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Autumn 2005
Comrades-in-Arms
When you're the leader, who's got YOUR back? When you're advising leaders, what kind of advisor are you? How do you quickly and clearly articulate your value to the leader? Clear articulation is best accomplished through a vivid, visual reference.
Leaders require a Magician. "Magician" undoubtedly accessed a picture in your head, whether it was Merlin, Obiwan Kenobi or Harry Potter. You know intuitively that Magicians change things; they can heal and they can bring things into existence that weren't there before. That's what Magicians do for leaders.
Magicians:
- Renew the leader's energy and health
- Envision the future
A leader needs renewal when the job has lost its luster and the leader is no longer interested in or energetic about running the business. If the leader is just "phoning it in," it's time for renewal. Renewal is critical when the business is stagnant-- just picture everybody phoning it in-except the customers who are phoning elsewhere.
Once the leader is renewed, energetic and healthy, then the Magician creates a new vision, one with blood and guts and heart. Some leaders are capable of creating a visceral vision and some need a Magician's help. Once the new vision is identified, it requires a partnership between the leader and the Magician to keep laser-like focus and align the day to day work with the vision.
Good Magicians possess three specific competencies: connection to the spiritual and natural worlds, farsightedness, and a special communication tool-the word. Connection to the spiritual and natural worlds is the source from which Magicians draw their personal power. Magicians must keep themselves strong, balanced and healthy in order to help others. Farsightedness, the ability to project the consequences of actions far into the future, is a necessary competence as visions may take years, if not generations to accomplish. The word, specifically the ability to name accurately, is the Magician's key to shaping or redirecting people's perceptions. Changing perception is a necessary condition to changing behavior. Names matter. Ever had "Garbage Fish" for dinner? No? How about Talapia? Same fish, different name.
So you're an advisor, and you just don't see yourself as a Magician? That may well be, as leaders need three comrades-in-arms. Perhaps you'll recognize yourself in the next advisor, the Sage.
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