chapter 10: Startup Ideas

Great Product and Service Challenges for Entrepreneurs (In Process)

I. 4U’s Idea Hub: Building Better Futures

Air Deliveries and Air Taxis: Finally Solving Urban Gridlock
Ballistic Shields and Gun Control: Protecting Us All from Lone Shooters
Bioinspiration Wiki: Biomimetics and Bio-Inspired Design
Brain Preservation Services: Memory and Mortality Redefined
Carcams: Document Thieves, Bad Driving, and Bad Behavior
Competition in Govt Services: Less Corruption, More Innovation
Computer Adaptive Education (CAE): Better Learning and Training
Conversational Deep Learning Devsuites: Millions of AI Coders
Digital Tables: Telepresence, Games, Entertainment & Education
Dynaships: Sustainable Low-Speed Cargo Shipping
Electromagnetic Suspension: Nausea-Free Working & Reading in Cars
Epigenetic Health Tests: Cellular Aging, Bad Diet, Body Abuse Feedback
Fireline Explosives and Ember Drones: Next-Gen Fire Control
Global English: Empowering the Next Generation of Global Youth
Greenbots: Drone Seeders and Robotic Waterers for Mass Regreening
High-Density Housing and Zoning: Making Our Cities Affordable Again
Highway Enclosures and Trail Networks: Green and Quiet Urban Space
Inflatable Packaging: Faster and Greener Shipping and Returns
Internet of Families: Connecting People Over Things
Kidcams: Next-Gen Security for Child Safety and Empowerment
Kidpods: Indoor & Outdoor Parent-Assistive Toyboxes
Microdesalination: Democratizing Sustainable Fresh Water Production
Noise Monitors: Documenting and Reducing Noise Pollution
Oceanside Baths: Sustainable Year Round Beach Enjoyment
Open Blood Scanners: DIY Citizen Health Care Sensor Tech
Open Streaming Radio: User-Centered Audio Creation and Rating
Open Streaming Video: User-Centered Video Creation and Rating
Open Values Filters: Social Rankers, Arg. Mappers, and Consensus Finders
Personal AIs: Your Private Advisor, Activist, and Interface to the World
Pet Empowerment: Next-Gen Rights and Abilities for Our Domestic Animals
Safe Closets: Fire-, Earthquake-, and Intruder-Proof Retreat Spaces
Safe Cars: Reducing Our Insane 1.3M Annual Auto Deaths Today
Safe Motorcycles: Lane Splitting in Gridlock Without Risk of Death
Shared Value Insurance: User-Centered Risk Reduction Services
Sleeperbuses and Microhotels: Demonetized Intercity Travel
Space-Based Solar Power: Stratellite Powering and Weather Management
Stratellites: Next-Gen Urban Broadband, Transparency, and Security
Touch DNA: Next-Gen Home Security and Crime Deterrence
View Towers: Improving Urban Walkability, Inspiration, and Community

Chapter 11. Evo Devo Foresight – Unpredictable and Predictable Futures

Chapter 11: Evo Devo Foresight

Unpredictable and Predictable Futures

Appendix 1. Peer Advice – Building a Successful Foresight Practice