8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility
What's It About?
Serene was a leader her team could count on, but her difficulty in building relationships was hindering her career growth.Tim was willing to give extra attention to a challenged team member, but it came at the expense of effectively managing the whole team.
Adeline as a leader was an agent of change, but her middle managers were stuck within the safety of the status quo.
“The road to leadership agility is a paradoxical one,” writes leadership coach Yeo Chuen Chuen in 8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility: How to Lead and Inspire in the Real World. The three real-life conundrums above are among several that the author helps resolve in her effort to harness “the all-important asset of every leader — an agile mindset.”
“I wrote this book for leaders who want to be different, agile, effective,” says Chuen Chuen. “Leaders who, having read countless books on leadership, still wonder how principles can be put to use in the real world. This book bridges the gap between theory and practice.”
So what exactly do we mean by agility? It’s the ability to “flexibly navigate uncertainties and complexities while maintaining a sense of ease and authenticity,” she says, noting it is a mindset that requires more than following structures or protocols. It is not a switch, she writes, “to be flipped on or off at will.”
Chuen Chuen presents her lessons in agility through a series of paradoxes, which she defines as situations where two opposing states are both correct at the same time and where neither is superior to the other. Facing a paradox, leaders must determine which way to lean. Agile leaders make a judgment call on a case-by-case basis and act accordingly, instead of going with their usual inclinations.
The author helps leaders work through these issues with her Re4 Coaching Model, a four-step process designed to generate improved outcomes from learning and practicing new skills and actions.
She uses the Re4 Coaching Model, along with case studies, to examine her eight paradoxes:
- Tasks vs. People
- Individuals vs. Teams
- Self vs. System
- Leading vs. Following
- Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down
- Executing vs. Inspiring
- Enforcing vs. Empowering
- Principled vs. Adaptable
By addressing these paradoxes with examples from her work and teaching, Chuen Chuen makes readers feel they are in the room with these leaders as they attempt to navigate, along with the author’s guidance, to a successful resolution.
The book also provides more comprehensive reflections from the leaders introduced in the author’s narratives, as well as exercises so readers can examine their own reflections.
Leaders need to understand the process of becoming agile “is a continuous journey … it does not have a destination.” Chuen Chuen’s 8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility is a great place to start and advance that journey, for those ready and willing to undergo an open examination of their leadership acumen and intuition.
She quotes a leader with whom she once worked in saying, “Let’s fly the plane while we build it.”
“As leaders,” she writes, “we need to evolve and level up constantly. We need to see what others cannot yet see, anticipate what others do not yet anticipate, and identify challenges that can threaten businesses.”
For anyone in leadership or anyone who aspires to leadership, pick up 8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility — it will take you to great places of examination, discovery and achievement.
8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility is available for purchase. For more information on the author, visit Yeo Chuen Chuen’s author profile page.
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