{"id":38264,"date":"2024-10-21T10:30:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38264"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:25:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T20:25:38","slug":"situational-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/situational-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Situational Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, And Trust<\/em> by Edgar and Peter Schein the authors repeatedly return to a particular concept: Situational Humility.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I first saw this term, it threw me. It reminded me of the phrase situational ethics, which \u201ctakes into account only the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically, rather than judging it only according to absolute moral standards.\u201d[1] I have spent most of my adult life fighting situational ethics in personal morality and ministry leadership\u2014both in my personal life and with others\u2014so humility as a situational proposition seemed off.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to embrace a false humility that showed up only when it was expedient.<\/p>\n

But it turns out that they weren\u2019t writing about humility as a possibility depending on the situation, but as an imperative to express a humility that fits the context in order to lead well in any situation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like situational awareness.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I tried to instill in each of my kids is situational awareness. While I can\u2019t say they\u2019ve learned the lesson perfectly, I\u2019ve attempted to teach them to pay attention to whatever context they find themselves in. Whether they are working at a job, sitting with a group of peers, or walking down a city street at night, being mindful of how they are engaging with their surroundings could help them get a great promotion, find a faithful friend, or stay physically safe.<\/p>\n

In a world increasing with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) [2], organizational leadership is full of unique challenges that come up daily, sometimes even hourly, and far too often<\/strong> there are multiple and distinctive significant challenges flying at a leader at the same time! In this reality of diverse situations, situational humility can help keep the organization safe.<\/p>\n

Edgar and Peter Schein declare that \u201cA very specific sense of the word humility is at the core of Humble Leadership,\u201d and they define it this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cSituational humility is a developed skill characterized by the openness to see and understand all the elements of a situation by:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 accepting uncertainty while remaining curious to find out what is really going on,<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 being open, intentionally and mindfully, to what others may know or observe, and,<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 recognizing when unconscious biases can distort perceptions and trigger emotional responses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though that is an exceptionally long sentence (an unfortunate pattern in this book), it\u2019s also an exceptionally good target for leaders to try to hit. As the book goes on to explain in a variety of ways, humble leadership is displayed by those leaders who have learned the art of this kind of situational humility.<\/p>\n

And part of opening the door to this kind of situational humility, the Schein\u2018s say, is for leaders to contend for level 2, \u201cwhole person\u201d working relationships, and to elevate the social culture over a technical culture. While they claim (and I concur) it\u2019s much easier to rely on Level 1 transactional relationships and make organizational decisions based on bottom-line, metric driven technical data, those who lead with situational humility understand that the values underscored by a strong social culture will better address technical problems that a connected and open team can solve together.<\/p>\n

Humble Leadership reminded me quite a bit of Simon Walkers work on Undefended Leadership, and Jim Wilder\u2019s work on RARE Leadership. Though I think each of those authors had more compelling presentations as a whole, the ideas in Humble Leadership are a good supplement and companion to those books.<\/p>\n

And that tracks, because humble leadership and situational humility themselves are not stand-alone propositions; instead they are a \u201cfundamental process that underlies and can complement various notions of leadership.\u201d[3] One can be a servant-leader, transformational leader, adaptive leader or even an iconic charismatic leader and still embrace the values and practices of situational humility.<\/p>\n

Just like situational awareness, which helps you navigate different environments, situational humility allows you to evaluate your actions and attitudes based on the context you\u2019re in. Embracing this practice can lead to more thoughtful, effective leadership and ultimately benefit both you and your organization. It\u2019s all about staying adaptable and open, no matter what the situation throws at you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Thank you Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

[2] Schein, Humble Leadership, 135.<\/p>\n

[3] Schein, Humble Leadership, 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the book Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, And Trust by Edgar and Peter Schein the authors repeatedly return to a particular concept: Situational Humility. When I first saw this term, it threw me. It reminded me of the phrase situational ethics, which \u201ctakes into account only the particular context of an act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,3217],"class_list":["post-38264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-schein","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38981,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38264\/revisions\/38981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}