Fourth Revolution 'mutual learning' leadership resources
The Fourth Revolution will bring in a new type of leadership. Beyond the previous types of leadership:
- command and control leadership,
- rational leadership,
- tranformational leadership,
the new leadership style will be 'mutual learning'. In this style, the leader is not supposed to be the reference for the Vision, or giving the direction. The team is mutually accountable and defines together their Vision.
Books
There are great books that relate very much to this idea of a new leadership style.
Although it is quite old (1993), Katzenbach & Smith's 'the Wisdom of Team' remains a key reference book to understand the dynamics of real performing teams, and the role of leadership. A must-read to build extraordinary teams that ally extraordinary results with extraordinary personal experience.
Another great book is Seth Godin's 'Tribes': we need you to lead us' about leading loosely connected tribes. The book contains great examples of leaders using the 'mutual learning' approach.
Then, of course, there is Robin Sharma's 'the leader who had no title'. While Robin Sharma is sometimes too allegoric and far from reality, and a bit too marketing-oriented, the book is still a good general reference. The title and the marketing concept of the leader without a title is great!
Videos
Katzenbach and Khan have an interesting concept which is called 'the informal organization'. It is a good model for the leadership of the future. The leader needs to lead both the formal and the informal organization and make sure they are aligned. Here is a promotional video
Some more details about the concept is available in the paper accessible here.
A very cool video on leadership is this short presentation by Derek Sivers at TED. Short, funny, but a very deep insight. Go through it at least twice to catch it all!
Old-fashioned leadership
We did not dwell here on conventional leadership approaches like the famous one described in the book 'the leadership challenge' by Kouzes & Posner. While useful as a style, it is definitely not the final leadership approach of the Collaborative Age.
This is because it relies too much on the leader's vision and drive!
Still, it can be used as a useful reference, and a useful style in some occasions.
