Day 114 in MIT Sloan Fellows Class 2023, Leadership special seminar "Special Improvisational Leadership Workshop"
What kind of components does "improvisational leadership" contain?
- Adaptability
- Creativity
- Flexibility
- Emotional intelligence
- Self-regulation
- Empathy
- Relationship building
- Ability to think and speak "on your feet"
- Dexterity in navigating the unexpected & unknown
- Ability to be present in the moment, comfortable in your own skin
- Influence and Negotiation capabilities
A lot.
Almost all the major components of leadership.
Struggle with the moment without preparation
I do not like the improvisational situation because I can't prepare for that very well.
I am a believer in excellent presentation and messaging from good preparation.
However, we have a lot of moments requiring leadership without any preparation. For example, emergency or crisis.
Improvisational leadership will resolve the following staff in the uncertain moment.
- Unexpected, uncertain or ambiguous situations, career transition
- Risk, power differential, decisions in the moment
- Stress, pressure, competing priorities
- Emotional triggers-fear, blame, anger, shame, anxiety, worry
- Conflict, tension - internal or external
Training of improvisational leadership
improvisational leadership has countless benefits, but it is difficult to develop without conscious training.
Many actors developed improvisations, but it is
- The art of unexpected : loss of control; fear of not doing it right
- The science of unknown: anxiety; feeling lost
We need to nurture this skillset with the following process
- Experimentation : Learn how to fail
- Trial+Error: Rebound
- Create learning environment: Learn what happend
Improvisational mindset
- open
- in the moment
- active listening
- strong relationship
- take risk
- ready to change
- aware of big picture
